Tactical Combat: Neutrino Sensors and Navigation Stations

At the moment stealth/detection mechanics largely boil down to antennae being turned off or on, night raids and painting things black.

I suggest adding the following:

Neutrino Sensors

Neutrino Sensors pick up neutrinos from combustion, nuclear fission and fusion within the nearest star. A ship with a neutrino scanner should be able to detect the nuclear reactors, hydrogen engines and thrusters of a grid. This could then represented be normally on the HUD as a contact (categorised between Tiny and Huge depending on emissions). Neutrino Sensors should have blind spots in the direction of the sun. Battery/solar or wind powered vessels would be essentially invisible to the neutrino scanner as long as thrusters were turned off.

Navigation Station

To aid a pilot/helmsman/captain a second player could man a Navigation Station, which could allow the player to plot GPS points in space without travelling to those points of the world. While viewing the world through the navigation station (i.e. spectating), grids should be invisible to prevent spying, but contacts from antennae, turrets and neutrino scanners should still be visible. Practical uses of this station would include:

plotting flanking manoeuvres/attack routes

setting waypoints for Remote Controls, allies or other crew

Picking jump destinations

Engineering Stations

Another “Bridge console” suggestion. Just a computer to let you examine your power consumption, supplies and other statuses in depth. Handy for looking at what is and isn’t working which isn’t always obvious from the control panel.