Sensor Engineering: what are the effects in combat?

[Yosharian]

Long Range mod affects the range at which you can detect enemy ships, and your sensor strength vs Silent Running ships, that much is obvious.

However, what isn't obvious is the way that the Wide Angle mod, and the 'Max Angle' stat generally, affects combat.

Does this stat, and therefore the three engineering mods (Lightweight and Long Range reduce Max Angle, while Wide Angle increases it), affect combat in any way?

I have searched for this and found contradicting information, such as 'it affects gimbals', 'it affects the angle at which you can maintain locks', 'it doesn't affect combat in any way', etc.

So, does anyone know?

PS: note that I am referring to SENSOR engineering, not SCANNER engineering.

 

[Kzak]

https://inara.cz/galaxy-blueprints

See the Core Internal section where sensors are, and click on the three available modifications to view their details.

I haven't noticed any drawback of note in combat, and I commonly use level 5 engineered lightweight sensors on all my ships. If the scan angle is reduced, that'll just mean the initial scan of a ship to find its name, pilot name, shields etc. can not be conducted unless you point your ship a bit more against the target than before.

 

[Cmdr. Numa]

I think it only affects at which angle you can resolve the stats and legal status of ships.

 

[CptXabaras]

I think it only affects at which angle you can resolve the stats and legal status of ships.

It should also affect the lock on target angle for gimballs and missiles.

 

[Gabbatek]

wide angle increases the angle you can scan the ship to tell if its wanted or mission target. Example, with wide angle you don't have to look straight at the target

 

[crushdepth]

Long Range mod affects the range at which you can detect enemy ships, and your sensor strength vs Silent Running ships, that much is obvious.

However, what isn't obvious is the way that the Wide Angle mod, and the 'Max Angle' stat generally, affects combat.

Does this stat, and therefore the three engineering mods (Lightweight and Long Range reduce Max Angle, while Wide Angle increases it), affect combat in any way?

I have searched for this and found contradicting information, such as 'it affects gimbals', 'it affects the angle at which you can maintain locks', 'it doesn't affect combat in any way', etc.

So, does anyone know?

PS: note that I am referring to SENSOR engineering, not SCANNER engineering.

Long range sensors are useful with long range weapon mods, which let you hit targets outside the range of 'normal' sensor range.

 

[Yosharian]

It should also affect the lock on target angle for gimballs and missiles.

This is precisely what I'm trying to find out.

So.. does it, or doesn't it?

Surely someone knows for sure?

 

[deathmagnet]

lightweight will make your ship marginally lighter and help with jump range. But most likely not in a war ship as they are usually weighed down and it will do little to nothing.

long range will just make you see your target far away but the chances of you needing to see that far is slim to none as your weapons likely wont reach that far.

wide angle is good for gimbaled and missiles like mentioned earlier. Increases your power consumption. still allows locking onto target at over 4000M which is beyond the targeting range for most weapons.

I like the wide angle the best due to the fact that you can scan things at insane angles in SC, which helps you collect Encoded Data for engineering. I find the others useless.

 

[rrobes]

If memory serves me correctly, FD used the sensor cone angle to take away the effectiveness of gimballed weapons. By reducing the sensor cone, giving it a more acute angle, gimballs lose lock more rapidly.

This was discussed at length, I recall it was over a year(?) ago, when this all took place.

 

[Yosharian]

If memory serves me correctly, FD used the sensor cone angle to take away the effectiveness of gimballed weapons. By reducing the sensor cone, giving it a more acute angle, gimballs lose lock more rapidly.

This was discussed at length, I recall it was over a year(?) ago, when this all took place.

Great, can you find that discussion at all? I'd like to get concrete data on this.

 

[sewerratuk]

Great, can you find that discussion at all? I'd like to get concrete data on this.

You could always fit them and get the data yourself.
Let us know your findings

 

[C64Fan]

If memory serves me correctly, FD used the sensor cone angle to take away the effectiveness of gimballed weapons. By reducing the sensor cone, giving it a more acute angle, gimballs lose lock more rapidly.

This was discussed at length, I recall it was over a year(?) ago, when this all took place.

Sensors should also have an effect on turrets - on what angle they are able to fire - but I have watched the turrets on my Cutter (G5 Lightweight sensors) fire on ships behind me, so it doesn’t seem to be true.

 

[Yosharian]

Sensors should also have an effect on turrets - on what angle they are able to fire - but I have watched the turrets on my Cutter fire on ships behind me, so it doesn’t seem to be true.

Perfect that's all I needed to know, thanks.

 

[C64Fan]

An old thread about it: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/313530-Gimballed-weapons-alteration-feedback

EDIT: A bit of valuable info here: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/372722-2-4-Sensors?p=5851661&viewfull=1#post585166

 

[Cmdr. Numa]

An important thing about long range mod is that it usually lets you keep target lock if the target has used a heatsink.

 

[Lucius-Darcia]

Long Range mod affects the range at which you can detect enemy ships, and your sensor strength vs Silent Running ships, that much is obvious.

However, what isn't obvious is the way that the Wide Angle mod, and the 'Max Angle' stat generally, affects combat.

Does this stat, and therefore the three engineering mods (Lightweight and Long Range reduce Max Angle, while Wide Angle increases it), affect combat in any way?

I have searched for this and found contradicting information, such as 'it affects gimbals', 'it affects the angle at which you can maintain locks', 'it doesn't affect combat in any way', etc.

So, does anyone know?

PS: note that I am referring to SENSOR engineering, not SCANNER engineering.

On ships with bad supercruise performance a reduced angle can be quite annoying since you have to move more to basic scan them. Wide angle can be helpfull here.
In Res-sites the long range mod can be helpfull if you are in a fast ship like Chieftain or FDL since you get more targets this way which means more pewpew
In a CZ a basic scan isn't necessary, you don't get fines for shooting ships without doing a basic scan where in Res-sites this can make a reduced angle also annoying since you better have to do the basic scan and have to move more again here.

I haven't noticed any changes in combat so far in terms of weapons. Not on gimbaled or on turrets.

An important thing about long range mod is that it usually lets you keep target lock if the target has used a heatsink.

I think this is the most important effect especially in PvP. The target lock on a silent running ship or when using a heatsink is basically 500m. So if you have 100% more range this increases also at 100% which means you can keep the lock at 1000m than.
But i usually take for that an emmission increasing weapon instead which is performing far better.