Dear players,

When we added the additional Vehicle Awareness Circle in 1.9, a new code logic was implemented that allowed different passive scan settings.

After posting the EWAR ideas thread, the community proposed using these to mimic dynamic precision falloff. I had asked for the same thing in the past, and was told it was too difficult and number intensive to do.

Well, the good news is, that we have managed to do exactly this in code. I have been pretty coy about it until we properly QA'd it, but today was a success of demonstrating dropsuits of various roles, and module combinations, moving in and out of these passive ranges, demonstrating fairly dynamic behavior.

The system is fairly straightforward.

We define the "absolute value" of each dropsuit's Passive Scan with Precision, Profile and Range. (We have this already defined)

We define one smaller circle and another larger circle using a Range modifier.

We then define the Precision within these two new circles, using a Precision modifier.

Done. See this simplified picture:
[img]http://puu.sh/cUhwi/f10bd82636.png[/img]

We retain the current meta in the middle circle where everything is as it was. At other ranges, things are quite different.

In theory, we have completely moved out of the GÇ£scanned versus not scannedGÇ¥ meta and into a much changed EWAR environment, where everyone and anyone can utilize any of the EWAR modules to some extent, further reinforcing the GÇ£waves of opportunityGÇ¥ game design principle. A Sentinel trading a few lows for a few meters of very strong Precision, an Assault using a Dampener or two to get into through long and even medium range, etc. You get the picture.

Now for the numbers.

We are in uncharted territory, if you will, the combinations of dropsuits and modules, who scans whom, how and when. I asked our resident EWAR expert, Haerr to setup a dynamic spreadsheet where the final numbers can be browsed, with the exact number of complex modules needed to evade scans at different scan radii.

We donGÇÖt have those numbers nailed down yet, but we have the framework to discuss them here. In this spreadsheet we have some preliminary numbers to play with. Those can and will be changed. There may be other changes that are deemed necessary, such as Scout Skills (Amarr, Caldari, Gallente), Dropsuit Skills (all 3) or even Modules (looking at you mr. Amplifier).

This is all, we believe, for the greater good of DUST 514. The CPM has called for it, the Community has called for it and CCP has wanted it for a long time.

LetGÇÖs discuss calmly and have a bit of fun with this. ItGÇÖs not every day a big change like this can shake up the meta.