Don't worry man, few are taking this topic seriously enough to be providing critique. I'm certainly not.
I always fit D-Rated sensors, is there a reason not to?
- Thread starter Scoob
- Start date
A rated long range sensors on my combat ships. Yes my Vette would be 10m/s faster with D rated lightweight sensors, but still slow. It would not be able to see that juicy Conda at 14km distance in the res site though. My Mamba loses 5 m/s, big deal, it's still fast. Having a whole view of the entire CZ furball and keeping a lock on a target that just dropped a heatsink is more important. My civilian ships carry a rated lightweight. NPC pirates are always close enough when they interdict me.
So, I swapped out the D-Rated (Light) Sensors on my Anaconda, replacing them with A-Rated vanilla ones. I then went to the same HazRes I was playing in last night. To my surprise my turrets seemed to acquire and track targets a little better - I really didn't expect that. This is all up close stuff - under 2km - so it's not like their extra range is in play.
I'm not sure what this means, I've been fighting in this HazRes for a while now and my Turrets are consistently tracking better and not lagging behind quite often as I observed previously. My Gimballed beam seems no better however and of course Chaff still breaks any tracking as you'd expect. That said, it might be my imagination, but my turrets and gimballed beam seem to get back on target sooner - almost as soon as the chaff dissipates. Whereas before they'd take a few more seconds to re-acquire the target.
This is just what I'm observing of course, but something seems improved with A-Rated.
Scoob.
I'm not sure what this means, I've been fighting in this HazRes for a while now and my Turrets are consistently tracking better and not lagging behind quite often as I observed previously. My Gimballed beam seems no better however and of course Chaff still breaks any tracking as you'd expect. That said, it might be my imagination, but my turrets and gimballed beam seem to get back on target sooner - almost as soon as the chaff dissipates. Whereas before they'd take a few more seconds to re-acquire the target.
This is just what I'm observing of course, but something seems improved with A-Rated.
Scoob.
As a control, I switched back to my D-Rated (Light) sensors last night ready for my next session. In that session I'll be visiting the same HazRes again and observing turret tracking performance. I need a larger sample size of testing to confirm things are working how they appear to be.
I'm not using missiles - haven't in ages - but I might give them a go and see what I see.
Scoob.
I'm not using missiles - haven't in ages - but I might give them a go and see what I see.
Scoob.
Claiming the FSD has no effect on the sensors is just as ridiculous as claiming it has an effect.
Since we are talking about imaginary technology we simply don't know and both scenarios are just as likely.
I just wager that the people smart enough to make a procedural model of the milky way galaxy are also smart enough to put some thought into the internal consistency of other design choices instead of approaching these clearly passionate and intelligent game developers with an air of entitled condescension.
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When I look at the mess that is mass lock factors, I'm not so sure about that.
Nevermind the Anaconda has more armor than the other Big 2 but weighs less than the other two...
Or that you can mass-lock a Type-10 of all things...
Or that the Xeno Scanner only works on Thargoids but is obviously designed for scanning aliens 'in general'...
I better stop. =/
I started with using long range D rated, but switched almost all my ships to A rated light weight. The only factor is extra power, so if my particular build is possible to get benefit from a smaller (or less overcharged) powerplant and D sensors will put me under that limit, I might choose those.
But the difference seems to be so minor that it hasn't come up on my ships.
But the difference seems to be so minor that it hasn't come up on my ships.
Mass lock really has nothing to do with the mass of the hull. It's some sort of interaction between different frameshift drives (and/or some sort of mass locking device at stations). It's not that the mass nearby is locking you to that frame of reference. It's that your mass is locked to that frame and it takes the FSD longer to pull you out of that frame of reference.
They're smart enough to make design choices that generate similar benefits/drawbacks for ships of different sizes.
Anything beyond that is simply people's imaginations filling in the blanks.
Perhaps it's just luck of the draw, but my turrets don't seen so effective this evening. I did compromise the test slightly as I fitted the Emissive Munitions mod to one of my Multicannons, but that should help tracking if anything.
Going to switch back to the A-Rated Sensors and try again.
Scoob.
Going to switch back to the A-Rated Sensors and try again.
Scoob.
Don't I know it...
Gotta love those mass locking devices hidden in those planetary rings. Or just admit masslock is a wholly arbitrary mechanic.
Don't I know it...
Don't think the radar on your F16 would work too well in Res sites, or in Nav beacons sitting right next to a star pumping out extreme electromagnetic radiation.
The only thing that mass locks in this game are bodies/rings and large structures. Ships cause mass inhibition, as clearly stated in your top right info panel when trying to charge the FSD. Don't think I have ever seen a ship cause the Mass lock light to illuminate on my ship.
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I'm fully aware.
The post I responded to linked mass lock to "devices" on stations.
But that's clearly ignoring natural bodies with masslock and no such device.
I agree. It's ludicrous that the good ole eyeball method is better than futuristic sensors.
And not only is it "unrealistic" and silly, but it also kills off interesting gameplay options. Such as long-range stealth attacks on big targets: stay undetected, launch specialised missiles/torps from a distance, which only light up on everyone's sensors when they are close to the target and make their final boost. Against stationary targets, the ordnance could coast all the way and only be detected at a very short range, giving little time to shoot them down.
On a related note, it really sucks that "stealth missions" really cannot be done stealthily. At x range, you'll be detected and shot at. Planetary missions are the worst, with a clear and unerring perimeter at which you will be detected.
I actually tested this on a beta server a while back. Parked well outside of the stations nfz and weapon range. Shut down all non-essentials in a Anacconda equipped with deep-cut/reverb torps & G5 Long-range 8A-rated sensors. Proceeded to launch torps at any Cmdrs or NPC's attempting to exit the station. Whilst I was made wanted, NPC security could not locate me, and the station didn't attempt to fire on me. I doubt any of the cmdrs knew my location except at the time of launch.
I logged a ticket since the method could be used for griefing, no idea if the devs did anything about it.
My exploration ships and trading ships do just fine with D rated sensors. For most internal core modules, A or D class are the options.