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Detection

A moving fleet can be spotted by enemy radars. It is seen if their radar is more powerful than its stealth.

In plain words

A moving fleet can be spotted by enemy radars. It is seen if their radar is more powerful than its stealth (its occultation) and if it is within range.

To see further: raise the Sensors technology (your planets' radar) and fit your ships with radar modules. To be harder to spot: fit your ships with Jammer modules.

If an enemy's radar is not more powerful than your occultation, it never sees you, whatever the distance.

Detection system

Any moving fleet can be detected by planets and enemy fleets equipped with radars. Detection depends on the radar R of the detector, the occultation score O of the target, and the distance between them.

β–Έ For the curious Radars

Fleet radar

A fleet's radar is a capacity-weighted average of the radar forces of each equipped ship group. A larger ship (higher capacity) weighs more in the calculation.

W = Ξ£(qtyi Γ— capi Γ— Ri) / Ξ£(qtyi Γ— capi)
R = max(W, 3) Γ— (1 + 0.05 Γ— Nbuildables.SENSORS.name)
sum over groups of ships equipped with a radar
  • qtyi β€” number of ships in group i
  • capi β€” total capacity of schema i (ship size)
  • Ri β€” radar force of schema i
  • W β€” capacity-weighted average of radar forces
  • 3 β€” minimum guaranteed radar (even without a radar module)
  • Nbuildables.SENSORS.name β€” buildables.SENSORS.name technology level (+5% per level)

Planet radar

Each planet has a passive radar whose power depends only on the Sensors technology.

R = 50 Γ— (1 + 0.05 Γ— Nbuildables.SENSORS.name)
  • 50 β€” planet's base radar
  • Nbuildables.SENSORS.name β€” buildables.SENSORS.name technology level (+5% per level)
β–Έ For the curious Occultation

Each fleet has an occultation score O. The higher O is, the more powerful a radar must be to detect the fleet. The Jammer modules and the technology buildables.CAMOUFLAGE.name increase this score.

W = Ξ£(qtyi Γ— capi Γ— Si) / Ξ£(qtyi Γ— capi)
O = (1 + W) Γ— (1 + 0.08 Γ— Nbuildables.CAMOUFLAGE.name)
sum over groups of ships equipped with a jammer
  • qtyi β€” number of ships in group i
  • capi β€” total capacity of schema i (ship size)
  • Si β€” sum of jammer bonuses in schema i (bonus Γ— number of modules installed)
  • W β€” capacity-weighted average of jamming bonuses
  • 1 β€” base occultation for any fleet (without jammer)
  • Nbuildables.CAMOUFLAGE.name β€” buildables.CAMOUFLAGE.name technology level (+8% per level)
β–Έ For the curious Detection range

Radar strength decreases exponentially with distance. The maximum range can be directly derived from R and O.

dmax = 80 Γ— log10(R / O)
  • R β€” detector's radar
  • O β€” target's occultation
  • Detection impossible if R ≀ O (zero range)