Idea to make sensors more important in the game.

To expand on this idea a bit more, why not make them a must have?

Why not give a bonus / penalty to hit, strictly on sensors. The more advanced your sensors are, the better chance you have of causing damage to your opponents ship during combat.

Make sensors/targeting a package deal and then sensors would be a must. I play generally on the small to medium maps, so I really care less about sensors. This would make me have to research the line in order to compete effectively against my opponent in space warfare.

Like the idea- make it take place after Arcean super ability though- that's the problem with the idea- fitting it into things.

Could also break out missile point defenses into a unique tech category and develop the tech line for ECM so that it not only confuses enemy missiles but also acts as a general defensive to hit modifier for all weapons, including direct fire, by reducing enemy sensor bonuses... Therefore making it a general defensive bonus that only affects chances to score hits.

But I think the combat system is based on two ships automatically "hitting" each other and the damage is based on the relative defense/attack values, or did that change in DA...?

Memory is failing me. Need to play some more GC2 over the holidays...

Yes they automatically hit, the only randomness inherent in battle is how much damage is done and how much is subtracted by defenses, both are rolled. That said, it doesn't mean it can't change, it just probably won't. To-hit chances were never a part of this game and it's unlikely that adding them in will enrich the strategic depth of the game enough for the developers to consider it.

Giving better sensored ships first strike is a good idea but my hunch is it wouldn't be hard to always outsensor the ai constantly and would create a situation similar to when the attacker always got first strike and players would always make ships faster than the ai could.

Other ideas.
If cloaking were ever introduced they would provide a natural counter to sensors and therefore make more/better sensors useful or even necessary to prevent surprise attacks.

In tandem with the above idea of better sensors giving first strike, limit sensors to 1 per ship (two radar towers on a ship in the real world do NOT provide twice as much range). Ships fire in order using sensor range as a set initiative. Matching initiatives fire simultaneously but earlier initiatives get first strike. So having good sensor tech would be necessary, and always having your best sensor on your ship would be necessary, but the ai *should* be able to keep up. All other things being equal it would provide no advantage to either side. To work with the Arceans, give them a natural sensor initiative bonus, so with equal sensors they get first strike, with worse sensors they fire simultaneously, and with really bad sensors they lose first strike.

Finally, simply limiting current sensor range more would make normal sensors, as they currently stand, more critical. As it is, it's too simple to get maximum sensor range without much effort, and after that, there's really no point.

I like sensors the way they are. However, since ships on sentry duty are unable to distunguish between enemy ships and non enemy ships, this makes it very much desiarable that there be a sensor range of 'ZERO'.

Because i would much prefer to have zero sensors if it meant i could be freed from this intensly aggrivating problem of unesissary ship activation. I truely DESPISE being plaqued every single god forsaken turn by all my ships i didn't want to use, It's enough to drive a guy insane! Please God make them stoooooop activating aaaarrrrrggggggg

It could be done by changing the distribution of damage which would fit into the game nicely. It wouldn't be quite a +X to damage, but on average it would amount to that. (so you could still roll zeros, and at most do your top damage, but on average do a little more than 1/2 depending on your sensor level.)

Another idea, admittedly not the best idea in here, is that it plain adds +X or +Y% to your roll, without the ability to exceed your max.

Then, maybe using the idea of one sensor module on a ship, each level of sensors would add an increasing amount of damage. Survey module could add....maybe 5% due to its size and cost, level one 4%, two 6%, three 8% and level four sensors 10%. Now, these are just place holder numbers, and if this were to be implemented, the size\cost of sensors would have to increase, both in construction and research.