Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[BillyRueben]

So I have just started playing again, and I forgot all about sensor and detection ranges. I would like to know if anyone really uses those two sensor abilities that increase your detection range or decrease your signature. Maybe it's more useful when you are smuggling or something, but I've always used E-Burn to catch or escape anything in the campaign map. Do sensors really have any effect on the way anyone plays this game? Is the new update going to tie in to this system at all?

[intrinsic_parity]

I never go dark because the AI is usually too good at searching for your fleet. The active sensor one can be useful if a bounty fleet runs away from the planet its supposed to be at. Then you have to go searching around the system looking for it. If bounty fleets were found free roaming in a system instead of conveniently in orbit around a planet, then it would be really important/helpful. I'm thinking in the future, there will be missions/quests that require finding fleets and in that case the active sensors will be very useful.

[Megas]

I have used "Go Dark" occasionally when I sneak around in a hostile system hoping to dock somewhere useful undetected.  I also use it as a single-click version of turning the transponder off instead of double-clicking transponder.

I occasionally use Sensor Burst when I cannot find something to kill.

[Thaago]

I use "Go Dark" in the early game when I am hunting with a small fleet. I can hide out in an asteroid field near a hostile world and, with that and being stationary, have an absolutely tiny profile. I then jump on anything I think I can take. I also use it to sneak into markets occasionally. Late game not so much - my fleet is a giant deathball of ships with augmented engines, they are going to see me anyways...

Sensor burst is nice for hunting targets once I'm a little bigger. I've also used it as part of a "lure" strategy, where I ping myself to draw big hunter fleets to my last location, go sideways and around, then hit the smaller fleets around the planet.

[Megas]

That reminds me:  Sensor Burst is most useful in luring away meddling patrols who just will not go away from that juicy market.  Burst to lure patrol away, then go dark and they pass by.  Then dock at unguarded market.

Sensors fiddling is most useful for smuggling, when just killing everything locks my fleet out of a market for months.

[Midnight Kitsune]

My biggest issue with sensors is the pings themselves. When on the edge of these sensors, I don't know if the outer or the inner edge of the ping is the edge of the sensor bubble

[AxleMC131]

Yeah, using the sensor abilities take a little practise and some very specific situations, but I've definitely found reasons to use both Go Dark and Active Sensor Burst. The former especially is great for hiding out in asteroid belts and dust rings, because you can see things waaaaaay further away than they can see you. Sensor Burst I haven't actually used to lure a fleet away or towards me at any point, though I may try that in future. More often I will use it to get an idea of what's in the vicinity before setting out on a voyage between systems or similar.

Don't forget btw that terrain-related modifiers that reduce your sensor profile and such (asteroid belt, dust ring) also carry over that reduction when using the Active Sensor Burst - meaning you can still see further than you can be seen, which is a nice way to get around the obvious counter to the ASB.

[Toxcity]

Those 2 skills are niche, but can be useful for reasons mention by posters above.

Sensors are a plus in my book since it makes the campaign more engaging than big-fish eat little-fish. Some aspects are annoying though, like only the edges of sensors being visible.

As for Sensors being relevant next version, I believe that your sensor range is the range in which you discover stuff like damaged unmanned ship hulls or derelicts.

[Thaago]

...

Don't forget btw that terrain-related modifiers that reduce your sensor profile and such (asteroid belt, dust ring) also carry over that reduction when using the Active Sensor Burst - meaning you can still see further than you can be seen, which is a nice way to get around the obvious counter to the ASB.

Oh yeah, I had forgotten about that. When hiding in an asteroid belt at 0 speed, usually your radius from ASB is less than your own sight radius beforehand, so if you can't see anything its safe to use. Great for scouting out a location.

[Flying Birdy]

Go Dark is useful in asteroid belts too, you pretty much go invisible.

You can use the pings in hyperspace and it'll tell you pretty much everything in the non-storm area around a jumppoint. I usually just wait at jumppoints to conserve fuel and spam pings until I find a nice target.

[Gothars]

It's not that sensors themselves are overly complicated, I think that the whole detection system is unnecessary. I can never remember a time where I thought "Oh, hey, I had better run dark for a couple of seconds!" Nope, it's always E-burn in to or out of that situation. Besides, you can always tell when a fleet is hostile or not by how they behave. You never really need to see them at all. But, this thread has kinda derailed a bit....

There are definitely use cases for these abilities (as evidenced by the many examples in this thread), but you can indeed choose play stiles where you never need them. I extensively used them when doing black market delivery missions and when playing as a (underdog) pirate. The mechanics are fine, the game just needs more opportunities to use them.


What I think is overly complicated is the underlying range system. That could be much simpler without losing the core gameplay it provides. Will have to think about it some more.

[AxleMC131]

What I think is overly complicated is the underlying range system. That could be much simpler without losing the core gameplay it provides. Will have to think about it some more.

Hmm... Now I think about it, it does feel like Pirates don't give you a lot of notice sometimes, from the time they appear as a blip on your scanners to the time they've E-burned and caught up with you.

Since I'm all for keeping the Emergency Burn as an "emergency" tool, perhaps this could be altered by having a cooldown on the Go Dark ability that means fleets take a few seconds from disabling Go Dark to returning to normal capability? For those with a need for context (like myself) this could represent previously disabled systems being powered up again over time rather than instantly and new fleet orders being given, although that could be a bit of a stretch given the timescale Starsector plays at.

Don't think I have enough reason for this to be classed as a proper "suggestion" though, so I'll leave it here in case anyone wants to pick up on it and take it further with something more fleshed out.

[Gothars]

Hmm... Now I think about it, it does feel like Pirates don't give you a lot of notice sometimes, from the time they appear as a blip on your scanners to the time they've E-burned and caught up with you.

That's OK in my book, just inherent game difficulty. I was thinking more of the underlying number crunching and the presentation thereof. How each ship contributes to sensor strength and and profile, and  those numbers are then used to calculate sensor and detection range  for some made up "medium sized fleet". There are so many factors influencing these numbers that the game doesn't and can't show you how far you can really see and be seen, because the answers is always "it depends".

[Vind]

Go dark primary use is hiding in asteroid belts and such because then you already chased chances of hiding with speed cut to half is minimum. Active ping is useful for bringing bounty fleets closer to you saving supplies for travel.

[Sy]

like others in this thread, i do use both Go Dark and Active Sensor Ping occasionally. the former is useful for smuggling and sometimes for escaping a pursuer by taking advantage of terrain, the latter for finding a fleet i'm looking for (mostly bounty targets) or luring a hostile fleet to my position from long range.

hopefully the scavenging and exploration features of 0.8a will also add some more meaning to the sensor system as a whole, by adding lots of things that need to be found, and 'false' sensor contacts that may or may not be an actual fleet.

i would like to see more ambush play in general though. currently, AI pirates always just roam, and immediately pursue any target they spot at the edge of their sensor range, rather than lying in wait at strategic positions, letting targets come close before revealing the trap.
and similarly, it's rarely worth to create such a trap as a player, as there aren't enough positions that would provide good ambush opportunities. it's almost always more effective to just roam, and hunt down any targets wherever you find them.