Mark Abent · Lead Gameplay Programmer, LA Studio

They can. So a lot of the work that we've done is to talk with designers on what information they would like to have across different ships, even on foot, and what type of upgrade paths you would want radars and scanners to have. And a lot of those types of things usually amounted to different types of signatures, the strengths at which you can see them, even the strengths of how resistant they are to ambient, even the types. So we've unlocked a lot of information and a lot of ways to categorize information so that designers could make stronger radar, stronger ping, or stronger scanners, or unlock specific information. We've also incorporated different ways that we could potentially allow players to filter out that stuff, but it still depends on what the designer said that this particular radar can do or this particular scanner can do.

Sean Tracy · Tech Director of Content

To support that a little bit: there's now three separate functions of our radar, ping, scan system that are all able to be balanced independently per ship, per item. But then, in addition to those three separate ones, you've got three different signature types where, again, you could have a scanner better at detecting CS, you could have a better scanner for EM, you could have a better scanner for IR. So there's a lot of designer control now, and it basically gives them a ton of tools to make all the stealth kind of gameplay, or really all the electronic warfare that we've been expecting to have within Star Citizen, work as expected and as intended.

Mark Abent · Lead Gameplay Programmer, LA Studio

And with that, we've also been in talks with different balance teams on what values these things do and how they interfere with each other, so that we could get that electronic warfare, we could get that stealth gameplay. I keep going back to this in different examples: Sean really likes that idea that you have a big ship and you can maybe see it, and you get a little bit closer and all of a sudden there's a bunch of contacts, because that big ship was hiding all the smaller ones. So an upgrade path could be that you have a radar that's more sensitive to seeing those contacts further out than another one, because of the ambient volume. It could pierce through it more than another type of radar. The downside could be more power. It just depends what design wants.

Sean Tracy · Tech Director of Content

I just want Goose to talk to me. 'Talk to me, Goose. It's not one, it's two.' I always found that to be great. It's obvious, but it takes some doing, especially when you've got three different signature types, how you calc them, how you actually merge them. And in the end, the challenge is how you balance them all. The first time we even took a look at it, the Hammerhead had more signature than an Idris, and then if you were beside the Hammerhead, you would never get seen, even at 10 meters or so.