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In reality, all you'd need to do to have visual cloaking in space would be to coat your ship with mirrors. Your ship would be seen against black space and a starfield, and would reflect black space and a starfield. Combine that with how incredibly tiny even the largest of objects are compared to how incredibly vast space is, and you will, for all intents and purposes, be invisible to the eye.
Until someone gets close enough (or uses zoom because of boredom) and sees her- or himself in the mirror.
OMG, can people stop bumping threads from 2003? I keep seeing names and thinking yay! soso's back, and they aint :( you bastards!
Here are my thoughts on stealth. Sorry it’s so long, I’m including about everything I can think of at the moment. I think that stealth would be a very important thing to the game, since it would make for much more interesting tactics.
First, we must consider all the ways we would be able to “see” a ship:
1: Visual
2: Heat signature (infrared)
3: Energy signature (electronic gizmos on the ship, especially engine, weapons and power cell, other radiation)
4: Radar (or any sensor that detects solid objects)
5: Gravity (something that detects gravity distortions around an object)
Now consider the way stealth would apply to each of these individually:
1: Visual. This is actually the least important thing to hide, and probably the most difficult in real life. With the computer doing the targeting, you never really have to see the actual ship to hit it, and even if you hide a ship visually, there are other ways to detect it. So a chameleon device would look cool, but wouldn’t be very useful until everything else was disguised first.
2: Heat signature. IR sensors should be standard in every ship. I’m no scientist, but it seems to me heat would be hard to hide. It would have to be trapped, and most engines would produce heat (maybe not a gravity drive). The best thing to me would be some sort of venting system installed on the ship that would project the heat some distance behind the ship, so that an IR scanner or targeting system would aim behind the ship. I don’t know how the drive systems are supposed to work in game, but depending on that, a ship might be fitted with a device to absorb and contain a certain amount of heat (with differing sizes and levels of efficiency, perhaps). The heat would be stored until it is safe to dump it. This would only have limited effectiveness, though. Maybe in the future, some company could “invent” a device to convert the heat efficiently into an extra power source.
3: Energy signature. Ships could be fitted with a device that can detect and “see” a ship’s power cell or engines, or anything else powered up. Better ones would be more expensive and more sensitive, and could be countered by installing special energy absorbing/reflecting shielding around the power sources. Also, devices could be rigged to give a false reading of a different kind of power source, to fool sensors. Extra-expensive, extra-high quality sensors may even be able to detect where a ship has been recently.
4: Radar. It seems reading the stealth thread, some people think radar wouldn’t find you if you turned yours off. That may be true for passive radar, but not for active radar. Radar absorbing material should be available to add to the ship so it doesn’t reflect radar, but you would still be detectable if your active radar is on. Asteroids should also mask radar, and at certain distances groups of ships should register as just a blob to less sensitive radar. Also, maybe there could be a device to create false positive readings for radar, so someone sees four ships on radar when there’s only one.
5: Gravity. This wouldn’t be very precise, but an expensive device could conceivable detect the presence of a mass, and if nothing registers there, you should be suspicious. Naturally big ships would register more strongly, and a gravity drive would give a very strong reading.
The other idea is to power down the ship. It would still be visible, and radar would (unless absorbed) would still reflect, and still detectable by gravity sensors, but there would be no energy signature, and any heat signature would fade. This would be useless offensively, due to the time it would take to power up, but it would be good for laying low and hiding from pirates or other predators, say in an asteroid or far from the center of the sector.
Also, to make things even more interesting, any faction or company or government could ban any of these devices for civilians, or ban them completely by treaty, or offer them illegally for a hefty price. Different strategies would employ different combinations of stealth/detection technology, since the devices would take up ports and couldn’t all be implemented at once. On that note, small and large ports aren’t nearly varied enough. There should be at least six types of ports, plus adapters, but that’s a different subject. Maybe an armor port?
First, we must consider all the ways we would be able to “see” a ship:
1: Visual
2: Heat signature (infrared)
3: Energy signature (electronic gizmos on the ship, especially engine, weapons and power cell, other radiation)
4: Radar (or any sensor that detects solid objects)
5: Gravity (something that detects gravity distortions around an object)
Now consider the way stealth would apply to each of these individually:
1: Visual. This is actually the least important thing to hide, and probably the most difficult in real life. With the computer doing the targeting, you never really have to see the actual ship to hit it, and even if you hide a ship visually, there are other ways to detect it. So a chameleon device would look cool, but wouldn’t be very useful until everything else was disguised first.
2: Heat signature. IR sensors should be standard in every ship. I’m no scientist, but it seems to me heat would be hard to hide. It would have to be trapped, and most engines would produce heat (maybe not a gravity drive). The best thing to me would be some sort of venting system installed on the ship that would project the heat some distance behind the ship, so that an IR scanner or targeting system would aim behind the ship. I don’t know how the drive systems are supposed to work in game, but depending on that, a ship might be fitted with a device to absorb and contain a certain amount of heat (with differing sizes and levels of efficiency, perhaps). The heat would be stored until it is safe to dump it. This would only have limited effectiveness, though. Maybe in the future, some company could “invent” a device to convert the heat efficiently into an extra power source.
3: Energy signature. Ships could be fitted with a device that can detect and “see” a ship’s power cell or engines, or anything else powered up. Better ones would be more expensive and more sensitive, and could be countered by installing special energy absorbing/reflecting shielding around the power sources. Also, devices could be rigged to give a false reading of a different kind of power source, to fool sensors. Extra-expensive, extra-high quality sensors may even be able to detect where a ship has been recently.
4: Radar. It seems reading the stealth thread, some people think radar wouldn’t find you if you turned yours off. That may be true for passive radar, but not for active radar. Radar absorbing material should be available to add to the ship so it doesn’t reflect radar, but you would still be detectable if your active radar is on. Asteroids should also mask radar, and at certain distances groups of ships should register as just a blob to less sensitive radar. Also, maybe there could be a device to create false positive readings for radar, so someone sees four ships on radar when there’s only one.
5: Gravity. This wouldn’t be very precise, but an expensive device could conceivable detect the presence of a mass, and if nothing registers there, you should be suspicious. Naturally big ships would register more strongly, and a gravity drive would give a very strong reading.
The other idea is to power down the ship. It would still be visible, and radar would (unless absorbed) would still reflect, and still detectable by gravity sensors, but there would be no energy signature, and any heat signature would fade. This would be useless offensively, due to the time it would take to power up, but it would be good for laying low and hiding from pirates or other predators, say in an asteroid or far from the center of the sector.
Also, to make things even more interesting, any faction or company or government could ban any of these devices for civilians, or ban them completely by treaty, or offer them illegally for a hefty price. Different strategies would employ different combinations of stealth/detection technology, since the devices would take up ports and couldn’t all be implemented at once. On that note, small and large ports aren’t nearly varied enough. There should be at least six types of ports, plus adapters, but that’s a different subject. Maybe an armor port?
What about an advance stealth system that makes your ship look like an asteriod in every way. It would have the same radar, heat and gravity signatures. It would be able to activate immediantly and last forever ( because its drain is less then the battery recharge rate). You would protect an image of an asteriod. The only way you opponent can tell that it is not an astriod is with advance equipment, shooting you or ramming you. When you leave stealth mode, there is a period of time all stealth (that is gave you) is gone and weapons would be offline.
This could be used offensively or defencively. After shooting your opponet, you duck between several astriods and when you out of sight activate stealth. You opponent would then fly right bye you. Then you could leave stealth mode and shoot them from behind.
This could be used offensively or defencively. After shooting your opponet, you duck between several astriods and when you out of sight activate stealth. You opponent would then fly right bye you. Then you could leave stealth mode and shoot them from behind.
A recently discovered graphics bug may actually be good for stealth...
For those who don't know, here it is: http://makchuga.tejat.net/uploads/dump0002.png
From a distance and xooming in with RGlow on, as you move the dock becomes translucent and not, flickering back and forth. Instead of doing this from out at 2000m as it works with the dock, though, maybe once within 500m the asteroid wouldn't just dissappear. It would flicker. The closer you get, the longer it stays translucent, showing the real ship beneath?
In response to Professor Chaos, here's my reasoning of it seeing as stealth would only really matter so much in gameplay, not the RP background:
1: Visual
The almighty Mark one eyeball. Most pilots use this built in device to spot their enemies first, unless equipped with Foreknowledge of their target. Even with foreknowledge, it can be disorienting if your enemy dissappears in an out of sight, even if only flickering like in my suggestion.
2: Heat signature (infrared)
This would be very useful for throwing off pesky missile locks without dodging as much as one has to now. For detection purposes with the current gameplay, this is unneeded otherwise (though throwing off missiles is always good...)
3: Energy signature (electronic gizmos on the ship, especially engine, weapons and power cell, other radiation)
Good for RP background but it doesn't do anything for current gameplay.
4: Radar (or any sensor that detects solid objects)
A very very VERY good idea. Very good. Carbon composite FTW, and the future promises something even better. It should be noted that while radar would not be bounced back directly to the ship projecting the radio waves, it would be bounced SOMEWHERE. So some ships would be able to see this stealth ship on radar, even if only briefly. This is a good weakness, as it's strong for 1v1 fights but not when facing groups. The role of stealth is small, precision attacks not brute strength :)
5: Gravity (something that detects gravity distortions around an object)
Good idea, though only good for RP background at the moment. Also, flooding a sector by turbo braking with a few Behemoths would severely cripple any gravitic detection, so there's a good weakness right there.
For those who don't know, here it is: http://makchuga.tejat.net/uploads/dump0002.png
From a distance and xooming in with RGlow on, as you move the dock becomes translucent and not, flickering back and forth. Instead of doing this from out at 2000m as it works with the dock, though, maybe once within 500m the asteroid wouldn't just dissappear. It would flicker. The closer you get, the longer it stays translucent, showing the real ship beneath?
In response to Professor Chaos, here's my reasoning of it seeing as stealth would only really matter so much in gameplay, not the RP background:
1: Visual
The almighty Mark one eyeball. Most pilots use this built in device to spot their enemies first, unless equipped with Foreknowledge of their target. Even with foreknowledge, it can be disorienting if your enemy dissappears in an out of sight, even if only flickering like in my suggestion.
2: Heat signature (infrared)
This would be very useful for throwing off pesky missile locks without dodging as much as one has to now. For detection purposes with the current gameplay, this is unneeded otherwise (though throwing off missiles is always good...)
3: Energy signature (electronic gizmos on the ship, especially engine, weapons and power cell, other radiation)
Good for RP background but it doesn't do anything for current gameplay.
4: Radar (or any sensor that detects solid objects)
A very very VERY good idea. Very good. Carbon composite FTW, and the future promises something even better. It should be noted that while radar would not be bounced back directly to the ship projecting the radio waves, it would be bounced SOMEWHERE. So some ships would be able to see this stealth ship on radar, even if only briefly. This is a good weakness, as it's strong for 1v1 fights but not when facing groups. The role of stealth is small, precision attacks not brute strength :)
5: Gravity (something that detects gravity distortions around an object)
Good idea, though only good for RP background at the moment. Also, flooding a sector by turbo braking with a few Behemoths would severely cripple any gravitic detection, so there's a good weakness right there.
Thank you moldyman and ExDragon for your input on my suggestion. I don’t think I was quite clear when I mentioned how we “see” ships. My vision isn’t for current gameplay, but rather more comprehensive for what I think gameplay should be. For stealth to be implemented in any form, the sensor/detection system would have to be reworked on some level anyway, so why not do a major overhaul when it comes to that? Distant future, I assume, maybe then I can justify paying for this game again….
Of course there are weaknesses to each form of stealth, just as each stealth exploits weakness in each kind of detection. That’s the point. Rather than simply a cloaking device and a cloaked ship detector, my idea is more dynamic. Different stealth devices are effective for different strategies, both offensive and defensive. You don’t know which you will encounter on a given day, which makes things interesting because finding the combination of stealth/detection equipment is integral to strategy whether you’re a simple trader, a pirate, a cop, or in the military. (Again, I’m applying this to what the game COULD be, hopefully, in the future. That’s why you say so many points play into the backstory; ideally backstory should directly affect everything ingame.)
Response to ExDragon’s and moldyman’s responses:
We need to establish through backstory whether the image onscreen is “seen” through a physical window on the ship, or video sensors outside the ship (mighty Mark One Eyeball?) with a cool flat plasma TV inside the ship. If it’s a window, then conceivably a holographic projector could change the appearance of a ship. This could mean you could hide by disguising yourself as an asteroid, or making your ship look like a different ship. No reason for powering down weapons, or being vulnerable, since all it is is a projector. This would only fool visual, though. Also, no reason for it to flicker or fade as you get close. Instead, the direct weakness would be that light sources brighter than the hologram would shine through it. This may be graphically challenging on a computer, but it would be realistically cool. Also, the hologram could be anything from an asteroid to a giant squid. Great psychological weapon.
Infrared: Fooling missiles would indeed be the primary usefulness of this kind of stealth, though if a ship is invisible visually, it would be helpful to see the actual ship this way, and the screen would look cool all red. This would add dynamics to missile strategies, since you would have to decide on one or both of radar or IR-guided missiles, or remote-guided missiles. You’re right, though, the game would need to be heavily modified for this or any of these suggestions to be fully relevant.
Energy: Hopefully this will eventually be relevant in gameplay, and there will hopefully be a variety of powerplants, batteries and engines.
Radar: I admit I don’t fully understand all the science behind any of this, I’m just an amateur. I think you’re right, though, some stealth only reflects unpredictably, creating false or misleading images, or no image at all. I think I heard somewhere that (in real life today) this could be countered by using several radar stations and comparing data to find the anomalies. I may be mistaken, I’ll Wikipedia this sometime, but I think also there is a coating they can use that is somewhat effective at absorbing radar so it ISN’T reflected. If ever a variety of both methods is implemented, this game could get very interesting in battle (which is why I play any space game).
Gravity: Excellent point, moldy, exactly what I’m trying to get at with this whole dynamic weakness thing. A cluster of ships, especially using gravity drives, would make someone relying entirely on gravitic sensors to think a cap ship is nearby. There are all kinds of interesting strategic possibilities with all these ideas.
I know my suggestions would take a long time to implement, but I think that they should wait to do stealth until they’re ready to do it right. Quality is important. Also, they should quit fussing over “balance.” Balance is impossible and boring. Dynamics is more effective than balance at making an interesting and playable game.
Sorry again, I seem to be very long-winded.
Of course there are weaknesses to each form of stealth, just as each stealth exploits weakness in each kind of detection. That’s the point. Rather than simply a cloaking device and a cloaked ship detector, my idea is more dynamic. Different stealth devices are effective for different strategies, both offensive and defensive. You don’t know which you will encounter on a given day, which makes things interesting because finding the combination of stealth/detection equipment is integral to strategy whether you’re a simple trader, a pirate, a cop, or in the military. (Again, I’m applying this to what the game COULD be, hopefully, in the future. That’s why you say so many points play into the backstory; ideally backstory should directly affect everything ingame.)
Response to ExDragon’s and moldyman’s responses:
We need to establish through backstory whether the image onscreen is “seen” through a physical window on the ship, or video sensors outside the ship (mighty Mark One Eyeball?) with a cool flat plasma TV inside the ship. If it’s a window, then conceivably a holographic projector could change the appearance of a ship. This could mean you could hide by disguising yourself as an asteroid, or making your ship look like a different ship. No reason for powering down weapons, or being vulnerable, since all it is is a projector. This would only fool visual, though. Also, no reason for it to flicker or fade as you get close. Instead, the direct weakness would be that light sources brighter than the hologram would shine through it. This may be graphically challenging on a computer, but it would be realistically cool. Also, the hologram could be anything from an asteroid to a giant squid. Great psychological weapon.
Infrared: Fooling missiles would indeed be the primary usefulness of this kind of stealth, though if a ship is invisible visually, it would be helpful to see the actual ship this way, and the screen would look cool all red. This would add dynamics to missile strategies, since you would have to decide on one or both of radar or IR-guided missiles, or remote-guided missiles. You’re right, though, the game would need to be heavily modified for this or any of these suggestions to be fully relevant.
Energy: Hopefully this will eventually be relevant in gameplay, and there will hopefully be a variety of powerplants, batteries and engines.
Radar: I admit I don’t fully understand all the science behind any of this, I’m just an amateur. I think you’re right, though, some stealth only reflects unpredictably, creating false or misleading images, or no image at all. I think I heard somewhere that (in real life today) this could be countered by using several radar stations and comparing data to find the anomalies. I may be mistaken, I’ll Wikipedia this sometime, but I think also there is a coating they can use that is somewhat effective at absorbing radar so it ISN’T reflected. If ever a variety of both methods is implemented, this game could get very interesting in battle (which is why I play any space game).
Gravity: Excellent point, moldy, exactly what I’m trying to get at with this whole dynamic weakness thing. A cluster of ships, especially using gravity drives, would make someone relying entirely on gravitic sensors to think a cap ship is nearby. There are all kinds of interesting strategic possibilities with all these ideas.
I know my suggestions would take a long time to implement, but I think that they should wait to do stealth until they’re ready to do it right. Quality is important. Also, they should quit fussing over “balance.” Balance is impossible and boring. Dynamics is more effective than balance at making an interesting and playable game.
Sorry again, I seem to be very long-winded.
Just a quick note, for anyone seriously interested, here's the Wikipedia on stealth technology. Note especially the bits on vehicle shape and radar absorbing paint. The principles here I beleive could eventually be incorporated into gameplay.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stealth_technology
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stealth_technology
Mark One Eyeball is a Battlestar Galactica quote.
Stealth fighters, like the F-117 work with stealth two ways: Material absorption and random reflection. The carbon composite body of the plane does a great deal to absorb much of the incoming radio waves. The remainder, however, is reflected anywhere BUT back to the source of the radio waves because of it's unique and unusual geometry.
I was just pointing out what is feasible in the near future (the Almight Soon™), and what's feasible in... a few years.
EDIT: For more info on the F-117: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-117
Stealth fighters, like the F-117 work with stealth two ways: Material absorption and random reflection. The carbon composite body of the plane does a great deal to absorb much of the incoming radio waves. The remainder, however, is reflected anywhere BUT back to the source of the radio waves because of it's unique and unusual geometry.
I was just pointing out what is feasible in the near future (the Almight Soon™), and what's feasible in... a few years.
EDIT: For more info on the F-117: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-117
Wrong, Mark One Eyeball is a US Air Force term, coined around the early to mid 1950s as a joke for all the RADAR Mark1 Mark2's etc that were being installed on new US aircraft. (And werent working right 80% of the time.) My grandfather was a fighter pilot in the late 40s to early 50s. He died while test-piloting the F4 in 1952. He was attempting to perform an in-flight engine restart, and it wouldnt restart, his CO gave the order to eject, and then ejected himself, but for some reason my grandpa didnt (or couldnt) the debris was too scattered to be able to tell if his canopy had stuck or what.. he was awarded purple heart.
Break;
Sorry to hear about your grandfather. The F4 killed a lot of test pilots before they got the damn thing working right.
~D.
"Nigel"
Sorry to hear about your grandfather. The F4 killed a lot of test pilots before they got the damn thing working right.
~D.
"Nigel"
Lunitary may be a horrible speller, but cloaking is an excellent idea. Mind you, I don't think it should be available to any ship, or at least should take up a spot on the add-ons and draw energy from your battery just to keep it on standby mode, and can only be applied to ships with a small add-on (excludes behemoth so traders don't go nuts with it in grey space). This way, it can be used mostly for spying and small sneak attacks. Ofcourse the "u" or "Players in Sector" function should act as if the person is not even in the sector, making them undetectable in this fashion.
Mmm, screw add ons. If you want a ship that cloaks, then purchase the Warthog Mk V with cloaking™, or whatever. Add ons are for things that, well, you add-on. Cloaking devices don't exactly strike me as something you can pop in and out without taking most of the ship apart, and then reconstructing it again. Much like replacing a motor on a car, in many cases it's cheaper to buy a new used car instead.
So, yeah, active radar scans will show a target if it the target's powered down. However, I suspect that most systems of radar would not be intelligent enough to discriminate a free floating piece of IBG from other chunks of scrap metal or asteroids in the area. So, the target would show up as a mild grey dot, instead of a blatantly red dot maybe.
Heat signatures are neat because they allow for easy targeting of the engines, and other vital systems, they pick up clues that most types of radar don't, (such as heat), and would be useful for mining besides. It's just important to remember that IR scanning is a form of radar.
Scanning for gravity is an interesting idea, and I imagine that a scanning device for this would be similar to sonar. Ships using thrust would effectively create lil' gravity waves, and cutting thrusters would therefor render you invisible to this type of scanning, unless you were really carrying a ton of Samoflange.
I don't understand how you can scan for energy in general, unless you scanning any of the above mentioned guys.
There was an excellent thread I'm going to go digging around for that went into great depth about the differences in active and passive scanning, etc. They started pulling in examples from sub vs. sub warfare.
So, yeah, active radar scans will show a target if it the target's powered down. However, I suspect that most systems of radar would not be intelligent enough to discriminate a free floating piece of IBG from other chunks of scrap metal or asteroids in the area. So, the target would show up as a mild grey dot, instead of a blatantly red dot maybe.
Heat signatures are neat because they allow for easy targeting of the engines, and other vital systems, they pick up clues that most types of radar don't, (such as heat), and would be useful for mining besides. It's just important to remember that IR scanning is a form of radar.
Scanning for gravity is an interesting idea, and I imagine that a scanning device for this would be similar to sonar. Ships using thrust would effectively create lil' gravity waves, and cutting thrusters would therefor render you invisible to this type of scanning, unless you were really carrying a ton of Samoflange.
I don't understand how you can scan for energy in general, unless you scanning any of the above mentioned guys.
There was an excellent thread I'm going to go digging around for that went into great depth about the differences in active and passive scanning, etc. They started pulling in examples from sub vs. sub warfare.
I like the idea of just cutting your engines, and running in a silent mode that goes unnoticed being grey on radar not a red dot...
Amen.
Amen, to mua?
I think cloaking should be implented to all races. Maybe not easy to get ahold of, perhaps adding a few hidden bases which only the curious explorers might bump into.
there are plenty of counter again cloaking, and if your afraid of someone killing noobs while cloaked you add cloaked turrets, which will fire at you if your cloaked only. Which lets them kill atleast when they are fair and visible.
all in all, it can be cloak like aswell, the faster you move the easier you spotted.
Anyway it has been implented on other games and its very much liked. This game has a long way to go to actually attract most space gamers.
there are plenty of counter again cloaking, and if your afraid of someone killing noobs while cloaked you add cloaked turrets, which will fire at you if your cloaked only. Which lets them kill atleast when they are fair and visible.
all in all, it can be cloak like aswell, the faster you move the easier you spotted.
Anyway it has been implented on other games and its very much liked. This game has a long way to go to actually attract most space gamers.
Some ideas that would make stealth sort of gamey, while still being built on a foundation of some logic.
Ships have four specific aspects which produce signatures that differentiate them from the usual blobs of matter in the universe; Engines, Weapons, Power Cells, and of course Scanning itself. These things can all be deactivated for the purpose of making oneself stealthier, but reactivating them takes time and energy.
The most obvious method of duping scans is to shut off the engines. This of course renders your turbo incapable, although sub-turbo speeds are still possible without attracting any attention. Again, the time and energy it takes to bring the engines back online depends on the ship. Generally, the less efficient turbos, such as the ones that drain at 60/sec warm up quicker, while the more economic ones take a bit longer. This sort of signature is very noticeable, and can be scanned from up to 5000m.
In order for weapons to be warm, and ready to fire, they need a certain amount of stored energy. Depending on the weapon type, this may be a large amount, and take a very long time, or not. Rockets for example generally don't take much at all to power up quickly. Weapons, being exterior produce signatures which can be detected for up to 3000m.
The third method is to shut off the ship's very Power Cell, thereby losing any stored energy. This can be very dangerous, as it prevents warping. Naturally, the quicker energy producing cells take the longer amount of time to get back online. To this end, it may even be worth it for a stealth ship to equip Light Power Cells, should they need to make a quick escape. These signatures are buried deep within the ship however, and can only be scanned from up to 1000m.
The most subtle method of target tracking is to detect someone who's targeting you. Of course, if you're relying on this method of tracking, because your other sensors are otherwise jammed, then their breaking their lock onto you will of course cause them to disappear to your scans. This method of tracking is very subtle, and can just be scanned from ranges up to 500m.
The HUD would simply have to be modified to display 4 dots next to the scan type near the target window. Green for yes, red for no. A whole set of upgrades, add-ons, ship variations, or what have you could modify the basic ranges of targeting. Ion Storms could really mess with this, and make things interesting. Different systems and sectors might have circumstances which cause certain scans to be less noticeable than usual. Wide range of possibilities from a relatively basic idea.
Ships have four specific aspects which produce signatures that differentiate them from the usual blobs of matter in the universe; Engines, Weapons, Power Cells, and of course Scanning itself. These things can all be deactivated for the purpose of making oneself stealthier, but reactivating them takes time and energy.
The most obvious method of duping scans is to shut off the engines. This of course renders your turbo incapable, although sub-turbo speeds are still possible without attracting any attention. Again, the time and energy it takes to bring the engines back online depends on the ship. Generally, the less efficient turbos, such as the ones that drain at 60/sec warm up quicker, while the more economic ones take a bit longer. This sort of signature is very noticeable, and can be scanned from up to 5000m.
In order for weapons to be warm, and ready to fire, they need a certain amount of stored energy. Depending on the weapon type, this may be a large amount, and take a very long time, or not. Rockets for example generally don't take much at all to power up quickly. Weapons, being exterior produce signatures which can be detected for up to 3000m.
The third method is to shut off the ship's very Power Cell, thereby losing any stored energy. This can be very dangerous, as it prevents warping. Naturally, the quicker energy producing cells take the longer amount of time to get back online. To this end, it may even be worth it for a stealth ship to equip Light Power Cells, should they need to make a quick escape. These signatures are buried deep within the ship however, and can only be scanned from up to 1000m.
The most subtle method of target tracking is to detect someone who's targeting you. Of course, if you're relying on this method of tracking, because your other sensors are otherwise jammed, then their breaking their lock onto you will of course cause them to disappear to your scans. This method of tracking is very subtle, and can just be scanned from ranges up to 500m.
The HUD would simply have to be modified to display 4 dots next to the scan type near the target window. Green for yes, red for no. A whole set of upgrades, add-ons, ship variations, or what have you could modify the basic ranges of targeting. Ion Storms could really mess with this, and make things interesting. Different systems and sectors might have circumstances which cause certain scans to be less noticeable than usual. Wide range of possibilities from a relatively basic idea.
(perhaps slight thread necromancy, oops, my bad)
perhaps, if this hasn't already been suggested yet, you can see the person on the radar when their cloaked, but not on screen, but (TWIST!!) like in some Sci-Fi shows such as Star Trek, they become visible once something hits them. Perhaps afterwards they would have to go to a station to get their cloaking device fixed, or even have to buy a new one.
perhaps, if this hasn't already been suggested yet, you can see the person on the radar when their cloaked, but not on screen, but (TWIST!!) like in some Sci-Fi shows such as Star Trek, they become visible once something hits them. Perhaps afterwards they would have to go to a station to get their cloaking device fixed, or even have to buy a new one.
The sweetest thing would be able to spoof someone's radar, so that you appeared as one of their friends, or better yet their buddies ended up with your name on their ship. That's electronic warfare.