Specific vs common sensors ?

[Fyron]

Hmmmm...then long range scanners and scanner jammers only have a use prior to combat? Like whether to flee or attempt to engage in combat?

Once you have encountered a ship design in combat once, you can always see it's design later. So, scanner jammers on non-cargo ships are only useful for brand-new, top secret designs. Once you use the ships, the enemy will always be able to know their designs. After the enemy has seen your ships in combat, the only thing that the scanner jammer can do is prevent them from seeing if your ships are damaged or not and what cargo (if any) they carry.

By detected, I assume you mean their components and cargo are shown.

Cloaked ships are hidden on the strategic map outside of combat (unless the enemy has an appropriate level tachyon-type scanner, of course). Once in combat, the cloaking device does nothing for the ship. Stealth Armor still provides the +5, 10 or 15 to hit penalty, but the cloaking aspect doesn't function during combat.

[tbontob]

Fyron says:

Once you have encountered a ship design in combat once, you can always see it's design later. So, scanner jammers on non-cargo ships are only useful for brand-new, top secret designs. Once you use the ships, the enemy will always be able to know their designs. After the enemy has seen your ships in combat, the only thing that the scanner jammer can do is prevent them from seeing if your ships are damaged or not and what cargo (if any) they carry.

Fascinating! I was going to post the results of my discussion with you guys but that is going to have to wait until digest this and reformat my presentation.

[tbontob]

So if I understand the import of Fyrons recent post...

Only one Long Range Scanner is necessary per system to scan ships in a system.

A Scanner Jammer is necessary on each ship if one wants to prevent an opponent from discovering its components. Once battle takes place, the components of the design is known to that race. I assume the scanner jammer still serves its purpose for other races...it would be illogical for them to know the design too since they have not encountered it.

Your point of masking the damage could be an important point as well. Does the AI remember the damage it inflicted in a battle? And is it a factor in it deciding whether to resume the conflict?

I can see where a player may want to do a minor upgrade in order to present a new ship design to the Long Range Scanner.

[ August 15, 2002, 20:39: Message edited by: tbontob ]

[Arkcon]

Originally posted by tbontob:
So if I understand the import of Fyrons recent post...

Only one Long Range Scanner is necessary per system to scan ships without a Scanner Jammer.

Just remember, at level 1 the scanner range is only 1 square. At level 2, 3 squares. If you want to spy on a certain ship, you may have trouble getting close to it -- esp. on simultaneous. The level 3 scanner reaches 5 squares. So I don't know if having it in the corner square of the solar system would let you scan the diagonal opposite square. You won't often miss a ship on level 3, but it could happen if someone was trying real hard.

Edit: Just made that a little clearer by changing one word

[ August 15, 2002, 21:31: Message edited by: Arkcon ]

[tbontob]

Arcon says:

Just remember, at level 1 the scanner range is only 1 square. At level 2, 3 squares. If you want to spy on a certain ship, you may have trouble getting close to it -- esp. on simultaneous. The level 3 scanner reaches 5 squares. So I don't know if having it in one square of the solar system would let you scan the diagonal opposite square. You won't often miss a ship on level 3, but it could happen if someone was trying real hard.

Something else I didn't know!

[Stone Mill]

tbontob, (and all who helped)
May I suggest that your awesome summary of this info be added to the FAQ for Newbies thread?

Perhaps start a section called "SENSORS, SCANNERS, STEALTH and CLOAKING"

Any info contributed there is a great help indeed.

[tbontob]

Here it is!

What I have tried to do is put this information in a form that newbies can readily understand, while trying to impart the nuances of the sensors without being overly verbose or complicated about it. So, I haven’t gone into what level beats the level of an opposing sensor. I understand that is a topic in itself which I may wish to tackle if I can successfully present this one.

================================================
SENSORS

Categories of sensors

1) Intel Components impart information to the player (human or AI), but does not confer any particular benefit to the ship or to the sister ships of the fleet – 1 per fleet
- Long Range Scanners III– provides information to the player on ships within 5 sectors of the fleet.

2) Ship Specific Components confer benefits only upon the ship in which they are installed. – 1 per ship
- Scanner Jammer –
- --- Prevents opponent from discovering the components of a design never in battle
- --- Prevents opponent from discovering a ships damage
- Combat Sensors – gives an attack bonus (increased accuracy)
- ECM – gives a defense bonus (decreases accuracy of opponents weapons)
- Mutiplex Tracking – enables ship to fire on more than one target
- Neural Combat Net – obtains the experience of the ship which has the greatest experience of all the ships which have the NCNet installed on their ships
- Cloaking Device – prevents scanning by Hyper-Optics and Tachyon/Gravitic/Psychic/Temporal sensors

3) Fleet Global Components confer benefits not only upon the installed ship but with sister ships of the fleet. – 1 per fleet
- Hyper Optics – detects hidden ships with EM passive scans
- Tachyon Sensor – detects hidden ships with EM active scans
- Gravitic Sensor – detects hidden ships by difference in gravity
- Psychic Receptor – detects hidden ships – Psychic race
- Temporal Sensor – detects hidden ships – Temporal race

================================================== =====
With respect to 3) Fleet Global Components, they all seem to serve a similar purpose. Does anyone of the components have an advantage over the others?

[ August 15, 2002, 21:55: Message edited by: tbontob ]