Improving Radar and Scouts

Intelligence warfare and gathering is very boring right now because there are clear cut choices that are better than any other.

Currently in the game, T2 radar is better than T1 Radar in every way. So I propose adding a few key differences in the functionality of the two tiers:

• T1 Radar would have continuous, short range coverage.
• T2 radar would send out long range "pings" every 5-10 seconds.

T1 would become more useful on the front lines to see enemy movements as they happen, and T2 would be useful for having some early warning around your territory.

Now for orbital radar.

• T1 Orbital Radar would have good ground vision coverage and no radar coverage.
• T2 Orbital Radar gets radar coverage (similar in size and function to T2 land radar) but no vision. Power consumption greatly increased.

Now for scouts. The Firefly is the best scout in the game due to its fast speed and the fact it can fly over any obstacle. So I propose,

• Skitter gets a short range radar.
• Firefly has its speed reduced and cost increased.

Skitters become artillery spotters and Fireflies stay as traditional scouts.

Thoughts?

Sounds good, but in this case, why would I ever build the T2 orbital radar? I would prefer vision over radar, and since they have the same range, there is no reason for me to not just build the T1 orbital radar...

I like it. I think t1 and t2 must be useful during all game length, but with these straight evolutions in almost every unit it's difficult.

I would swap the duties of the T1 and T2 orbital radars, and make the Firefly a lot more expensive than the skitter but otherwise leave them the same. I like the differentiation between the land radars though.

I changed the OP with @polaris173 and @emraldis posts.

I dunno about pings... That could increase micro... I kinda like it... but I dunno.

I do like the Skitter getting radar though. Compensate for it's slow speed when compared to the Firefly.

The skitter is dirt cheap, and easy to spam however.

I don't think a radar is required, as I do find myself mixing them into my army's to fodder=scout enemy defences before I run into them.

The way I see it, is the land scout is the land unit you will be shooting at in a land battle, so they last longer.

But scout planes?

People fear giving that much Intel away, possible nukes? Gunships? Bombers?

Nope, kill every plane within a mile of your base, every time.

So I actually quite like the land scout as it is, as it has quire a significant defensive value of being utterly worthless, that most of the time, people will just ignore them and their humongous vision range.

I like the sound of the slightly different functionality as it does give use to both tiers.

Pings could be frozen in spot between sweeps (with a different icon to separate it from a stationary T1 ping), it would make speed difficult to tell but perhaps that's just another advantage tier 1 would have.

I don't understand, how could this cause more micro?

Micro isn't the most fitting word. Lemme see if I can better explain myself.

Because if you look over and it happened to not be pinging at that second, then you need to sit there and wait for the ping. It just increases the time you gotta do for that one task.

So it's not exactly micro... but it kinda has the same effect as micro.

Am I making sense?

I see what you mean. Maybe the ping should stay at the last recorded position?

That could get confusing – particularly for new players.

The dots are there, but they're not?

When you select the radar it would show the range and a ping "wave" would be sent out every few seconds, like in movies. The radar signatures would stay at their last recorded position.

I know that's how it'd operate.

But would still be confusing.

**double post**

(i hit reply, instead of edit..)

Right now, the radars only tell you that there is an object out there (with dots), not exactly what it is (identifiable strategic icon). How about your more advanced radars have the capability to determine what type of unit it actually is, in addition to all of the other neat features the OP proposed?

Some practical examples would be a ground-based Early Warning, a low frequency 2D radar (azimuth & elevation only), that is good at detecting something, but not very good at determining exactly what the object is. So this would look more like generic dots like they do currently. But your more, mid-to-high frequency, 3D (range, azimuth & elevation [sometimes velocity, depending on if it is a doppler type radar]) acquisition & target tracking radars can get more fidelity on exactly what kind of target it is tracking.

Your pulsed type radars have often two types of antennas: one that transmits and another that listens for returns. This is what gives you that "ping" effect. You could give lower end in-game radars this effect because pulse only radars aren't as "high-tech" as your doppler/pulsed-doppler radars. Pulsed doppler uses both that "ping" effect and a continuous wave of radiation that allow the radar to achieve the 3D (+Velocity) effect.

So it would identify vague target types (this is mobile ground, this is stationary building, this is mobile naval, etc) or specific target types (this is an Inferno, this is a T1 Vehicle Factory, this is a Boat Engineer)?

So switch the roles of T1 and T2 radar? Sounds interesting. I envisioned that T1 would be cheap and disposable so it could be used on the front lines and T2 would be long range and expensive, but have a drawback to keep it from being straight up better than T1.

Yeah, so your less advanced radars just say "hey there is something out there, but I don't know if it is a tank, or building, or aircraft (unless the tank or aircraft were moving, of course, but would just indicate that it is moving [like the radars behave already..]) Whereas, say a T2 radar would further be capable of determining, not only that there is an object out there, but be able to ID that this is a ship, or an aircraft, a tank or a building by displaying the strategic icon instead of just a generic dot. The strategic icon may be not as specific as if it were within a unit's line of sight (being able to differentiate between a fighter and a bomber, or a t1 unit vs t2), but more specific than just a dot.

Yes, something like that. Where T1 and T2 radars would be complimentary, not necessarily that, as soon as you build a T2 radar, all T1 radars become obsolete. My line of thinking is, have the less capable radar detect enemy units as "dots" but, maybe have a greater range, and then your more advanced ones have a lesser range, but can determine exact type of unit. This way they are both complimentary and useful.

"Specialize and Improve Intelligence". Sounds like career advice.

Changed title so I'm not giving away career advice for free.