Active Sensors and Emissions

[kilo (OP)]

Hi Ladies

I finally managed to play C# and when it came to designing sensors I saw something that surprised me.  Here are my observations:
Back in the VB6 days an active sensors emission was strength * size * target's mass.  In the C# version the emission appears to be strength * size of the sensor without taking the intended mass band into consideration. 

This would allow me to spot large ships with active sensors without the target's radar warning system noticing it - ever.  Is that true or did I overlook something?

[Droll]

I haven't paid attention to it but it would not surprise me if this was the case now.

In C# aurora small sensors in general are much better than they used to be in order to increase the usefulness of having lots of small scouts.

[TheTalkingMeowth]

No, it scales with resolution. Sqrt I think? Don't remember.

[Zap0]

If you mean that sensors with a higher resolution (more range/detecting bigger ships) also are easier to detect (due to having more GPS, their emission strength), than that is still true.

The attached image shows three equal size (2.5HS) sensors of equivalent tech (10 active sensor strength, 5 em sensitivty), the longer range/higher res ones are easier to detect and your formula seems to be corret :-)

Edit: What was changed was the range of sensors. In VB6 it was linear, in C# it takes the 2D area covered by the scanner into account. As a result smaller/lower res sensors can generally see farther and a sensor that's twice as big can't see twice as far anymore, it sees twice as much area instead.
Compare Steve's post about the New Active Sensor Model.

[kilo (OP)]

Maybe I got something wrong.  I was going through my active sensor techs in the tech overview window and all had the same value in the 'Emission' column.  That got me thinking.

[Zap0]

Yeah, they don't list the GPS stat in the tech overview that way it seems.

[TheTalkingMeowth]

Should probably report that as a bug.

[nuclearslurpee]

Not strictly a bug but certainly confusing. Looks like "Emissions" in the tech overview is size (in HS) * strength, whereas the GPS you see in the class description and detect on the map is size * strength * resolution, i.e. emissions * resolution.

Still worth a "fix" though, for such a relevant quantity GPS really should be reported on the tech summary and component design screens.