Scanners

shino6 · #1 December 1st, 2001, 04:46 AM

After you put a scanner on a ship or a base, how do you get it to work?

Besides scanner jammers and cloaks, are there any other limitations to scanning?

Thanks.

Taqwus · #2 December 1st, 2001, 06:53 AM

You mean the Long Range Scanners, right?

There's also a range limitation on them (five squares for a LRS III, if memory serves).

If the target is known (it can be cloaked, as long as you've got good-enough sensors in the same system), within range, not using scanner jammers (including the armor which jams it -- either stealth or scattering, don't recall which one), and it's a ship (not a planet!) -- just select it. IOW, it doesn't go through any "use component" option; it's always-on.

Phoenix-D · #3 December 1st, 2001, 07:03 AM

Scanners of all types are always on.

To use long-range scanners, just click on what you'd like to examine. If you're within range- which varies with the level of scanner- you'll see the components of your target.

To use the other types of scanners, you do nothing. Ships with cloaks that you can defeat appear on your map; in fact, you have no way of knowing if they even *have* a cloak without long-range scanners. It's either on-no-see, off-see, or on-see.

Phoenix-D

capnq · #4 December 1st, 2001, 11:46 PM

quote:
To use long-range scanners, just click on what you'd like to examine. If you're within range- which varies with the level of scanner- you'll see the components of your target.

Be aware that if you want to remember the specs of the ship you just clicked on, you need to take notes. Just looking at a ship via scanners will not add the ship to your Enemy Designs list.

Baron Munchausen · #5 December 2nd, 2001, 12:41 AM

Has this changed? I'd swear it used to put designs that you obtained with scanners into the enemy designs list. What annoyed me is that it doesn't put the technologies you find into the diplomatic info screen for that race. Not even the espionage projects that discover other races technologies do that. Only meeting a technology in combat gets it added to the diplomatic info screen.

[ 01 December 2001: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]

TacticDragon · #6 December 2nd, 2001, 03:01 AM

Hum... I think I remember that when my scanners reveal cloaked ships, these ships appear with a "cloak circle" around them. I am pretty sure about this.

Another question about scanners, cloaking (armor or device), and storms/nebulae: what happens if I have a cloaked ship (say level EM 2), hidden in a nebula, and an enemy ship with a scanner that defeats level EM 2 is in the same sector? Can it see my cloaked ship, or is the nebula adding 'another layer of cloaking'? If so, how much does it add?

Andr�s · #7 December 2nd, 2001, 06:37 AM

quote:
Originally posted by TacticDragon:
Another question about scanners, cloaking (armor or device), and storms/nebulae: what happens if I have a cloaked ship (say level EM 2), hidden in a nebula, and an enemy ship with a scanner that defeats level EM 2 is in the same sector? Can it see my cloaked ship, or is the nebula adding 'another layer of cloaking'? If so, how much does it add?

I believe that everything inside a nebula is cloaked with the obscuring level of the nebula, 5 if unmodded.

Phoenix-D · #8 December 2nd, 2001, 07:22 AM

Nebula's cloak everything inside them, but the actual level of cloak varies.

Phoenix-D

TacticDragon · #9 December 2nd, 2001, 07:58 AM

Okay, but are cloaks and "nebula hiding" cumulative?