Adding more intel and strategy

[SC-Account]

It would be possible to expand the UI and add the number of air/land/navy units detected by friendly radar either as an score option or as extension for every radar/sonar.
I think this would make especially the air game more strategic, since as it is now you have to guess how much air the enemy has which can go badly wrong when the units are only visible when stacked and not for example when sitting on ground.

I also think this would be quite logical since even in WW2 radar was able to detect the size of attacking enemy air force and even the type if known. This would not work against stealth of course (even when visible).

[errorblankfield]

Can we toss in the ability to know when our stealthed buildings are... stealthed?

A simple darker shading over everything in range would be helpful. While I'd love for it to auto-dupdate when the units are found, merely shading everything in range would be swell.

[SC-Account]

I agree this too would be nice, some ping sound when stealth based is found too, just gotta make sure it wont spam (when a new structure is added etc..).

[Hawkei]

Can we toss in the ability to know when our stealthed buildings are... stealthed?

A simple darker shading over everything in range would be helpful. While I'd love for it to auto-dupdate when the units are found, merely shading everything in range would be swell.

This I guess would be going beyond simple intel, and into the domain of knowledge which the player does not have. Whether of not something is stealthed can be see by checking that it is within the stealth gen perimeter. But knowing whether or not you have been detected is always uncertain - and you never do know till the shots start coming in. Playing Cybran always made me nervous.

[errorblankfield]

Can we toss in the ability to know when our stealthed buildings are... stealthed?

A simple darker shading over everything in range would be helpful. While I'd love for it to auto-dupdate when the units are found, merely shading everything in range would be swell.

This I guess would be going beyond simple intel, and into the domain of knowledge which the player does not have. Whether of not something is stealthed can be see by checking that it is within the stealth gen perimeter. But knowing whether or not you have been detected is always uncertain - and you never do know till the shots start coming in. Playing Cybran always made me nervous.

I know you can see when something is within the stealth ring by checking manually... but imagine if you had to do that for shield -it's tedious and unnecessary. It would save sneaky time (which is very important) when building junk.

Moreover, it's not out of the realm of possibility to know when your buildings been spotted. If any unit gets into visual range, you likely see each other and that would tell you that you've been spotted. In the same way that you remember which radar blimp is what unit after seeing it once, you can remember a ASF flew over a few minutes ago and it's time to toggle stealth.
Not sure if the game engine can even remotely do that... still would be nice.

But the shaded icon or maybe a visual aura (a la shield) would be nice for stealth fields.

[johnie102]

Isn't there an UI option to always have stealth radiuses visible? This should work enough.

[Hawkei]

Isn't there an UI option to always have stealth radiuses visible? This should work enough.

This is true. But knowing that your units are stealthed in not the same as knowing whether or not they have been detected.

The only true indication that your units have been detected is when you start taking targeted fire. But, in the case of a snipe scenario, there is the posibility that a stealthed or cloaked unit could be detected. With the other player choosing not to immediately act on that intel. Saving the snipe for a more opportunistic moment. Or using the intel to devise some pre-emptive counter, or some other gain... There is also the possibility that the opponent could defeat the stealth by "guessing" or "blind luck". Such as firing artillery randomly, or the random intercetor patrol. Anything could happen. The difficulty with intel countermeasures is that a player can never know for certain whether they have been defeated or not.

I would object to the stealth/cloak compromised warning because it would remove this element from the gameplay. It basically means if I spot a stealthed ACU with the Eye of Rianne, he will be notified, and take action to move it. He would know his stealth has been compromised...

***

As an aside. There is one aspect of gameplay that I would like to see changed. I would like to see stealth and cloaking break targeting orders. Because if I manualy target an enemy, and then loose my intel, they will still pursue and attack it. I know that this was created in FA to make bombers more useful. I still think manual attacks should work beyond visual range. But the addition of stealth, or cloaking IMO, should break the target lock.

[Mycen]

I would object to the stealth/cloak compromised warning because it would remove this element from the gameplay. It basically means if I spot a stealthed ACU with the Eye of Rianne, he will be notified, and take action to move it. He would know his stealth has been compromised...

Exactly. And you use the perfect example, too, why should my opponent know that I have spotted them with an Eye? They have no way of detecting that.

Some other examples off the top of my head: How do they know if an omni sensor in a base had detected their stealth units? Maybe it's turned off or the opponent has a power stall. If a player moves a scout into its sight range of a stealthed enemy, but it still outside the enemy's sight range, why should the enemy know it? How do they know it's a scout, and not something with a smaller sight range that hasn't detected them? And if they are in sight range of the scout, then they'll know anyway, because they can see it's a scout.

It just seems wrong to base a player's information on what the other player's units are doing, not his own. A warning when your stealth units spot an enemy unit would serve a stealth detection purpose appropriately and fairly enough, but just seems annoying. I don't want a ping every time an enemy gets within 20 of my scattershield (they'll know it's there after the first time) but I would want a new ping for mobile stealth units because they can be detected and disappear again. But that would be really annoying if I was in a heated T2 land battle and constantly getting pinged as my hoplites/deceivers move in and out of range.

How would such a warning even work without being super annoying?

[errorblankfield]

How would such a warning even work without being super annoying?

I do believe I already mentioned this. It wouldn't work with the eye, omni, or any other thing that can break stealth at range.

It would only matter for units that break stealth by being in visual range. So air units flying directly over you or other units running by that you can see can conversely conclude they could see you.

[Crotalus]

lol, SC-Account's thread got kidnapped by some stealth shit talk