I mean, one could buy a cheap ship and put "dummy" parts on it and each part would look like there was nothing in it, but create a dummy duplicate of the ship on the Galaxy Map (no effect in combat).
If we have also "dummy" parts that obscure the next part of the ship and if all these "dummy" parts look like "no part", it allows for a lot of deception.
Ideally, having 40 more detection than the stealth value of the ship (or of the dummy if we want different dummy part to have different stealth value) would reveal the real number of ships and the real nature of parts.
Example :
- 1 - Real ship : Symbiotic Hull with two Flak (external) and two Fuel Tanks (internal)
Appears normally in the Galaxy map to anyone with a Detection value of 15 or more. - 2 - Ship with one "dummy ship" part : Symbiotic Hull with one Flak, one "dummy ship" external part, and two Fuel Tanks.
Appears as two identical ships in the Galaxy Map, each of them having only one external part (the Flak).
To enemy Empires with detection of 55 or more, they would appear as the full design : One ship with one Flak, two Fuel tanks, and one external dummy part.
(In the next examples I'll skip how they appear to enemy with 55+ detection value as it's quite obvious now imho) - 3 - Ditto with the "dummy ship" part replacing the Fuel tank rather than the Flak.
Appears as two identical ships in the Galaxy Map, each of them having only one internal part (the Fuel tank). - 4 - Ship with two "dummy ship" part : Symbiotic Hull with one Flak, one "dummy ship" external part, One "dummy ship" internal part and one Fuel Tanks.
Appears as three identical ships in the Galaxy Map, all of them having only one internal part and one external part (one Flak, one Fuel tank) - 5 - Three incomplete design ships : Symbiotic Hull with one Flak and one Fuel tank.
Appears as three identical ships in the Galaxy Map, all of them having only one internal part and one external part (one Flak, one Fuel tank)
So exactly the same as number 4, not possible to distinguish the two without 55 detection power (75 if the ship uses Electronic Damper instead of the Fuel Tank). - 6 - Ship with one "dummy part" part : Symbiotic Hull with two Flaks, one "dummy ship" internal part, and one Fuel Tank.
Appears as one ship in the Galaxy Map, having two external parts (Flaks) and no internal part. - 7 - Ship with two "dummy ship" parts : Symbiotic Hull with two "dummy ship" internal parts, and two Flaks.
Appears as three identical ships in the Galaxy Map, all of them having only two Flaks and no internal part.
So impossible to distinguish from three ships of the model 6 without 55 or more Detection value. - 8 - Ship with incomplete ship design : Symbiotic Hull with two Flaks, and no internal part.
Appears as one ship in the Galaxy Map, having two Flaks and no internal part.
So three of these ships would appear exactly as model 7. - 9 - and so on...
edit : corrected some mix-up in the numbers