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Realistic Sensor Rules
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CRMcNeill
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 19, 2018 9:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Some initial thoughts on Sensors and Weapons...

What I'm picturing is, as mentioned above, a ship can't fire weapons at a target unless that target is Located.

Once a target is Located, it takes a round to transfer the positioning data to Fire Control. Attacks against a Located Contact are resolved normally at the beginning of the next round.

Fire Control may attempt to rush the shot and fire in the same round (called a "snapshot") but suffers a -2D penalty. It may also make use of the Preparation rule as written.

If a ship fires an energy weapon, it is automatically Located, as the energy signature of the blast shows up quite clearly on any Passive Sensors within range. This includes most guided missiles, as they are dependent on an active sensor lock-on for fire control.

Some weapons (specifically, mass drivers, proton torpedoes and unguided or passive-homing missiles) have much weaker firing signatures, and are only Detected when firing, rather than Located.
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Darklighter79
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 29, 2018 2:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
Even then, the ship still has gravity and life support.


Gravity was generated by the asteroid as they could walk outside easily.

Quote:
+10 if Contact is hiding behind a planet or other massive body.

I was always curious about this: so the scan goes through the planet technically.

Quote:
+10 if the range to contact is greater than Sensor Range by 200% or less.

and
Quote:
-20 if the Contact is Death Star-Scale* (includes planets or moon-size natural bodies)


Situation:
X-Wing has arrived to a new system (normal Sol size, lets assume for location purposes: near Saturn) . He switches for long range scan to gather info about system and see if there is any planet with breathable atmosphere or maybe with an outpost. What will come up on his sensor, provided the pilot made successful roll?
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CRMcNeill
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Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.

PostPosted: Sat Sep 29, 2018 3:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Darklighter79 wrote:
Gravity was generated by the asteroid as they could walk outside easily.

It's highly unlikely that an asteroid could generate enough gravity to allow humans to walk normally. A far more likely explanation is that the ship itself was generating a localized gravity field that held it "down" on the surface of the cave wall. Look at films of astronauts walking on the moon and compare that to how Han, Leia and Chewie walked around outside the ship in ESB.

Quote:
I was always curious about this: so the scan goes through the planet technically.

It's more that the planet's mass does not fully conceal the ship's sensor signature, such as drive waste, sensor scatter off nearby objects, gravitic anomalies, and so on and so forth.

I am, however, strongly considering flipping the Difficulties of this and the "multiple objects to hide among" complication. My thinking is that hiding behind a large planet would be much more effective concealment than hiding in a bunch of asteroids.

Although, it could be possible to combine the two, such as hiding on the other side of a gas giant and tucking into its ring system...

Quote:
Situation:
X-Wing has arrived to a new system (normal Sol size, lets assume for location purposes: near Saturn) . He switches for long range scan to gather info about system and see if there is any planet with breathable atmosphere or maybe with an outpost. What will come up on his sensor, provided the pilot made successful roll?

Pretty much what came up on his Sensors under the RAW. It's important to note that, in most cases, ships in a solar system going about their business aren't going to be trying to hide from enemy sensors.

If trying to scan a planet, the Sensors skill has rules for that, as well. Adding the Detected / Located option allows the GM to go with "you're picking up some signs of a settlement on the third planet, but you're too far away too make out any details."

For the purposes of gaming, I'd probably limit most sensor usage to a single planetary system. Other planets or large formations (asteroid belts) would be detectable for navigation purposes (knowing where it is so you can fly there), but truly solar system-wide sensor readings would be the province of the sensors on the Death Star or the Observation variant of the Modular Taskforce Cruiser.
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Darklighter79
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 29, 2018 7:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
It's highly unlikely that an asteroid could generate enough gravity to allow humans to walk normally. A far more likely explanation is that the ship itself was generating a localized gravity field that held it "down" on the surface of the cave wall. Look at films of astronauts walking on the moon and compare that to how Han, Leia and Chewie walked around outside the ship in ESB.

Normally, yes. But if it was artificially generated, passengers would not have been subject to space slug movement both outside and inside ship.

Quote:
For the purposes of gaming, I'd probably limit most sensor usage to a single planetary system.


So base info like number of planets present would be available.
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CRMcNeill
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 29, 2018 8:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Darklighter79 wrote:
But if it was artificially generated, passengers would not have been subject to space slug movement both outside and inside ship.

This presumes knowledge of the specifics of artificial gravity generation that we don't have. It is just as likely (if not more so) that a weak, highly localized gravity field (just strong enough to create a 1G field for a 20-25 meter radius, which is just enough to encompass the Falcon and its immediate surroundings) would not be sufficient to absorb the movement of a ~900 meter-long space slug.

And yes, starship acceleration compensators would have to be capable of absorbing much, much more than 1G to explain the starship flight characteristics we see in the SWU. But not if a ship was stationary, parked inside of an asteroid, with everything but the emergency power shut down (which would include the acceleration compensator).

Quote:
So base info like number of planets present would be available.

That plus general planetary type and number of moons, ala the system description system on the Planet Log page.
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CRMcNeill
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Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.

PostPosted: Sat Sep 29, 2018 10:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

CRMcNeill wrote:
I am, however, strongly considering flipping the Difficulties of this and the "multiple objects to hide among" complication. My thinking is that hiding behind a large planet would be much more effective concealment than hiding in a bunch of asteroids.

After some consideration, I am going ahead with this.
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CRMcNeill
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Location: Redding System, California Sector, on the I-5 Hyperspace Route.

PostPosted: Sun Sep 30, 2018 12:09 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Here's how to apply Transponder Codes to the new Sensor Rules

Transponder Codes

-A ship's IFF Code can be read on a successful Identify roll.

-A ship can make its IFF Code more difficult to read by Jamming, but this immediately highlights the ship on opposed sensor systems.

-Ships can mask their IFF Transponder by installing a signal modulator that alters the transponder signal. Multiple codes may be installed, but each additional code decreases the effectiveness of all installed codes.

Game Use: If a ship is using a Masked IFF Code, the Sensor rolls to Identify the masked ship as normal. If the Sensor beats the Difficulty by less than the Modifier provided by the mask, it only reads the false identity. If it beats the combined Difficulty, the Sensor can tell the contact is using a Transponder Mask and can read the ship's true IFF Code.
    Number of Additional IFF Codes = Sensor Identify Modifier:
    1 = +30
    2 = +20
    3 = +15
    4 = +10

See Pirates & Privateers for IFF Code Cost & Installation Difficulties.
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CRMcNeill
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 31, 2021 11:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Based on how complicated these rules are, I'm wondering if it wouldn't be simpler for every ship to have a Stealth rating as an integral part of their stat. I haven't really thought out how it would work, but IMO making starship concealment vs. detection would be simpler for both GMs and players if it paralleled the character-level Search vs. Sneak.
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garhkal
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 01, 2021 2:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Only certain ships IMO, should have 'stealth' ratings. Scout ships specially..
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CRMcNeill
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 01, 2021 2:44 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

garhkal wrote:
Only certain ships IMO, should have 'stealth' ratings. Scout ships specially..

On the contrary, everything should have a Stealth rating, even if that rating is 0D. EDIT: Hell, some ships should have negative values.
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MrNexx
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 02, 2021 12:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

CRMcNeill wrote:
garhkal wrote:
Only certain ships IMO, should have 'stealth' ratings. Scout ships specially..

On the contrary, everything should have a Stealth rating, even if that rating is 0D. EDIT: Hell, some ships should have negative values.


Shadowrun gave things "Signature", which was how detectable the thing was.
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CRMcNeill
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 02, 2021 1:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

MrNexx wrote:
Shadowrun gave things "Signature", which was how detectable the thing was.

That's better.
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MrNexx
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 02, 2021 2:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

CRMcNeill wrote:
MrNexx wrote:
Shadowrun gave things "Signature", which was how detectable the thing was.

That's better.


Thinking about it: Signature as sort of an inverse fire control... it adds to your opponent's sensor check.

So, for example, the standard signature might be 2D. That assumes a fully operational ship with only passive scanning. Active scanning might kick that up by 2-3D; shutting down everything but life support might drop it to 1D, shutting down EVERYTHING would drop it to 0D.

I'd also have scale modifier apply, but ONLY upwards... it's easy to detect a Star Destroyer, hard to detect a speeder.
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CRMcNeill
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 02, 2021 2:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Of course, you also have to factor in power output. A larger craft will have a larger signature, but will also have sensors powerful enough to detect smaller objects further out. You can see this in the sensor ranges of various ship stats.
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MrNexx
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PostPosted: Thu Sep 02, 2021 2:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

CRMcNeill wrote:
Of course, you also have to factor in power output. A larger craft will have a larger signature, but will also have sensors powerful enough to detect smaller objects further out. You can see this in the sensor ranges of various ship stats.


Another option, somewhat easier: Higher signature is better.

So, again, you have a X-wing, and we'll give it a base signature of 3D. Your difficulty for Sensor tests against it is 3D. If it shuts down, your difficulty goes up to 4D or 5D. If it has some sort of cloaking field or special sensor protections, then your difficulty would go up again. If it starts using things that require sensors (targeting computers, active scans), your difficulty goes down.
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