Little help with the sensors?
I am really confused by the radar and IR.
I have Elint 4 war ings going off at 30 degrees. This means the enemy fleet is relatively close and pinging me. However when I turn on my own radar to get a fix I don't pick up anything.
I often get the "IR signature detected" mea ing they are right on top of me but when I search the IR scope, nothing. I guess I am not getting how they can see me on radar but I can't see them? And why IR seems to not give any information at all when things should be showing on it.
Posted Jan 19, 2022, 5:44 PM UTC
612
You've got a couple of common misconceptions about ELINT. You are inside the enemy radar range only when the reading is DANGER. The numbers indicate how close you are to that range. Since you'll be using the same radar or shorter, you'll not be able to see them at that range.
IR scanners can pick up nearby trade fleets, and this is often the cause of random warnings. Sometimes tactical groups or garrisons sally forth as well, and since they don't have radar you sometimes pick them up as unexpected IR readings too.
Any reason why I am getting IR alerts but have nothing showing on IR scope when I browse it?
And to be clear, you are saying h an ELINT 1 warning does not mean I am picked up on enemy radar?
ELINT 1 means they are near the edge of your ELINT range, and you are well outside their radar. ELINT 5 means you are close to their radar range, and ELINT danger means you are inside their radar range. If they have the biggest radar, that is still a fairly big distance they could be away from you.
I think IR readings can very weak for some contacts, and hard to see, and then disappear straight away. I definitely get a fair few that I never work out what caused them. There could be a bug, but I think it's usually just a passing trade ship.
Thanks for this. Explains a lot
Another thing to note, if you are elint danger that means you are in their radar range but THAT DOESNT MEAN THEY DETECTED YOU. That is based on the greatest radarsign attribute in that fleet. If that number is greater than their current distance when under elint danger, then they can see you. This is why some build small radarsign scout ships to park near towns. A SG has to be very close to see that scout ship
Also, as far as I can tell, the precise search mode on the IRST doesn't work - I've dialed it to point straight at massive heat signatures om the radial display (cruisers strike groups, etc) and there's no change on the other one.
Anyway the smoothbrain play is to just dismount everything that's not an FCR, and keep it turned on all the time. Unlike the search radar, the fire control sets will plot enemies on screen, like when they're in visual range. Which is very useful for intercepting merchants and ||ABM Operations||.
Yeah but won't the enemy detect your FCR and throw stuff your way accordingly?
Military intelligence dude chiming in: IR is your passive sensor that specifically picks up heat signatures. In the context of this game, aircraft and missiles burn especially hot in comparison to their background so they will trigger consistently. Fleets will too when they are right on top of you but they are typically moving way slower so it evens out.
A few things about IR - the scope is mostly useful for getting the exact bearing of the IR contact, doesn't update while the game is paused, and doesn't provide much more information about the target. You can generally tell if it's a missile or a trade fleet but if it's a missile it'll already be on top of you by the time you've waited to get enough resolution on the scope to tell.
IR also doesn't distinguish between hostile and friendly fleets so it's easy to pick up your own ships on IR and get the IR warning alert.