[Gamma_Draconis]

Having a chain of AWACs jamming your enemy's sensors isn't going to work. All they need to do then, is fire their primaries at the AWAC ships and there goes all your money.

[jr2]

Dumbfire trebbys

[TrashMan]

FS2 sensors are complete **** compared to modern-day sensors. A ship with modern detection arrays could detect a manned starship of any size ANYWHERE in the solar system because it would be lit up like the Fourth of July on thermal imaging. The proper temperature scale for use in space is Kelvin, where 0 is absoute zero. Space is around 2-3 Kelvins. A manned starship would be 290 kelvins in the manned sections and 400+ in the powerplant.

Ah...but what if the ship is behind another object? Planet...asteroid..or the sun?

[castor]

Hmm.. could they really detect, lets say Fenris engine heat from 150 000 000 miles?
I relly don't know, but I'd imagine that the heat source needs to be big enough to be detected.

[Polpolion]

FS2 sensors are complete **** compared to modern-day sensors. A ship with modern detection arrays could detect a manned starship of any size ANYWHERE in the solar system because it would be lit up like the Fourth of July on thermal imaging. The proper temperature scale for use in space is Kelvin, where 0 is absoute zero. Space is around 2-3 Kelvins. A manned starship would be 290 kelvins in the manned sections and 400+ in the powerplant.

Have you ever noticed how there is no limit to sensor ranges in FS?

[Kie99]

FS2 sensors are complete **** compared to modern-day sensors. A ship with modern detection arrays could detect a manned starship of any size ANYWHERE in the solar system because it would be lit up like the Fourth of July on thermal imaging. The proper temperature scale for use in space is Kelvin, where 0 is absoute zero. Space is around 2-3 Kelvins. A manned starship would be 290 kelvins in the manned sections and 400+ in the powerplant.

Have you ever noticed how there is no limit to sensor ranges in FS?

Obviously there is or you would detect every ship in the universe when your radar range was set to Infinity.

[AlphaOne]

well then if FS2 sensors are useless then current day sensors....well....with or without them it would be the same thing. Remember that in FS2 you can get live feed of of ships that enter or exit the field and even know what tipe how much damage they have taken etc. For modern day sensors to track a ship or even an asteroid is very dificult unless it is at close range. Also remember that the radar coverage of the space near Earth is very limited and primitive. I heard on some documentary saing that if they are incredibly lucky they can detect an asteroid headed for earth 1 year to 2 years. That is if they are incredibly lucky. If not in normal circumstances we wouldnt know about it untill it was right at our door step.


Regardless of these things i believe that a ship similar to the awacs could be used to jam other hostile ships and give you an advantage.

[Woolie Wool]

You could somehow try to prevent the heat from escaping, although cooling the reactor would probably be tricky. I-War2 aproaches a bit on this issue.

Impossible. You cannot destroy energy, it violates the first law of thermodynamics. The heat must get out, or it will fry the ship and everyone aboard (and they'll see you anyway because your ship is so hot).  The subspace thing doesn't work either. The energy for just one jump shuts down a Terran ship's jump drive for about a minute, judging from FS2. You just can't keep a subspace rift open for an extended period. Maybe the Shivans can, but not the GTVA. Also, the subspace rift itself would emit energy (especially since it glows), broadcasting its presence to sensors.

[Polpolion]

FS2 sensors are complete **** compared to modern-day sensors. A ship with modern detection arrays could detect a manned starship of any size ANYWHERE in the solar system because it would be lit up like the Fourth of July on thermal imaging. The proper temperature scale for use in space is Kelvin, where 0 is absoute zero. Space is around 2-3 Kelvins. A manned starship would be 290 kelvins in the manned sections and 400+ in the powerplant.

Have you ever noticed how there is no limit to sensor ranges in FS?

Obviously there is or you would detect every ship in the universe when your radar range was set to Infinity.

Ahh... touche... But still, have  a ship warp in at any distance in fred, and watch your radar screen.

[Mustang19]

was never the one for hard sci-fi. But given the technology that would realistically be available in the 24th century, being stealthy wouldn't be difficult. Redirecting or storing your heat wouldn't be the problem. What would really kill FS ships is their bright shiny paint schemes. Even if the Shivans blocked all thier other EM transmissions, their bright red decor would give them away easily.

About the whole IR thing, remember that heat needs a medium to travel through. Space doesn't count. You need to be spewing photons or some other particle (like the sun does) to transmit heat an appreciable distance through space within a reasonable ammount of time.

You could somehow try to prevent the heat from escaping, although cooling the reactor would probably be tricky.

Even if you think IR is a legitimate way to detect spaceships, no problem here. Just store your heat, then let it out every few hours in a random direction and speed to prevent the enemy from getting a solid lock. Or, bring along a buttload of heat decoys.

[Kie99]

FS2 sensors are complete **** compared to modern-day sensors. A ship with modern detection arrays could detect a manned starship of any size ANYWHERE in the solar system because it would be lit up like the Fourth of July on thermal imaging. The proper temperature scale for use in space is Kelvin, where 0 is absoute zero. Space is around 2-3 Kelvins. A manned starship would be 290 kelvins in the manned sections and 400+ in the powerplant.

Have you ever noticed how there is no limit to sensor ranges in FS?

Obviously there is or you would detect every ship in the universe when your radar range was set to Infinity.

Ahh... touche... But still, have  a ship warp in at any distance in fred, and watch your radar screen.

In FRED you can arm a Colossus with about 50 BFReds, doesn't mean it would work in the "real" Freespace universe.  Look at the Sathanes near the Capella sun, you can't target them.

[karajorma]

That's mainly cause V made them untargetable.

[Snail]

Don't you love it when you're in Paris for a week and the thread grows 6 pages?

[jr2]

What, no Internet in Paris? 

[Snail]

Internet, yes.

But a SNAIL can't appear at an internet cafe, can I?

[Woolie Wool]

was never the one for hard sci-fi. But given the technology that would realistically be available in the 24th century, being stealthy wouldn't be difficult. Redirecting or storing your heat wouldn't be the problem. What would really kill FS ships is their bright shiny paint schemes. Even if the Shivans blocked all thier other EM transmissions, their bright red decor would give them away easily.

About the whole IR thing, remember that heat needs a medium to travel through. Space doesn't count. You need to be spewing photons or some other particle (like the sun does) to transmit heat an appreciable distance through space within a reasonable ammount of time.

You could somehow try to prevent the heat from escaping, although cooling the reactor would probably be tricky.

Even if you think IR is a legitimate way to detect spaceships, no problem here. Just store your heat, then let it out every few hours in a random direction and speed to prevent the enemy from getting a solid lock. Or, bring along a buttload of heat decoys.

Heat does not need a medium--it is not sound. Infrared radiation is photons! It's the same as light, only a longer wavelength.  Also, photons are weird, as they are both a particle and a wave simultaneously.

Furthermore, decoys don't work. If these missiles have even a rudimentary AI in them, you would need a decoy with the same size, mass, and thermal characteristics of your ship--an exact duplicate of your ship! This is not feasible,  as the decoy would be just as expensive as the ship.

http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/rocket3w.html#nostealth

[Mathwiz6]

Ok. On the list of temporary sensor blockers, how about getting a coolant sink, which is then used to generate energy, which is then used either to fire infrared radiation in a beam in a random direction, or to power the ship? The coolant sink isn't emmiting anything, the energy is dispersed in a manner which is improbable to be detected (Unless, coincidentially, you are directly in the path of the beam). Furthermore, so long as you use the sink to keep energy from reaching the outer hull (Which, like air conditioning, is very expensive in energy terms to do), nothing is emitted into space (at least, no IR).

Wait, I just pulled that out of my ***. Ah well. If it works, I call credit 

[Kie99]

That's mainly cause V made them untargetable.

Which is a part of the Freespace Universe.  Shows that the sensors can't something that far away.

[jr2]

Either that, or the subspace crap they were doing atm had an effect on the sensors....

[Mustang19]

You can see them perfectly fine. Mk1 eyeball. 

Bear in mind that your targeting computer may be just ignoring them, so 80 Sathanases aren't cluttering your targeting list.

Furthermore, decoys don't work. If these missiles have even a rudimentary AI in them, you would need a decoy with the same size, mass, and thermal characteristics of your ship--an exact duplicate of your ship! This is not feasible,  as the decoy would be just as expensive as the ship.

Change your heat signature using various techniques, and you can have whatever IR image you want. That's all a decoy would have to do, send out a similar number of photons in a similar way. By simplifying (or randomizing) your own IR signature, you can get decoys to work.

And thank you for correcting my terrible physics knowledge.