Some Considerations

TREASURE

Peter wrote - We should (in future) write a page on "salvage" from wrecked NPC ships.  Basically a spreadsheet that does from Monster-Manual-Tresor-Factor to actual pods worth of parts/gold/cash/metals/etc.

For now I suggest Olly, et al, use a TF rating for scaling purposes (Gas Spore 1 TF, Beholder 500, etc). We can later argue if a "windfall" monster win should affect the campaign and if so how. Early on 12 TW engines would be significant, later perhaps trivial.

DOPPLEGANGERS - in general
I don't know much about the game/client/host etc - what I'm hoping might happen is that there could be 4 or more different "things" that look identical to the players. They can only decide what they really are by what they actually "do". The players are not told by the script designer what "things" he has added, so they "see" something that could be one of a number of things, doubt and uncertainty enter the recipe.
"Is that a X, a Y or a Z??" One of the variants might be lethal, another one might be beneficial.
It's not about "fooling" people - it's more about surprise and "fog of war". Part of what I'm not so keen on about VGAP4 is that people "know so much" - they are even analysing code and the underlying maths. Most of the "mystery" seems lost? When we played D&D, none of us knew the contents of Pete's "monster manual" - but we learned through experience - that's not really possible here, unless something complicated is set up for "game hosts" and "scripters" as a opposed to "players". Basically impossible.
If the client reveals too much, perhaps a new "Special" ship device might be important? "Stats Cloak" perhaps? All you get is the picture - perhaps not even that unless you get really close? Too close perhaps? It's about risk and the "unknown".
The sort of client information might be visible  in stages?
at distance all you see is a "contact" - the client only supplies a "Not Recognised" image and no stats.
Closer in? - you might get the picture
a little closer in you might detect some basics - like mass perhaps
At any range you should not get data that could identify it from it's "dopplegangers" - being alien the designs are just fundamentally incomprehensible? The human player might work it out from it's actions but the computer/client never will. Just like the Eye of the Beholder and the Gas Bag thing?


SCAN AMBIGUITY
I like the idea of ship scan ambiguity. Indeed there is one race with a Q-ship in its list. Sadly the Q-ship masqs as a freighter they have...so "aha that's a Q-ship".  Which is a pity. Perhaps Tim will fix host about scans one day.
Also a general code to handle "ship X can return radar returns like ship Y" would be just fine.  Doing the graphics is just easy. Shippack has a list of graphics "bins" and a list of ships. Ships index bins for graphics. Indeed the Fed pack has fewer bins than ships - two look alike. The problem may be (as Mark notes) hull type numbers leaking. Which is bad as that is housekeeping. Also poor is client giving the hull serial number - real stealth navies change side numbers and radar types, etc to keep the enemy guessing.