Is Silent Running Supposed to Not Work?

[Rozete]

you can fool radars and scans, but for a naked eye you wont disappear from space just by dropping heatsinks or going silent. if naked eye sees you it doesnt need radar to confirm that. and who knows how far that naked eye of npc is able to track you.. i dont believe npcs rely just on radar alone

 

[ThriveInDark]

you can fool radars and scans, but for a naked eye you wont disappear from space just by dropping heatsinks or going silent. if naked eye sees you it doesnt need radar to confirm that. and who knows how far that naked eye of npc is able to track you.. i dont believe npcs rely just on radar alone

We're not talking about combat tracking for fixed weapons, a scanner is not a naked eye so it does need to see a registered signature to be able to perform its work. Unless they have X ray vision and can see through your hull. I just filed a patent for lead/stealth armour coating and cargo racks btw, so I'm about to be rich. Maybe they could add em to Qwent and make him useful. Or add an engineer in the pirate systems.

(really would be cool to see more composite materials and specialized modules like this though. we've been asking for them since at least when I got the game on Xbox Preview)

 

[Lucius-Darcia]

I'm not sure how it works with NPCs compared to players, but in any case it's worth noting that sensors do have an auto-resolve range which you simply can't hide inside. According to this old (and therefore possibly outdated) post by Sandro, better sensors auto-resolve at around 500m. If that remains accurate and it also scales with engineering, current ships could potentially have sensors which auto-resolve out to almost 900m.

This is the best answer.
Most people forget, that they basically all the time fit just D-sensors and therefor have a complete difficult experience with Silent Running than NPC's.
A-grade sensors break through silent running at 500m and if long range mods really affect this too, it's even more.

You're not stealthy or undetectable in silent running, just harder to target. And yes, my own experience tells me, that NPC's use eyeballing because they can hit you with weapons at 3km range even when using SR, just a bit less accurate.

The best is, not giving them the chance to get even one time a lock on you when using silent running. Keep from start on a minimum distance of 600m but better 1km.
They don't fire at you if they didn't completed the basic scan which takes around 5 seconds.
If they have a lock on you and make the scan, than the only way to break this scan is running away with ludicrous speed of opening fire on them. Than they stop. Firing is not recommanded by cops

 

[Rozete]

We're not talking about combat tracking for fixed weapons, a scanner is not a naked eye so it does need to see a registered signature to be able to perform its work. Unless they have X ray vision and can see through your hull. I just filed a patent for lead/stealth armour coating and cargo racks btw, so I'm about to be rich. Maybe they could add em to Qwent and make him useful.

you can always break the lock by droping heatsink or going silent and gaining distance fast, but npc will chase you if he simply sees you with his naked eye and will finish scan no matter what if hes able to close the distance enough