Icons could be very useful and the examples you gave would be perfect for identification. Speaking of the examples, I think the assault icon with a cross shape would be a great representation of the logistics suit.

Updated! :D

This is also up on the Trello board, so feel free to upvote/like it.

In warfare, information can be the deciding factor between victory & defeat as well as living and dying. Being able to successfully determine what your enemy is sporting is always key BUT knowing what your side is also sporting plays an indirect, albeit extremely important, subconscious role in how you perform on the battlefield. Currently, players can only tell what both sides are running by direct line of sight, and being close enough to the enemy to decipher a suit size, suit color scheme, and weapons usually means you're in a combat situation anyways. Wouldn't it make your life so much simpler if there was a way to determine these qualitative factors a little easier?

Send In the Icons!
My suggestion is to take a page out of the EVE book and update the interface to reflect the size or kind of suit a hostile is wearing IF and ONLY IF: 1) you are in passive scanning range and can be detected as such, or 2) you are in line of sight. Blueberries, on the other hand, should share the icon information about their suit size/role at the same distances that we can currently see blue chevrons. Here's an example of EVE's more recent icons for ships, clearly differentiating between Capsules all the way up to Titan. Such a change would allow players to pick and choose their targets both easier and more tactfully, and better identify opportunities with teammates.

"But Diablo! What about Active Scanners!?"
In my opinion, I think that Active Scanners should still reflect the location of enemies as they do now, but NOT determine the kind of suit that a hostile is wearing and thus still only showing the simple red chevron.


Some feedback would be appreciated, and here is a crude example of something I just came up with.

Thanks for considering my suggestion but I was thinking more in the middle of the icon.

This is cool. During the scanning overhaul, we talked about having signature profile being demonstrated as bigger circles, so a 8 dB scout would be a tiny dot, and a sentinel, much bigger. Effectively allowing damped heavies to disguise as assault, and so on.

This is cool. During the scanning overhaul, we talked about having signature profile being demonstrated as bigger circles, so a 8 dB scout would be a tiny dot, and a sentinel, much bigger. Effectively allowing damped heavies to disguise as assault, and so on.

Assault squad leader to his squadmates, "Alright fellas, around this corner is a squad of scouts. Get ready for some WPs. Breach now!"

Greeted with a room full of HMG sentinels. Breathing heavily, like asthmatic murder-gorillas, pre-spinning their barrels.

"It has been an honor serving with you, gentlemen..."

Dampened Sentinel squad leader to his squadmates: "Alright fatasses, we're going to tactically roll into that room full of twigs. Time to get some breakfast. Roll!"

Greeted with a room full of HMG sentinels. Breathing heavily, like asthmatic murder-gorillas, pre-spinning their barrels.

From the left, a Minmatar squadie speaks through his repurposed emergency radio turned squad comm, "Boss, dos dun luk leik stick figgas. Dey luk leik us!"

"...shut the **** up Todd."

This is cool. During the scanning overhaul, we talked about having signature profile being demonstrated as bigger circles, so a 8 dB scout would be a tiny dot, and a sentinel, much bigger. Effectively allowing damped heavies to disguise as assault, and so on.

In warfare, information can be the deciding factor between victory & defeat as well as living and dying. Being able to successfully determine what your enemy is sporting is always key BUT knowing what your side is also sporting plays an indirect, albeit extremely important, subconscious role in how you perform on the battlefield. Currently, players can only tell what both sides are running by direct line of sight, and being close enough to the enemy to decipher a suit size, suit color scheme, and weapons usually means you're in a combat situation anyways. Wouldn't it make your life so much simpler if there was a way to determine these qualitative factors a little easier?

Send In the Icons!
My suggestion is to take a page out of the EVE book and update the interface to reflect the size or kind of suit a hostile is wearing IF and ONLY IF: 1) you are in passive scanning range and can be detected as such, or 2) you are in line of sight. Blueberries, on the other hand, should share the icon information about their suit size/role at the same distances that we can currently see blue chevrons. Here's an example of EVE's more recent icons for ships, clearly differentiating between Capsules all the way up to Titan. Such a change would allow players to pick and choose their targets both easier and more tactfully, and better identify opportunities with teammates.

"But Diablo! What about Active Scanners!?"
In my opinion, I think that Active Scanners should still reflect the location of enemies as they do now, but NOT determine the kind of suit that a hostile is wearing and thus still only showing the simple red chevron.


Some feedback would be appreciated, and here is a crude example of something I just came up with.

*Sentinel squad is salvaging gear from a scout squad they decimated*
Bob: "Do these dampeners make me look fat?" - Said Bob while striking a pose emphasizing his buttocks.
Ted: "Yes they do. You are fat, I'm fat, we're all fat, nothing any of us will wear will make us any less or more fat."

Bob started crying, rolling on the floor, picking up the dust and debry on his suit like a mop.

Steve: "Dude! Look at what you did?!"
Ted: "What? He's a bloody idiot"
Smith: "You were always a **** Ted"

While Bob was still rolling on the floor, choking from the tears flooding his helmet, the squad's argument was raging. Suddenly Ted started roaring, foaming at the mouth and lifting his HMG in the air. The rest of the squad followed - returning to their most primal instincts, attempting to secure dominance among their small group.

Suddenly, a squad of Sentinels rolled in with their bellies grumbling, preparing for their next meal.
"NYET"
Just as quickly as they appeared, the Sentinel squad disappeared, being terrorized by the sight of 5 gorillas and a baby.

This is cool. During the scanning overhaul, we talked about having signature profile being demonstrated as bigger circles, so a 8 dB scout would be a tiny dot, and a sentinel, much bigger. Effectively allowing damped heavies to disguise as assault, and so on.

This is cool. During the scanning overhaul, we talked about having signature profile being demonstrated as bigger circles, so a 8 dB scout would be a tiny dot, and a sentinel, much bigger. Effectively allowing damped heavies to disguise as assault, and so on.

This is cool. During the scanning overhaul, we talked about having signature profile being demonstrated as bigger circles, so a 8 dB scout would be a tiny dot, and a sentinel, much bigger. Effectively allowing damped heavies to disguise as assault, and so on.

Assault squad leader to his squadmates, "Alright fellas, around this corner is a squad of scouts. Get ready for some WPs. Breach now!"

Greeted with a room full of HMG sentinels. Breathing heavily, like asthmatic murder-gorillas, pre-spinning their barrels.

"It has been an honor serving with you, gentlemen..."

the passive scanning mechanics still need work. you would think that each race wouldve tuned their sensors to perform based on their particular needs.

right now its like every race is using off the shelf sensor packages from the same vendor.

a 4th ring would be nice, and then assign the strongest precision to a particular race, at a particular range, for each ring.

This is cool. During the scanning overhaul, we talked about having signature profile being demonstrated as bigger circles, so a 8 dB scout would be a tiny dot, and a sentinel, much bigger. Effectively allowing damped heavies to disguise as assault, and so on.

Passive Scans were ruled to be "OP Wallhacks" not that long ago. There's more potential for balance problem now than there was then, thanks to 8x and 16x shared squad sight. So ... what's changed? I love how Diablo's thinking and am very much in favor of making EWAR more interesting, but are we really in a big hurry to make Passive Scans scans better? If so, why?

I'd suggest that we maintain former trajectory. Keep Passive Scans weak; perhaps make them even weaker on account of 8x/16x shared squad sight. Buff Dampeners or nerf Active Scans (especially those from the GalLogi) so running Damps on non-Scouts might actually prove a worthwhile option. Once always-on scans -- be them passive or active -- are no longer a competitive constant , then we could come up with ways to make scans more interesting and EWAR interplay more dynamic.

Do we want to play chase the Red Chevron?