Currently, we have a bunch of non-weapon addons that do not see a lot of use by experienced players. I'd challenge the devs to check their game database and see what people are equipping on their ships to prove me wrong if any of this seems incorrect.

Storm Radar Extenders hardly ever get used. In almost every case it's a better idea to equip a weapon instead, even when confronted with enemies in an Ion Storm.

With mines being invisible and untargetable, we've got a prime opportunity to change this and make sacrificing a Sunflare rocket for a passive radar device something worth considering.

Suggestion 1: Mine Stealth and Targeting Limits
- Hide hostile mines from radar unless they are within 100m of a ship with unaugmented radar.
- Show all friendly mines on radar if they are within standard radar range.
- Mines detected by radar can be targeted, period.

Suggestion 2: Generalize Radar Extenders
= Rename the small-port "Storm Radar Extender" to "Small Radar Extender" with the following stats:
- Range Extension: 2000m (Increases normal radar range from 5000m to 7000m)
- Storm Range Extension: 1000m (Unchanged)
- Mine Detection Range: 1000m (New)
- Grid Usage: 1 (Down from 2)
- Mass: 200kg (Unchanged)

= Rename the large-port "Heavy Storm Radar Extender" to "Large Radar Extender" with the following stats:
- Range Extension: 5000m (Doubling normal radar range up to 10km)
- Storm Range Extension: 2000m (Unchanged)
- Mine Detection Range: 2000m (New)
- Group Radar Sharing: 2000m (Integrates the Shared Group Radar Extender's "AWACS" functionality)
- Grid Usage: 2 (Down from 4)
- Mass: 1000kg (Down from 2000kg)

= Eliminate the "Shared Group Radar Extender"

Losing a L-port for something that weighs half again as much as a Gat MkII and is infinitely less effective at protecting your heavily loaded ship just for the ability to share radar with group members is silly. Especially when you have to forfeit yet another port with one of the two above items for it to be really useful.

Suggestion 3: Extend these features to ships that have upgraded built-in radars
= Trident & maybe Goliath, include the Large Radar Extender above
= All Raptor Variants:
- Range Extension: 1500m (6500m total radar range)
- Storm Range Extension: 1500m (Unchanged)
- Mine Detection Range: 1000m

+1

+1

Trident and Goliath radar sensors are a given. The fact that capships have same sensors as small ships is a mystery.

I recently discovered a use for the group radar extender as I was lobbing avalon at targets over 10km away. Distance approximation errors caused the avalons to time out (or I missed and couldn't tell). Anyway targeting at a great distance may be necessary for a long range attack and should require a scout. Using avalon from the edge of sight was fun. It reminded me of a sub sim like silent hunter. I don't like the flat thresholds of radar visibility on ships. Include the fundamentals of a stealth system by assigning a sensor cross area to objects in the universe. Like a ec could be seen by standard radar at say 2km and a trident at 10km. The ec cross area would be %20 of the dent in that example. Add-ons then can use the sensor cross area to modify the distance a pilot sees an object. A roids volume can be relative to its cross area making small infini roids difficult to find with sensors.

Anyway +1 to radar system development

+1 to OP. I think this balance is well thought through and sensible.

+1, though id prefer more grid-heavy items.

+1

I like this a lot.

I'm looking at ideas along similar lines, although perhaps not quite identical.

For one thing, I don't care whether the Storm Radar Extenders are currently used very often. There is still a goal to change from current dynamic storms to a largely-static "reef of storms" concept, prior to VO 2.0. So these things will have a lot more relevance. Obviously, I didn't expect that change to take so long.

I'm also still looking at statically increasing radar ranges as a whole (regardless of addons), while limiting player awareness beyond radar range, although there are still some things I want to improve in general visibility (like far z-clip range). So increasing regular radar range to 7000 may not be that notable, I think the default radar will probably be greater than that.

I do favor some sort of mine-sweeping addon, that will improve sensitivity to mines. It might get bundled with a ship or two. But I'm not sure that single-addons that do (practically) everything are the right way to go here.

+1

I favor the single addons because ships dont have a lot of ports. We don't have utility ports for telemetry and countermeasures, so sacrificing anywhere from 20% to 100% of your firepower to gain a bit of situational awareness is a hard bargain.

Even with your "reef of storms" idea, a fighter with half of its guns gone is half (or less) effective. Better just have that extra rocket launcher or blaster and kill whatever it is when it comes into range.

Yes, but it does create a benefit to grouping and collaboration, if we continue to make that kind of information shared.

I'm not against some single-addon possibilities, but I'm thinking that wouldn't be the common case: maybe some higher acquisition difficulty, or perhaps manufacturing and rolling it into a player-economy.

Why make it harder to get? We're talking about items that almost nobody even uses. The loss of firepower is already a big factor against their use. If you make it difficult to get and player-manufactured, that means less people will be willing to lose one in a fight.

Guess what Vendetta Online does not need to improve gameplay right now: More reasons for people to just run away

I really like and often use the storm radars (mainly s port tough).
+1 for Suggestion #2 and #3

+100000

How about a sensor add on slot? I'm sure non combat add on slots have been suggested. Why not have a more modular add on mechanic for ship systems other than combat ports turrets and power cells?

Utility ports have been suggested many times, and the developers have shot them down many times. They prefer forcing a choice between support addons and combat addons.

So uh, since utility ports aren't a thing, and never will be, how about we make telemetry addons worth using?

+1

Id like to add the possibility of inducing higher scanner usage by adding a scanner port.

Make it so all ships have 1 scanner port except those that have in-built scanners, and maybe the behemoth, and make it so that you only get one effect per scanner. Like, minerals, mine sweeping, extension of general radar, etc. You cqn jury rig your prom to do cargo scanning or mine sweeping, but it wont do so well as a scanner in a ship with multiple scanners like the hound or the udv.

Then, everyone would always have their favourite scanners.

Also, don't remove the shared group radar extender, it does have uses! Spotting is just one, i also have been known to use it on capships to share the base docks radar whilst it follows.

Nyscersul, capships have them built-in. I mentioned that already.

I suggested removing it and combining its group-sharing capability into the large-port radar extender instead...