Signature and sensors
Sensor range decides what you can see and shoot. Signature radius decides how easily hostile turrets stay on you. They are separate: signature has no effect on how far away you are detected.
Sensor range
- With a clear line of sight, a contact inside your sensor range is identified. It can be targeted and turrets can fire on it.
- A contact outside your sensor range but within 10 km shows as a blip. A blip cannot be targeted.
- Without line of sight a contact is not shown at all.
- A module that is running on a selected target drops when the target leaves your sensor range.
Bare hulls see between about 4.0 and 5.4 km. Each hull's page has its figure.
Signature radius
The fitting screen describes signature as "your ship's targeting profile. Larger signatures are easier for hostile turrets to track." A larger signature gives hostile turrets a larger silhouette to hold their aim on.
Your signature in flight is the hull's base signature, with every signature modifier applied, plus these additions:
| Source | Adds |
|---|---|
| Heat | 2 for every point of heat in the reactor |
| Firing | Each shot adds an amount set by the turret. It decays by 100 a second, or 200 a second on the Beltane, Seraph, Jackal, Rune, Scarab and Skoll, and can never exceed the hull's base signature. |
| Throttle | 650 on a cruiser whenever the throttle is not at zero |
| Reactor online | 300 whenever there is heat in the reactor |
| SCRAM | 1,500 during a SCRAM shutdown |
A ship that is coasting cold with its guns silent is as hard to track as it will ever be. One that is firing, hot and under thrust is at its easiest.
Modules
Sonar Ping and Tracking Computer raise your own sensor range. Target Painter raises the signature of the ship it is used on. Thermal Lattice and Hydro Injection raise your own signature as a cost. See Heat.