A couple of Component questions...

[jfp3]

Greets Gents! Relative Newbie here with some questions:

1) What are the differences between Hyper Optics/Scanners/Gravitic Scanners?? What ~exactly~ do they do anyway? Are they related to Cloaking? Are Scanners giving me component info, presence info or allowing me to see Cloaked ships or all the above? (for instance).

2) What is the "Cloak" button actually doing to my ships which have only Cloak Armour III? (The one with the defensive bonus, no other Cloak related components on ship <<to my knowledge>>). Does it need to be clicked in order to work? Is there any reason to ever turn it off? (does is use supplies when turned on?)

3) Is there some document/excel sheet out there that actually tells what everything does? Some of the in game descriptions really don't tell me much -- like Hyper Optics vs. Scanners vs. Gravitic Scanners for instance.

4) Warp Weapons -- Do they damage a ship or Warp it to another Star System? Both? If to another Star System is is adjecent or random?

5) Do Phased Weapons damage Phased Shields at all or should one stop deploying them when first seeing Phased Shields?

6) Related: "Tachyon Projection Cannon....penetrates 'shields' and destroys weapons"...does that include Phased Shields?

Thanks in advance for your answers! I'm a relative new comer to SEIV, and just pushing past my first game over 100 turns. Having come across some of these new technologies I don't want to start adding them to ships only to have to refit them as soon as they float out of the shipyards hehe...

[Alneyan]

Greetings, and welcome aboard!

1) In the stock game, there is no difference between all the sensors: any can pierce all cloaking devices, so long as the scanner is of high enough level. Their sole purpose is to detect cloaked ships: the best sensors are powerful enough to detect the best cloak. Note that storms and nebulaes also provide automatic cloaking, and nothing can be detected inside red nebulaes. Again in the stock game, Hyper Optics are by far the cheapest to research, so you should only by using these (and perhaps the Physic or Temporal Sensors if you have the appropriate trait).

Long Range Scanners allow you to detect what is inside a ship, ie its components, the damage it has taken, its cargo, and so on. You will thus gain all information you have about your own ships. However, the Scattering Armour negates this effect, and it is unfortunately a very popular component due to the +15% defence boost it gives.

2) The Cloak button activates all the cloaking devices on board your ship, as they are not activated by default (for ships at any rate, as satellites are cloaked by default, though it does not show on the game screen). You may want to turn the Stealth Armour off under specific circumstances: for example, Minesweepers must not be cloaked in order to work. You could also lay a couple of ships in the midst of an enemy system, with a cloaked armada in the same sector: if the enemy engages, all your ships will join in the battle, regardless of their cloaking.

4) Warp Weapons (under Physics 4) give you Wormhole Beams, used to "teleport" enemy vessels during a battle. A ship hit by a Wormhole beam will be moved somewhere else in the battle, and the effect is pretty much random.

5) Phased Weapons perform as ordinary weaponry (Normal Damage) when they hit a target protected by Phased Shields. Since they are quite expensive, you might want to switch to another weapon once Phased Shields become standard, but they have no other drawback when they hit a Phased Shield.

6) All special damage types (Only XXX) bypass all sorts of shields, including Phased Shields. If you are playing SE4 Gold with one of the Last patches, Ionic Projectors are an exception to this rule, as these are stopped by shielding (normal or phased shields).

5 and 6) Phased Shields perform as Normal Shields in all matters, except that Phased Shields stop Phased Weapons.

[brianeyci]

Alneyan said:
6) All special damage types (Only XXX) bypass all sorts of shields, including Phased Shields. If you are playing SE4 Gold with one of the Last patches, Ionic Projectors are an exception to this rule, as these are stopped by shielding (normal or phased shields).

That is new. So tachyon projector cannons go through all shields hrm?

Brian

[Alneyan]

Tachyon Project Cannons go through all shields just fine (as Shield Disruptors incidentally).

And while on the topic of shields, they need supplies to work: if your vessel does not have any supply, all shields will fall. Of course, you will have other problems when you run out of supplies, like figuring out how to fire any weapon.

[Slick]

hehehehee...

[Chinese accent]
Supplies! no shields!
[/Chinese accent]

get it?

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Me kills Slick for the really bad joke

[Aiken]

Alneyan said:
6) All special damage types (Only XXX) bypass all sorts of shields, including Phased Shields. If you are playing SE4 Gold with one of the Last patches, Ionic Projectors are an exception to this rule, as these are stopped by shielding (normal or phased shields).

Except "Only Security Stations" damage type. Afair, it damages shields first.

edit: not afair, but for sure. just tested it.

[jfp3]

Speaking of Security Stations...I tried Boarding parties on a couple of ships a few games ago...after they boarded and captured...they would not repair themselves at a SY. What is the deal with using them effectively then? You have to "retrofit" just that one slot or something? That would be kind of ugly~~

[Alneyan]

I didn't know about those Aiken (but then, I never actually used them); the same may hold true for Only Boarding Parties, or perhaps Only Planet Destroyers.

I don't really get your question Jfp3. Boarding Parties and Security Stations will be repaired by repair bays or spaceyards. However, you may have trouble to repair the captured ship, as you need to know the technology to use a component before being able to repair it. So, if you have captured a Talisman ship, but you don't have the Religious trait, you will be unable to repair the Talisman (it will work just fine until it is destroyed).

[Swarm]

1) In the unmodified game, no difference in function between Hyper Optics, Gravitic Sensors, and Tachyon Sensors. They all pierce the level of Cloaking specified in the component description. They are unrelated to Combat Sensors and Scanners. A single unit with one of these in the system will enable you to see all cloaked objects - their range is the entire system.

Scanners let you see the components and cargo on ships which you can see. They have a range of 1, 3 or 5 sectors. They are blocked by Scanner Jammers or Scattering Armour. They do NOT let you see cloaked ships or planetary facilities or cargo.

2) The cloak button switches it on or off. Cloaking devices use supplies, so you may not always want it switched on. All levels of Stealth Armour function the same as the first level of cloaking, and still needs to be switched on before your ship is cloaked, even though it does not use supplies. (As the captain of Nasty Surprise 0001 found to his cost.)

3) I wish there was :-/

4) They may do a trivial amount of damage - I'm not sure - but the main effect is to warp the target ship to a random spot of the combat map. I think the distance is generally greater with larger weapon mounts. The ship will still be in the same sector of the same system.

5) Phased weapons do normal damage to Phased Shields.

6) I believe so.