Cloaking and Detection

posted on December 6th, 2009, 8:45 am

A question popped into my mind while reading this.

It has to do with one of my strategies, namely hiding spy satellites at unlikely locations, to create and early warning sensor grid around my base. For example, at a bottleneck, I would build one on either side, but far enough away that the bottleneck is covered only by far most parts of sensor range. Like that, most enemy ships would just fly by unaware that they have been spotted.

But if these satellites started to actively send out pings, then they are much easier found ("just follow the ping" --> sounds like hunting submarines ), making it useless to hide them...

I hope you understand what I mean, not sure if I explained it correctly... 

posted on December 6th, 2009, 4:31 pm

An interesting and valid point I think. I wonder if the Devs considered that in balancing it 

posted on December 6th, 2009, 6:27 pm

if all the sensor stations put out visible pings, like the canaveral/starbase decloak wave, wouldn't it get rather distracting if u have many sensor stations. maybe they have it set up so that the ping wave is only visible when u have the originating stations selected or under the cursor.

posted on December 6th, 2009, 6:32 pm

I think the ping is there so you can easily set up a detection "net" of sensor stations, without having to check and double check if the sensor lines overlap, since you can't select more than one station at once.

posted on December 6th, 2009, 6:47 pm

i'm just worried that the pings will be distracting or may slow down old computers.

posted on December 6th, 2009, 6:57 pm

Those pings - while physically invisible - are displayed with a small "sonar-like" graphic animation, which allows a player to check his detection net with ease, in order to identify holes or weak spots.

I'm sure this animation is only seen by the player who built them, like UM suggests.  So you're enemy won't see the animation you use to judge the range.  Just like how you can hover over a ship and get the green sensor ring, or whatever.

posted on December 6th, 2009, 6:59 pm

I'm sure this animation is only seen by the player who built them, like UM suggests.  So you're enemy won't see the animation you use to judge the range.  Just like how you can hover over a ship and get the green sensor ring, or whatever.

Good point - just as with how your opponent cannot tell immediately what ships you have ranked etc 

posted on December 6th, 2009, 7:06 pm

True, but elsewhere in this topic, someone asked if one could slip a ship through the ping (not considering the possibility that cloak is not detected), and it was answered with yes...

But that seems a bit suicidal if you have no idea if the ping will go of in one sec or ten...
But this way seems good to... at least now you have a chance of getting through the net 

posted on December 6th, 2009, 7:15 pm

Well, that's something different, yes?

Yes, you can see if there are gaps and overlaps in your net because of an animation that I'm pretty sure only the player who owns the sensors can see.

Yes, the early detectors have a chance of failure or someone could slip through because of luck:  Either the chance of failure, or moving through at the right time, even if you don't know what that time is.

Then you can afford the really expensive graviton sensors later in the game that will detect everything.

posted on December 6th, 2009, 7:40 pm

Well, what if one would change it so that one can see the animation of the ping if one sees the origin of the ping? 

posted on December 6th, 2009, 7:50 pm

Who is the one?  The player with the sensors or the cloaker?  I don't understand the question.   Everything they intend to do is listed on the first page.

posted on December 6th, 2009, 8:07 pm

i think he meant if the attacker sees the ping so he could know where they come from^^

posted on December 6th, 2009, 8:14 pm

Those pings - while physically invisible - are displayed with a small "sonar-like" graphic animation, which allows a player to check his detection net with ease, in order to identify holes or weak spots.

I'm sure this animation is only seen by the player who built them, like UM suggests.  So you're enemy won't see the animation you use to judge the range.  Just like how you can hover over a ship and get the green sensor ring, or whatever.

posted on December 6th, 2009, 8:48 pm

Sorry, I'll restate...

What I meant was that if the cloaker has an actual visual on the sensor array (or anything else that is emitting the ping), then he would see the animation, and if he didn't see the sensor array, then he wouldn't see the ping, even if he has a visual of area covered by a ping... Would give scouts with their large sensor range a new job as well...

And it all could be explained by saying if you have sensor info of the object that created the ping, then you can tell when it is scanning...

But I think all of this is more food for thought than an actual question... sorry for the headaches...

posted on December 6th, 2009, 9:20 pm

Let's role play for a second.  Let's say you are the cloaker, and I'm the guy with the sensors.

I build a sensor station somewhere you need to cross.  On my screen, I see an animation telling me how far my ping goes, so that if I build other stations, I can see if there's a gap that needs to be filled or not.  Nobody sees the actual ping, that's invisible, but I get a neat animation to help me make good choices in my sensor net.

Now, you are cloaked and want to pass by.  I'm not sure how you hide a sensor station, even if someone puts it in an out of the way place, I usually see it. 

So, you see the station.  You do not see any pings, or any graphic animations, because they are not your sensor stations.  All you see is a sensor station.

I understand that you're talking about something hypothetical, a "what if this were the case" scenario, however that is not the case, so you won't have to worry .  No enemy will be able to see the pings and use the timing purposefully to their advantage.  Again, your first post:

But if these satellites started to actively send out pings, then they are much easier found ("just follow the ping" --> sounds like hunting submarines  ), making it useless to hide them...

They are not found because I'm sure this animation is only seen by the player who built them.