How does "stealth" ship mechanics works in combat ?

Wendake

Wendake
Hey all !

been playing ED for 2.5 now and got my share of combat.

One thing I never tried / experienced though is fighting with a cold / stealth ship. I'm actually building a DB scout as a combat ship that could perfectly fit as a stealth ship but I was wondering how does it works exactly ?

Under what % of heat does a ship is considered "cold" and won't be "lockable" by enemies ? As soon as I fire I suppose that I can be targeted again ? Once an enemy target me, will he lose me as soon as I stop firing ?

I struggle to understand all the mechanics behind stealth ships so any answer / link to videos or tuto would be appreciated.

Thanks o7
 

Defacto

Defacto
According to this thread, heat emissions (or at least the rate at which heat drops) increase with the square of the heat level with active radiators. This would mean that double the heat level would result in a quadrupling of emissions.

There appears more to this though - according to this thread, emissions are not further lowered below ~15% heat. Thus there is a 'minimum detection distance'. Beyond that, detection distance increases with the square of the thermal load though. Additionally, heat rejection and thus emissions max out at 66% heat. In other words, a ship at 66% heat with radiators on is not more stealthy than one at 100% or 150% heat. Of course detection range depends on sensors, too. Note that the second link also shows that each ship has an 'emissions factor' which is independent on heat capacity for the ship, which scales emissions linearly - I guess some ships might just have better designed, more stealthy radiators that maybe radiate in more hard-to-detect frequencies... or something.

So what I can take away from this is - if you want to maximize stealth without silent running, stay below 15% heat. There will still be a minimum range where your ship will be lockable, though. Make sure to take a look at the links, those people seem to know a lot more about heat/sensors than I do.
 

Felix DiCestria

Felix DiCestria
In essence yes, keep below 15% heat, stay a reasonable distance from the opposition and out of their forward arc.
This is unlikely to work vs a human cmdr due to night vision and FA off, however it does still have it's uses.
 

Northpin

Northpin
Wendake said:
Under what % of heat does a ship is considered "cold" and won't be "lockable" by enemies ?
Click to expand...

yes, cold ships cannot be locked onto, but there is a minimum distance involved

Wendake said:
As soon as I fire I suppose that I can be targeted again ?
Click to expand...

yes, if you fire your weapons you can be locked onto.

But keep in mind that being Cold does not make you invisible, just unlockable for gimbals or fire-on-target turrets.
You will still be seen - Night Vision is great for that - and one will still shoot you with both fixed weapons, with gimbals (acting as fixed weaposn) or with turrets set on fire at will
(those will track you just fine) or with turrets set on forward fire (acting as fixed)
And there are people out there that can kill you without the target lock as easy as they can doit with the target lock on.

So being cold might allow you to slip in a single sneak attack. But that's basically all.
 
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