Spotting reflector

[Spud Nick]

This would be a pilot tool that shoots a reflective object that attaches to another ship. The object would shine every few seconds as if it was reflecting the sun/moon light.

[Richard LeMoon]

When I first saw the title, I thought it was going to be a mirror the pilot used to 'dazzle' people trying to use spyglasses, preventing spots.

[Canon Whitecandle]

When I first saw the title, I thought it was going to be a mirror the pilot used to 'dazzle' people trying to use spyglasses, preventing spots.

This is a better idea, I want.

[Spud Nick]

A pilot tool that prevent spots does sound really cool. I was really just thinking about ways they could make spotting ships more immersive.

[Omniraptor]

+1 for spot prevention. I wonder what the price would be. I vote for balloon damage. You inject some sort of gas into your balloon and vent it, creating a large-ish, natural looking cloud that hides your ship and possibly moves with it. However this causes heavy balloon damage and is still susceptible to flares unlike tar.

[Indreams]

I would think a minute decrease of speed (both vertical and horizontal). Become harder to be spotted, but also harder to sneak around for an ambush.

[DJ Logicalia]

I think a "cloud gun" idea was floated around as an idea for a second particle weapon on another post a little while ago. Kinda like an anti-flare. Might work even better as a pilot tool

edit: Found the post. Damn it, Spud, you come up with all the coolest ideas
https://gunsoficarus.com/community/forum/index.php/topic,4983.msg82729.html#msg82729

[Richard LeMoon]

This is actually what came to mind.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canal_Defence_Light

[obliviondoll]

Why not making a piloting tool that works kind of like the spyglass. If you're looking at an enemy ship, you can use a mirror to reflect light towards the enemy who has spotted you and negate their spot.

Obviously, if two enemies can see your ship and you don't know who it was that spotted you, it's a bit of a "luck of the draw" situation where you don't know who to aim for. You'd need to spend a second or so focused on the ship with the mirror selected and the button held down before the spot fully vanishes, much like how it takes time to break a spot when you go behind cloud cover.

Advantage: you can immediately remove an enemy spot from your ship. It could also prevent spotting for a short duration after.
Drawback: It requires a crew member to devote time and effort to identifying the spotter and negating them, and can be undone by a second ship spotting you as well.

This would give non-pilots a tool other than the spyglass that's worth using, and would add another "stealth" technique to the game with its own limitations. They could also make it so that using the mirror would cause a bright flash to be visible, so while it makes you able to vanish, it would somewhat reveal your initial location while doing so.

[Squidslinger Gilder]

Problem with this is...it doesn't change the fact that all you need to do is target the guy with the big bright laser beam of sunlight shining at you. Unless what you do is give it a blinding effect for the entire crew. Think Awesomenauts blinding where the screen darkens on the sides but gets bright in the middle.

Course, this would be insanely annoying to other teams and you can bet it would get used a lot. Unless it worked on a long cooldown. Could also make this as functionality of the flare gun, give it some usefulness besides high stack fires and cloud spotting. Forces people to look away to recover sight.

Then, if you really want to go all out and make something to distract...add inflatable decoy airships. Weapon or pilot tool. Spawns a single floating balloon which at a distance, looks like the airship you are flying. Course, can't make it too super so what happens is when you close range, spotting scopes and vision update to reveal its a fake. Say scopes can tell the difference at 500-1000m while regular vision needs to be 250-500m to tell. Could also have a gas cloud around it maybe to cast more of a sillouette image.

Can picture some real creative uses for it. Drop one, lure a foe in, then relocate and ambush from another angle.

[ShadedExalt]

I agree with everything Glider said, especially the flare gun blinding.  Maybe the spot reflector would take the form of something like a spyglass, just  a mirror.  Face the guy you think spotted you, focus On him a second, and voila!

[obliviondoll]

Problem with this is...it doesn't change the fact that all you need to do is target the guy with the big bright laser beam of sunlight shining at you. Unless what you do is give it a blinding effect for the entire crew. Think Awesomenauts blinding where the screen darkens on the sides but gets bright in the middle.

Course, this would be insanely annoying to other teams and you can bet it would get used a lot. Unless it worked on a long cooldown. Could also make this as functionality of the flare gun, give it some usefulness besides high stack fires and cloud spotting. Forces people to look away to recover sight.

What I was thinking was a flash from your ship that's only visible to people looking in your direction, then it fades, and for a decent duration AFTER the flash is gone, the target is immune to spotting from anyone on board your ship.

The advantages are that it removes a spot if one was made from the ship the mirror is used on, and that it prevents that entire crew from spotting you again for a limited duration. The disadvantages are that you have to target the ship you're countering the spot on, you can't be manning a gun or repairing while you're blinding them, and you give away your immediate position if anyone is looking in exchange for having your future position somewhat better-concealed.

That said, the decoy balloon sounds like it could also be a good idea.

Seems more like it would work as a weapon or unique equipment type than a piloting tool though.

[Squidslinger Gilder]

Yeah I think weapon more and small mount. Course to make it better, have a little sign on it poking fun at the person who got fooled by it. "Ha haw, you thought I was real!"