Radar Usefulness Suggestion

[torikamal]

I think I may have come up with another way to make the radar skill more useful, and even fun.

The higher your radar skill, the closer you can get to a trap before setting it off.

The "scientific" reason for this? Your radar skills are so good and have gotten so accurate, that you can very accurately predict where the actual mine set-off area is, so you can really push the limits.

Additionally, say there is an arbitrary cap of 200 radar skill. At 100, you can actually fly through the trap, though it will be set off almost immediately (you'd still get hit), but at 200, you can actually fly through the trap, and it will set off when you are just out of range.

In-game use: You can fly enemies into traps and not take damage yourself.

I think I would be actively looking for traps all the time, because it would be so much fun to bring enemies into these traps.

I think this could help to make people actually want to boost their radar score, instead of it being a hard to measure amount of just how far the mini-map can see.

[Valgor]

This is an excellent idea! Right now, there's no real reason to care about the radar stat and scanner components.

[LostSoul]

It would be nice if there was some way to increase the visual range from at which the fog of war was lifted...It would also be nice if there was something that would allow you to pick up the locations of various planets (based on their size relative to your *radar* stat) upon entering a given system. Higher radar doesn't necessarily need to convey a combat advantage. It could allow you to detect the occupancy of a given planet from further out. For example, with enough radar you could enter into any system and see where all the planets are in it, which ones are colonized, and if they match any of the factions you've met thus far. If you're on friendly terms with the planet's owner, it will even forward the planet's name to you.

In addition, re-entering that same system later on (after some battles have been fought) with the same radar skill in place would allow you to update your existing planet data.

Higher radar stat reduces the frequency of trapped space debris, storage pods, and derelict ships, and give you fewer undesirable anomalies and the like. For example, higher radars you're much less likely to bump into unstable wormholes and get ported to who knows where.

Translation - rename radars to something more generic. Sensors - detecting the stuff you wouldn't otherwise know was there so you can make better and more informed decisions...like avoid them completely.

[torikamal]

LostSoul, that's a pretty good list of ideas, too. I like them. Either way, boosting its usefulness is a win.

[RoboAV]

I think it would be cool to also have some kind of radar- or sensor, to go with LostSoul's thinking- pulse on a cooldown. The sensor pulse would hit a wide swath of the fog and/or reveal cloaked ships. Possibly even disable cloaks for a period of time. The sensor pulse could reveal info about enemy ships, though I don't know what would be useful or tolerable on-screen.

[aReclusiveMind]

I don't have much to add that you guys haven't covered, but having used the +radar items a few times, I have to agree that something has to change to make it much more compelling. I hardly ever look at the mini-map, but I use the system map all the time.

[torikamal]

Another possible improvement to the radar, that wouldn't be too far against the grain, would be for it to "detect" more items that normally wouldn't be visible to the person flying through on the main screen.

For example, a person with a high radar skill would be more likely to encounter Ancient Recharge Stations, derelict ships, anomalies, etc.

Having these "detected" ones appear in a haze would be a good way to show that only someone of your radar skill would be able to see these (essentially to make it apparent that your radar skill spotted this item, instead of just seeing more all around).