Now, we know that stealth is more a matter of good materials, passive sensors, and a nice, low heat profile in Star Citizen, which means that ambush and the like is going to be a different affair from other games we might know and love/hate. However we've got a sense of what stealth does look like, thanks to the Hornet Ghost.
So the name of the game for stealth is patience, according to those specs. Patience and surprise. As in EVE, bait and scout ships will be the natural complements to any ambush group, but unlike EVE stealth ships, Ghosts aren't invisible and won't have any sort of natural advantage in combat over the ships they're surprising. In fact, with a loadout of low-draw weapons and presumed tradeoffs in armor quality, they're probably going to be frailer and more expensive than their prey.
Taken together, do you know what this reminds me of? Submarines. Specifically, WWII-era sub-hunts. Allied forces deployed merchant marines that looked like transports, submarines played cat-and-mouse with their prey and their destroyer escorts, and so on and so forth. Without a parallel stealth corvette (I mean, we can hope, but let's leave masturbatory fantasies for our bunks for now) we're looking at small squadrons of Ghosts with perhaps one or two powered-down lootmachines and a scout/baitbus as our primary means of pulling fast ones over passing traffic. (OK, masturbatory fantasy: a team of two Idrises could support a little squadron of Ghosts, provide the loothauling duties, and act as OhShit insurance if they're kept just off the field of engagement - or, if they can fake damage, as superb bait for the trap. Plus, with jumpdrives, they could do so behind enemy lines.) Once we figure out how the hell big a torpedo actually is, we can figure out just how big a Ghost's prey can be - because nothing says "this is, in fact, a trap" like a squadron of missile locks from ships your scanner insists isn't actually there. Once, twice, turn tail and run before your heat and lidar signatures get too high, and come back in a coup de grace once the poor target is limping along without life support or engines.
While this may seem like a tactic primarily for the pirates, it's also a very mature home-defense strategy if we can get asses in seats at the right times. After all, the point of a Ghost is to sit there and be almost-invisible as other ships drift by, right? That same-size squadron of Ghosts could sit quietly, let an attacking force blast by them, then power up and fire missiles up their tailpipes before either joining the fray or turning tail to let other defense elements mop up the mess.
Obviously these strategies will have to be tested more thoroughly once we get closer to the PU, but I can't help but think that stealth and information warfare will remain a tacitly powerful element of SC strategy - especially for us drunk malingerers, since the only difference between patience and a drunken stupor is the likelihood of accidentally shooting your teammates because it's funny!
So the name of the game for stealth is patience, according to those specs. Patience and surprise. As in EVE, bait and scout ships will be the natural complements to any ambush group, but unlike EVE stealth ships, Ghosts aren't invisible and won't have any sort of natural advantage in combat over the ships they're surprising. In fact, with a loadout of low-draw weapons and presumed tradeoffs in armor quality, they're probably going to be frailer and more expensive than their prey.
Taken together, do you know what this reminds me of? Submarines. Specifically, WWII-era sub-hunts. Allied forces deployed merchant marines that looked like transports, submarines played cat-and-mouse with their prey and their destroyer escorts, and so on and so forth. Without a parallel stealth corvette (I mean, we can hope, but let's leave masturbatory fantasies for our bunks for now) we're looking at small squadrons of Ghosts with perhaps one or two powered-down lootmachines and a scout/baitbus as our primary means of pulling fast ones over passing traffic. (OK, masturbatory fantasy: a team of two Idrises could support a little squadron of Ghosts, provide the loothauling duties, and act as OhShit insurance if they're kept just off the field of engagement - or, if they can fake damage, as superb bait for the trap. Plus, with jumpdrives, they could do so behind enemy lines.) Once we figure out how the hell big a torpedo actually is, we can figure out just how big a Ghost's prey can be - because nothing says "this is, in fact, a trap" like a squadron of missile locks from ships your scanner insists isn't actually there. Once, twice, turn tail and run before your heat and lidar signatures get too high, and come back in a coup de grace once the poor target is limping along without life support or engines.
While this may seem like a tactic primarily for the pirates, it's also a very mature home-defense strategy if we can get asses in seats at the right times. After all, the point of a Ghost is to sit there and be almost-invisible as other ships drift by, right? That same-size squadron of Ghosts could sit quietly, let an attacking force blast by them, then power up and fire missiles up their tailpipes before either joining the fray or turning tail to let other defense elements mop up the mess.
Obviously these strategies will have to be tested more thoroughly once we get closer to the PU, but I can't help but think that stealth and information warfare will remain a tacitly powerful element of SC strategy - especially for us drunk malingerers, since the only difference between patience and a drunken stupor is the likelihood of accidentally shooting your teammates because it's funny!
