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SAOY - Type 31 Lifeform Detection System

I was wondering how it detected life forms; does it detect body heat? Motion? Breathing noises? Personal electric fields?
 
It'd be helpful to know since I sat here for a few moments and thought upon it as well. And also wondered on the status of personal stealth devices when this is brought into the picture.
 
I'd just like to caution that for every improvement you make to the setting's security/system redundancy/infallibility of something... it makes it significantly harder for a GM to devise challenges that concern those aspects.

For example, there's no longer any way for a GM to tuck in on a ship a neko using thermo-optic camouflage if the inside of the ship offers no place for such a neko to hide because of high-tech sensors and the like.

It's a point Wes raised to me awhile ago about ship improvements, because at some point I was working on things that were very similar. I got the comment: "Fred, be careful with this. If you make stuff too good, we won't be able to have the bad things that could happen, happen. What you would think of as a good tool for the players could just as wel be an impediment to potential fun they could be having."

So, I'm hoping you'll keep a close eye, when designing things like this, about where and how it could be defeated, what blind spots it'd have, etc...
 
Actually, if you define what systems detect lifeforms in a ship and how they work, a GM or even a player could figure out how to bypass those systems.

That way players actually have a chance to understand what is going on, instead of having to deal with GMs making up how systems work on the fly and then having an enemy bypass those systems without the player ever knowing what happened or how.

Just remember that any explanation of how this works would also affect the type 31 science scanner which has the same problem of not explaining what medium it uses to detect things.
 
First,
As for how it works, this is using the same tech as the Type 31 Science Scanner which this question did not come up, and the function of life sign detection was introduced for SAoY with Multi Function Bracelet

And the ability to detect lifesigns is available to the UOC Peacekeeper Personal Communicator

As for your concerns Fred, from the page it says that the device can be fooled.

Note: The scanner results can be affected by circumstances, for example a life form in a hibernation or stasis state. Nor can the scanner identify a single individual, unless that person has a unique physiology and it is stored in the scanner.

Second, in the case of the boarding of the Eucharis, the ship had sustained damage, so a GM wanting to have their ship boarded can easily say that the unit was damaged in that area.

Like any method of detection there will of course eventually be a way to counter it, this is also true of our starships cloaking techs. But in this instance since the unit is already limited, it will be easier to defeat. A personal stealth suit would probably emit a field that would make the wearer's life signs appear to be something else or mask them completely.
 
One could say that all these scanners detects the bio-electric energy of life forms.

Bioelectromagnetism

Which in turn would allow for systems to counter it to be developed. IF we agree that this is a viable method, then I'll update the various aforementioned techs to reflect this fact as well.
 
Actually, as the creator of both the Bracelet, and UOC equivalent. Bioelectric fields was the mode of detection on my devices. A point I am thankful you brought up, Nash. :)
 
So, with these internal sensors in a ship, the hand scanners won't be needed anymore within the confines of a ship, if I get this right.

I'm not a fan of the multi-purpose bracelet thing for the same reason I'm no great fan of the CFS. However, I'd like to ask: what use will a hand scanner have for a crewmember?

The way I see it, if signs of intrusion are detected on my ship, I'd likely send security-career PCs investigate. Part of the fun for them could be to find the hidden intruder beyond a search-and-destroy objective (for suspense/edge-of-your-seat dramatic value). In this instance, they could use their hand-scanner to try and find the uninvited guest.

Given this point of view - and do note I'm less concerned about the tech's feasibility as I am of it's IC application - how can players as a whole use and interact with this piece of technology? How does it make SARP plotships better from a player action and GM narrative purposes?
 
So, with these internal sensors in a ship, the hand scanners won't be needed anymore within the confines of a ship,

I have to disagree with this assessment and point out that you have a science officer who is supposed to be somewhat capable in his/her job.

Naturally an intruder is going to have some sort of anti-sensor that blocks the effectiveness of this life form detector in both the ship mounted and hand held modes. For example some sort of electric field generator if the sensor is going to use bio magnetism. Your security-career guys are going to be boned because lets face it, they aren't to smart (which is why they wear the red shirts). Naturally your science officer comes to save the day by saying:
* "Lets use the hand held chemical emission scanner mode to track the intruder by the compounds it leaves behind, dead skin, slime, hair, whathaveyou!"
* "Lets use the hand held emission scanner to locate the intruder by finding the source of the interference blocking our life form sensors!"
* "Lets use the hand held scalar sensor to map out the shapes inside of the ship and find which one dosen't belong!"

Some critical thinking skills are actually required on the part of the player this way, so PCs can't get by just waiting for the GM to tell them what to do.
 
But if those internal sensors are as good as the sensors that are handheld, then nothing stops the science officers from doing such operations from the 'safety' of the bridge, or what have you.
 
Internal sensors only have the 'life form detection' mode.

It would be very difficult to use the other modules on this type of mount for various reasons, making the hand held version superior for the tracking down of things.
 
Approved.

Recommended for secure areas on SAoY ships but not necessarily for every room, corridor, etc.
 
Thanks, and well it is a optional piece of equipment so the Captain of each ship can decide where and how many they want.
 
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