Your name is really fitting.

What if armor plates gave people a higher scan profile? It's only logical that armor makes you louder. Tank scouts now suffer because they get scanned. Add a 5db penalty for basic, 7db for adv 10db for proto. Bam, scouts return to their paper thin proper role. As with shields, common sense (at least for me) shouldn't hinder you at all. In fact, a slight shield buff for all shield modules wouldn't be a bad idea IMO. I mean a basic armor plate gives you 85hp but a basic shield only gives a 33hp buffer?! C'mon lets change that to 38hp.

1)Increased scan profile was the suggestion for Shield Extenders, not plates.
2)It was determined that it could not be done due to how it was coded.

But why would an invisible buffer make you louder (scanning is db therefore noise)

What if armor plates gave people a higher scan profile? It's only logical that armor makes you louder. Tank scouts now suffer because they get scanned. Add a 5db penalty for basic, 7db for adv 10db for proto. Bam, scouts return to their paper thin proper role. As with shields, common sense (at least for me) shouldn't hinder you at all. In fact, a slight shield buff for all shield modules wouldn't be a bad idea IMO. I mean a basic armor plate gives you 85hp but a basic shield only gives a 33hp buffer?! C'mon lets change that to 38hp.

Because scanning senses the electromagnetic field generated by shields. It is inferred. Or, all our suits are using sonar. At the sound of people shouting. Derp.

That, and its highly credible that a great deal of the games units are either used as a representation. The gF of CPU, the doesn't seem to have any bearing in RL.

But scanning is in db, so therefore it is sonar pretty much, as to the other guy, Yes I see what you mean, but what about on ferroscale and reactive?

Why do they require penalties?

They have negligible passive regenerative capacity (unlike shields) for perhaps comparable EHP boosts.