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[Sirus]

I know Mass Effect is hardly the hardest of science-fiction, but I did like their hand-wave of stealth; that is, using internal heat sinks to prevent emissions. There were some problems: it wasn't very effective if the engine was running, it was useless on anything going FTL, and most importantly it could only run for a matter of hours before the heat had to be released, unless the crew wanted to be cooked. Still, it was internally consistent and did nothing to hide against a visual or radar scan. It also helps that the only ship that had stealth was small as far as military ships in the series go and specially designed.

[Vattic]

One problem with stealth in space might be avoided by certain game mechanics. The problem is that a full scan of the sky can be done faster than it takes to approach someone over the vast distances. In game I'd imagine there will be faster than light travel or at least that space will not be to scale. This might make it possible to sneak past someone's sensors.

Edit: Another limit on doing full scans of the sky would be the in game computers themselves. From what I gather they will be quite limited.

Fake edit: While looking up info on the computers I found this on the games main page.

Each ship has a generator capable of producing a fixed wattage, and everything you connect to it drains wattage. A cloaking field, for example, might require almost all the power from the generator, forcing you to turn off all computers and dim all lights in order to successfully cloak.

So cloaking is in.

[ollobrains]

can we throw our money at this game yet ? stealth mode sounds ok

[Girlinhat]

I just question how Notch is going to be superstrict hard scifi and say "no sound in space" while also saying "I looked over every argument on the internet that explains why stealth is impossible, but I'm going to allow it anyways."

Regardless, Mass Effect actually had a number of realistic points.  Heatsinks can provide stealth from thermal sensors, but only for a limited time and only while the engine is off.  I also recall their being a scene where someone is talking about shooting.  Something along the lines of "As soon as you pull the trigger, you're ruining someone's day.  It may miss your target, but that shell doesn't just disappear.  It'll keep going, and going, until it hits something, eventually."  Kinda makes you wonder what wars were fought billions of years ago in different galaxies, and their ammo may still be traveling near light speed, inbound for Earth

[Microcline]

can we throw our money at this game yet ? stealth mode sounds ok

Has Notch actually confirmed anything about the gameplay beyond "realistic"?  I think that before anyone starts tossing money at the screen, the developer has an obligation to detail
i) what gameplay mechanics are implied by this
ii) how these mechanics work together to create an enjoyable gameplay experience
Right now the only real gameplay that we've had described is the DCPU emulator.

edit: just checked the site and noticed that "hard science fiction" is crossed out, with "fun gameplay" in it's place

[Poltifar]

Notch distributed 99 alpha keys for 0x10c on reddit earlier today. I can only hope that means SOMETHING of the game gets released soon (ie before my vacationing ends)

[MrWiggles]

So no stealth in space.

The next topic we should discuss is the practically application for one man fighters.

[dreadmullet]

The next topic we should discuss is the practically application for one man fighters.

Drones are better. End of story.
- Humans can only take about 9 Gs before blacking out. Drones don't have this problem. They can accelerate at 1000 Gs if the ship allows it to.
- No need to make room for squishy living things. Smaller space, less mass.
- Copies can be made easily, while humans are irreplaceable. (Which makes me wonder how death in 0x10^c will work...)

The only problem would be developing an AI that is good enough (which, let's be honest, some expert AI programmer will develop within a day).

[Poltifar]

So no stealth in space.

The next topic we should discuss is the practically application for one man fighters.

In 0x10c, I have a feeling computer-controlled fighters/drones would be more viable. Humans just aren't as good at driving small and very fast things while at the same time shooting with its gun/understanding data from sensors/etc, even when the computers are relatively slow compared to modern day ones.

EDIT: Space ninjas!

[Sowelu]

Yeah, I'm going to be loving the hell out of building drone AI on terrible little tiny CPUs, especially considering that CPU time is a limited and expensive resource!  Every computation is a little bit less time that the drone can keep maneuvering, due to the drone's batteries.

That said.  Honestly?  "No sound in space" is a coolness issue more than anything else.  It gives you hipster cred, or nerd cred.  Is "no sound in space" cool?  Yeah.  Are cloaking devices cool?  Yeah.  Ergo.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

One man fighters may have no place, but vessels smaller than corvettes (and maybe sloops) will certainly have a role, after all having a totally awesome, tuned, and customized personal ship is rewarding.

[Girlinhat]

One-man vessels, certainly, but one-man fighters, probably not.

"No sound in space" isn't cool though.  It's boring.  And it makes for boring gameplay when you sit in battle and nothing seems to happen.  Granted, that in itself may make for interesting gameplay... a lot of tense waiting and blind maneuvering.

[MonkeyHead]

Hmmm... add in the fact that "probably" space combat would take place at ranges far greater than visible by the human eye, you could end up with an auful lot of blind bumbling about followed by even longer periods of being little more than a small volume of orgabic chemicals gently fried by large amounts of energy with minimal warning of what was about to occur.

[TheBronzePickle]

No sound in space wouldn't actually change much. Even though there's no sound in the vacuum, you'll still hear stuff that involves your ship, like engine noise, various alarms and weapon impacts, as well as any radio chatter that your receivers pick up. It'll be interesting hearing the short sounds of weapons launching then having to wait and watch as they silently make their way to the target, then have to wait for any signs that they actually did anything.

I'd imagine crafty captains might pretend their ship is 'dead in the water' and hide any power or life signatures as they wait for the enemy to come closer before unloading on them point blank.

[QuakeIV]

I think the no sound in space thing could go both ways.  It could be pretty damn lame, or it could be really fun.  It really depends on the execution.  For instance if its easy enough to have your computer scream warnings at you over loudspeakers whenever anything is coming at you then things could be a lot better than if its almost impossible for your ship to see incoming fire.