Yea go ahead and overcomplicate things...
In the old mech-games there was a concept of active and passive radar.
Active radar = more range and able to detect passive radars
Passive radar = less range, less visible but harder to detect anything
Being on a hill increases your range even further.
A marker on your map indicates how far your active/passive radar currently goes.
Weapon system cant acquire a lock if your radar is in passive mode.
Example:
Active mode radar with 1500m range:
detects active radars at 1500m
detects passives at 750m
Green marker (100% detection) 750m
Second marker (white circles like we have right now): 1500m
Passive mode radar with 300m range:
detects actives at 300m
unable to detects passives
No green marker!
white marker: 300m
Right now you have everything precalculated and in your head or on a sheet...
Howto implement:
- dedicated radar slot(S/M) on a mech/bot so you can only have ONE radar module at a time..
- different active/passive radar modules which have different capabilities. Every module can be switched between active and passive...
Right now we have this signal maskers/detectors thing which is basically the same thing - except:
Lots of different masker/detector modules
There are no markers (you have to calculate and set them yourself everytime you change your bot)
Even a light bot can fit the most advanced stuff.
Hills and valleys dont make a difference.
Youre not forced to switch between passive(defensive) and active(offensive) in order to attack
http://blog.perpetuum-online.com/posts/2011-01-28-stealthy-patch-incoming/ wrote:One of the most fixed things in Perpetuum up to now was the constant, fixed distance of 1000 meters players could see each other. The upcoming update changes this. First of all: how far you can see and how far you can be seen from will both vary based on the robot you use, and the two will not necessarily be the same anymore. This alone would be an interesting change, but we're also adding modules to help modify these values during gameplay: The detection type module will allow you to see farther away. The flare type module will make the target show up for people farther away. And of course, the stealth type module will allow you to be seen from a shorter distance. These changes will bring the PvP on the beta islands to a whole new level, and we're excited to see how players will be using the new features to give them a tactical edge over their enemy.
Well, we put that modules on light bots which makes them harder to detect except if you have a detector. Means everyone intrested in PvP is forced to get some of these modules.
Also: you can target someone that cant see you until you lock him and if you remove the lock he cant even see you anymore 
In other words: Not funny! Just more cat and mouse gameplay. Only question is whos the cat and whos the mouse..
