An unknown object on the edge of your sensor range. You do not know who owns it or what its name is. All you know is that it traveling at 20 LY a turn an seems to be a low energy object.
Sensors on ships, wings and bases are used to detect enemy objects. The best sensors are found on your ships. The higher the power rating of the ship sensors the better able the system is at detecting dim sensor contacts.
The best way of finding the enemy is by building ships with powerful sensor system and sending it out into deep space with the high power sensors turned on.
Ships with more than 20% system damage have a 70% chance of scanner failure.
The visibility of an object depends on the object`s scanner profile (see table 1). The lower the scanner profile the more difficult it is for enemy scanners detect the object.
| Planetary
System |
4000 |
| Ground
Base |
4 to 1320 |
| Pod:
Assault Pod |
250 |
| Pod: Gold
Pod (Cloaked) |
10 |
| Pod:
Resupply |
200 |
| Pod: Gold
Pod |
750 |
| Pods (
All others ) |
750 |
| Wing
Scanners Off |
200 |
| Wing
Scanners On |
800 |
| Ships |
0 to 30000 |
| Minefield
(Robot) |
250 + (Minefield.radius * .5) |
| Minefield | 150 + (Minefield.radius * .5) |
| Minefield
(Cloaked) |
20 |
| Jump Gate | 500 |
| Wormhole | 1000 |
Table 1: Scanner Profile of Common Objects
The scanner profile of a ship depends on several factors; cloaking, the hull`s warp signature, the ship`s speed and emissions from the ship`s own scanners and systems.
EM = Emissions from all sources (See Table 2, below)
WS = Warp signature of hull
S = Ship speed in LY per Turn
Ship Scanner Profile = (WS + EM) * ((S + 80) / 100 )
| Emissions
|
||
| High
Power Scanner |
30 |
Scans using
100% of the ship`s rated scanner power. |
| Medium
Power Scanner |
20 * |
Scans using
50% of the ship`s rated scanner power. |
| Low Power
Scanner |
10 * |
Scans using
25% of the ship`s rated scanner power. |
| Planetary
Scanner |
2 * |
Gives the
passive scanners a 10 mw power boost. |
| Passive |
0 |
Very
unpredictable, can detect objects from 0 to 300 LY. Can detect beyond 150 LY only about 5% of the time. Passive scanners will not work if Short, Medium or Long Range Scanner are on. |
| Cloak |
-50 |
Ship must
have fuel to cloak and less than 25% system damage. |
| Transporters
Active |
25 |
If the
transporters are used they will make some noise. |
| Mind Crusher | 25 | The mind crusher device produces 25 units of noise. |
| Nanovirus | 15 | The Nanovirus anti Cyborg device produces 15 units of noise. |
| World Crusher | 120 | The World Crusher Missile super weapon makes 120 units of noise when targeting a planet. |
| Tachyon
Pulse |
250 |
If your ship
is within range (100 ly) of a ship with an active Tachyon
Scanner at the beginning of the movement phase. |
| Running
Lights |
500 |
The job of
running lights is to show the location of the ship to
friends and enemies alike. |
| In Orbit
Of A Planet |
X (0.2) |
A ship or
wing makes 5 times less noise when it is parked in orbit
around a planet. |
| Gravitonic
Accelerator |
X 3 |
Ship makes 3
times the noise and is sensor blind. |
| Privateer Hyper Jump | 1200 | Privateer jump drives happen to be very noisy Sensors only work at 25% normal after the jump. |
| Hyper Jump | 200 | Hyper jumping makes noise and reduces your sensor's power to scan to 25% normal. |
| Mine Sweeper | 50 | Mine sweepers make 50 units of noise. (Birdmen sweepers are quiet) |
| Cloaking Field | -150 | Any object within 100 ly of a cloaking field ship device is harder to see. |
* Only emits this amount if it is the highest power scanner turned on.
Table 2: Emissions
Scanners emit 40 pulses per turn. These pulses are emitted at even intervals as all objects move through subspace. For example: A ship traveling 100 LY per turn will emit a sensor pulse every 2.5 LY. If the ship were to stay in scanner range of an object throughout the whole turn the ship would have 40 different chances to detect that object. If the object is only in scanner range for half the turn, the ship would only have 20 chances to detect the object.
Once an object is detected it is tracked by all your ships for the rest of the turn. All objects that a scanner detects will show up as either an unknown contact or as an identified object. Once an object has been identified it should show up as an identified object most of the time, even when it is on the outer edge of your scan range. Objects that have been identified will have information available to you in the object`s data pad display , including the ship`s ID number, name.
The odds of detecting an object (per pulse) that you have never seen before as a new unknown contact are as follows:
PW = ( 1 / 40 ) = The Pulse Timing Width
SR = Scanner Range ( 100 % of hull scan range if long range scanners are on, see table 2 )
DX = Distance to object from the scanner
SP = Target Object Scanner Profile (See table 1 and table 2)
PO = Percentage Odds That The Object Will Show Up As a Contact Per Scanner Pulse
PO = ((PW * SP *(SR - DX) / SR) * 100 )
The odds that you will identified a here-to-fore unknown contact.
POI = Percentage Odds That The Object Will Be Identified Per Scanner Pulse
POI = ((PW * SP *(SR - DX) / SR) * 100 ) / 2
Scanners on a base have a normal scan power of 100 mw.
Scanners can not track ships traveling through hyperspace. Ships in hyperspace can not use their scanners while in hyperspace. All scanning takes place after all hyperjumps have happened.
June 11th, 2004