Cloaking Mechanics

[NihilRex (OP)]

Okay, the class design screen says

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Cloaking Device: Class cross-section reduced to 25% of normal
Does this mean that my 20,000t ship is best detected by sensors aimed at 5,000t targets?

Or does it mean that my ship is still best detected by sensors aimed at 20,000t, but at only 1/4th the range?

If the former and not the latter, has there been any discussion about why it works that way?

[Starmantle]

I'm almost sure it's the former, though I don't think I've ever heard it discussed and it's an interesting question.

But in my humble opinion, the former is the desired model - a res 100 sensor is optimized to find a 20,000 to ship with the cloak you describe. 

Active sensors have two parts - an emitter for an electromagnetic pulse sent out in all directions and a built-in EM sensor to look for reflections of that original signal. 

Cloaking technologies redirect or absorb the pulse so not all of it makes it back to the sensor ship, returning only a fraction of the signal.

Building an active sensor (in the game or IRL) is about making a tradeoff between efficiency and resolution (and in real life, you also have to be worried about hedging out false positives like flocks of birds).

So the resolution your active sensor is designed for is really the returning signal strength it's optimized to look for.

Does that make sense?

[NihilRex (OP)]

In this kind of technology, you have a huge Signal to Noise problem.

You almost never see the raw data.

So, a Computer recieving weak\weird responses is more likely to say "This contact is acting like a 20,000t ship, but the signal looks like a 5,000t ship 4 times closer than the echo\response times indicate.  There are some obvious mismatches in this data, ignore and increment the error counter that will eventually tell the operator to send a rating to check the calibration on the equipment."

[Paul M]

Based on helping someone else with their engagment questions I can say the system works as if your ship has a TCS of 25% normal.

So your 20,000 tonne ship would normally have a TCS of 400 will now have a TCS of 100 for purposes of detection and engagement.

So a resolution 400 sensor will pick it up at 6.25% of normal range.  A resolution 400 targetting system will likewise be only able to engage at 6.25% of normal range.
Resolution 100 or smaller sensor or targeting systems will be unaffected by the cloaking system.

As this is technology that costs the world the NCN while it might like to have it, can't even consider the development of it.  Odd that the Wolvers don't use it though.

[NihilRex (OP)]

So, Resolution is a floor, not the middle of a band of best detection?

[Paul M]

Resolution is, as you put it, a "floor"

Detection/engagement range = max_range*(TCS/RES)^2 if TCS<RES
Detection/engagement range = max_range if TCS>RES

TCS:==target cross section (~tonnage/50)
RES:==sensor/fire control resolution

Note that the square makes a huge difference, a TCS of 25% of the RES produces an adusted range of 6%.  This can reduce your detection and or engagement envelopes signficantly.  It is why even RES 1 missile sensors don't pick up missiles until they are right on top of you and why a non-dedicated missile sensor essentially will not work for detecting missiles (TCS of a missile can be as small as 0.06).

[Jorgen_CAB]

Paul are very correct in his presentation of the numbers.

From a practical perspective it would almost be a waste of resources to put a bulky cloaking device on 20000 ton ship and reduce its TCS to 100. The reason is that resolution 100 are pretty common as the medium for most missile fire-controls (and search sensors) against main capital ships. Resolution 100 usually give a good middle ground between ship size and range.

Although, putting the same cloaking device on a 6-10000t (reducing the TCS to 30-50) scout ship could be worth while. And if you also could research miniaturization of the cloaking device itself it would become useful even for combat ships at that size.