An alternative suggestion to Narrowband sensors. The changes to the existing system would be as follows:
1) Active Sensor Strengths are increased by x10. So level 1 tech would be strength 100, level 2 would be strength 120, etc.
2) The formula for active sensor range changes to use the square root of the resolution rather than the resolution itself. So it would be: Range = SQRT(Resolution) x Strength x EM Sensitivity/10 x 10,000 km
3) Resolution Zero Sensors are removed, as they are also a 'magic' fix. Instead, a resolution lower than 1 would be allowed and missiles would be detected based on their actual size.
The formula for detecting objects smaller than the sensor resolution would remain the same.
The following excel screenshot demonstrates how this would affect detection ranges, using the existing system for the upper chart and the suggested new system for the lower chart. The chart show ranges in millions of kilometers and assumes a size 1 sensor. So a size 3 sensor would have 3x this range, a size 10 sensor 10x this range, etc.. Note that for resolution 100, ranges are the same as the current system. As the resolution gets smaller, the range increases in comparison to the current system while as the resolution increases above 100, the detection range becomes less than the current system. Assuming a sensor with an ideal resolution, objects of size 1 (size 20 missile) would be detected at 10x the current range, objects of size 4 (200 ton fighter) would be detected at 5x the current range, objects of size 20 (1000 ton FAC), would be detected at approximately 2.5x the current range and objects of size 200 (10,000 cruiser) would be detected at 70% of the current range. All of the above maintains internal consistency and allows greater detection range for smaller objects. No 'magic' required.
The fix for cloaking would be to improve its effectivess in line with the general improvement in sensor effectiveness against small targets.
[attachment=0:3ifv1lpj]resolution.GIF[/attachment:3ifv1lpj]
Missiles are a little more interesting. Using the above system and assuming a sensor of resolution 0.15, a size 3 missile (or larger) would be detected at 3.9x of the current range of a resolution zero sensor. A sensor of resolution 0.3 would detect size 6 missiles (or larger) at 5.5x the current range. This substantially increases the range at which missiles can be detected and killed. An alternative is to limit the minimum sensor resolution, which can be reasonably explained by technobabble and maintains internal consistency. For example, if the minimum resolution was set at 0.5 then missile detection ranges would be as follows:
Size 2 missile: 28% current
Size 3 missile: 64% current
Size 4 missile: 1.1x current
Size 5 missile: 1.8x current
Size 6 missile: 2.5x current
This seems reasonable, although it gives a reason to use large numbers of small missiles to avoid detection and overwhelm point defence. On the other hand, it makes multi-warhead missiles (carrying several small missiles) less effective as you can detect the primary missile at a greater range. Larger missiles can also carry ECM and onboard sensors, which may be important when I finally get around to the EW updates.
Comments and suggestions welcome.
EDIT: In retrospect, I would leave the sensor strengths the same and remove the /10 from the EM Sensitivity. This simplifies the formula and means I wouldn't have to modify the detection range of EM sensors vs active sensor emissions. The formula would therefore be: Range = SQRT(Resolution) x Strength x EM Sensitivity x 10,000 km
Steve