Unable to target enemy despite being in range

[undercovergeek (OP)]

I’m having a border dispute with some baddies and in the past have been able to target the ships as they enter the sensor range - about 18m km

This last batch of baddies under the same classification managed to close to 250k km before my sensors would let me target them and then I fell within their energy weapon range

Is this new ability to close the distance untargetted likely to be a fancy new system they have - stealth or jammers - and is there a way to counter this

[AlStar]

Silly question, but you've got your active sensors up and running? I can't think of anything else that would reduce your targeting range by 99.98%

[undercovergeek (OP)]

yep range perimeter is up

after salvaging a wreck thye have sensor jammers and cloaking - is this going to be it?

[AlStar]

What resolution are your active sensors/missile fire control set for? I suppose if you were running sensors with a resolution of, say, 25,000 tons (the maximum), and their cloaking made them significantly smaller than they actually are (plus the disruption of jammers, if you don't have ECCM), I could potentially see your target resolution range suffering... although I'd still question how 18m sensors failed to lock on until 250k.

[undercovergeek (OP)]

I have resolution 120 which is 6k tons?

I see now a few of their new ships are 750 tons

[Steve Walmsley]

I have resolution 120 which is 6k tons?

I see now a few of their new ships are 750 tons

If your sensors are 18m range with resolution 120, you will detect a 750 ton target (resolution 15) at: 

(15/120) * (15/120) * 18m km = 281,250 km

[undercovergeek (OP)]

That would be about right

Would having 7500 ton ships mixed in with the 750 ones affect the sensors adversely

[Andrew]

You will detect the 7500 ton ships at the normal active detection range and then the smaller ships on actives as they get closer and reach their detection threshold. You may well see all contacts sooner if they are also being tracked by passive sensors, you just won't get active sensort detction giving you tonnage and fire control solutuins until they reach the active sensor threshold