Consequent to watching ‘50’s pirate movies at 2AM, my internet access is throttled and all navigation is now painful. I can however load the Hardpoint calculator and write offline, so here follows some of my most recent finds on scan, stealth and seeing stuff in space. IMHO, this is one of the most important game dynamics to master, and though it is still early, there is already a lot to learn. Whether you are planning to sit tactical on the bridge of a larger ship, or just want to improve your dogfighting chances, every able citizen of the stars needs to know this stuff. My hope is someone will sticky this up and we can all post our finds here. This is all about how to win at seeing before you’re seen, or concomitantly, how to avoid being seen before you see. Seeing stuff in space is the first tactical action and if we ignore how the game works, we will pay for it one way or another.
First thing to note is stealth and scan are not yet finalized, but they are both working with as close an approximation as CIG can offer for now. IR is unimplemented and the calculator does not show useful numbers here, nor offer any real choices for coolers, so this post only considers EM. Additionally, to reduce the number of salient factors I’m reporting figures with weapons, shields and Q Drives off—super stealth mode—so we can make some useful observations without cluttering with data about how ballistics usually have lower standby EM than lasers, these shields emit more than those shields, etc.
So to some useful observations:
Stealth frames include a box around the reactor that gives lower EM stats that you cannot swap in or out. Since the reactor is the biggest producer of EM, and can’t be switched off, this means you’ll never be able to trick out a SuperHornet to stats like the Ghost. If you want good stealth, buy it in the ship frame. This does not mean you can’t gain a huge advantage by tricking out a non-stealth package. It just means if you meet a stealth bird, he is probably going to see you before you see him. So you’ll only be hiding from non-stealth birds if you stealify a non-stealth ship.
Sabres are a great first case to examine. They are unusual in that they offer two S1 reactors rather than the usual 1. They come with a pair of SonicLite reactors that provide 2,250 power @ and emit 408 EM. One thing I recommend for those wanting to trick out the Sabre is pull both reactors and see how the bird flies with 1 IonBurst (1,796 power/230 EM) as primary, and perhaps a StarHeart (3,250 power/797 EM) as secondary, and leave the secondary off until you need it. Especially if you’re flying ballistics, you may greatly improve the stealth qualities of your Sabre this way, and if you need the second reactor, you will actually have more power available than the stock bird. You may prefer to go to ballistics like the Mantis, since the Mantis requires less than half the power of the Panthers and emits one sixth the EM signature on standby. This is a good choice to optimize EM stealth. Try using other reactors than the StarHeart and see if your shields refresh quickly enough with whatever weapons you choose.
Almost all ships have 2 coolers. There’s no detail yet as to which are better in this or that—they all produce 18 EM. Whatever CIG does with coolers, if you have something like a Sabre where you can switch off 1 of 2 reactors, try flying with 1 of the Coolers off when your second reactor is off.
So what of the numbers? According to the Hardpoint calculator, the standard Sabre in super-stealth has an EM sig of 633, and with the changes I describe, only 440. Furthermore, a tricked out Sabre with 4 Mantises busy firing and 3 beasty Forcewall shields recharging, requires 2,017 power. You can easily get that from a pair of IonBurst reactors. So it does appear the Sabre will fly just fine and offer greatly enhanced stealth, if you swap the guns, reactors and put in the biggest shields, but we still need to test this since the thruster data is not enabled in the Hardpoint calculator.
It looks like you can get hugely improved stealth, shields and DPS with these kinds of changes, without sacrificing maneuverability nor speed. It does mean you have to practice trigger control so you don’t run out of ammo, but the Mantis does 10% more damage than the Panthers, more of that penetrates shields, and the shots fly about 20% faster so you’ll hit more often too.
Yeah, yeah, someone will say it’s too early to do analysis since everything will change—but hey, the fact everything will be different in two years does not mean you should fly the ship you have today without as much optimization as you can get. What I learned is the Sabre actually has astonishing stealth ability. It's no small advantage. I thought it was like the F35, but it is much more like an F22. I want a Sabre now!
First thing to note is stealth and scan are not yet finalized, but they are both working with as close an approximation as CIG can offer for now. IR is unimplemented and the calculator does not show useful numbers here, nor offer any real choices for coolers, so this post only considers EM. Additionally, to reduce the number of salient factors I’m reporting figures with weapons, shields and Q Drives off—super stealth mode—so we can make some useful observations without cluttering with data about how ballistics usually have lower standby EM than lasers, these shields emit more than those shields, etc.
So to some useful observations:
Stealth frames include a box around the reactor that gives lower EM stats that you cannot swap in or out. Since the reactor is the biggest producer of EM, and can’t be switched off, this means you’ll never be able to trick out a SuperHornet to stats like the Ghost. If you want good stealth, buy it in the ship frame. This does not mean you can’t gain a huge advantage by tricking out a non-stealth package. It just means if you meet a stealth bird, he is probably going to see you before you see him. So you’ll only be hiding from non-stealth birds if you stealify a non-stealth ship.
Sabres are a great first case to examine. They are unusual in that they offer two S1 reactors rather than the usual 1. They come with a pair of SonicLite reactors that provide 2,250 power @ and emit 408 EM. One thing I recommend for those wanting to trick out the Sabre is pull both reactors and see how the bird flies with 1 IonBurst (1,796 power/230 EM) as primary, and perhaps a StarHeart (3,250 power/797 EM) as secondary, and leave the secondary off until you need it. Especially if you’re flying ballistics, you may greatly improve the stealth qualities of your Sabre this way, and if you need the second reactor, you will actually have more power available than the stock bird. You may prefer to go to ballistics like the Mantis, since the Mantis requires less than half the power of the Panthers and emits one sixth the EM signature on standby. This is a good choice to optimize EM stealth. Try using other reactors than the StarHeart and see if your shields refresh quickly enough with whatever weapons you choose.
Almost all ships have 2 coolers. There’s no detail yet as to which are better in this or that—they all produce 18 EM. Whatever CIG does with coolers, if you have something like a Sabre where you can switch off 1 of 2 reactors, try flying with 1 of the Coolers off when your second reactor is off.
So what of the numbers? According to the Hardpoint calculator, the standard Sabre in super-stealth has an EM sig of 633, and with the changes I describe, only 440. Furthermore, a tricked out Sabre with 4 Mantises busy firing and 3 beasty Forcewall shields recharging, requires 2,017 power. You can easily get that from a pair of IonBurst reactors. So it does appear the Sabre will fly just fine and offer greatly enhanced stealth, if you swap the guns, reactors and put in the biggest shields, but we still need to test this since the thruster data is not enabled in the Hardpoint calculator.
It looks like you can get hugely improved stealth, shields and DPS with these kinds of changes, without sacrificing maneuverability nor speed. It does mean you have to practice trigger control so you don’t run out of ammo, but the Mantis does 10% more damage than the Panthers, more of that penetrates shields, and the shots fly about 20% faster so you’ll hit more often too.
Yeah, yeah, someone will say it’s too early to do analysis since everything will change—but hey, the fact everything will be different in two years does not mean you should fly the ship you have today without as much optimization as you can get. What I learned is the Sabre actually has astonishing stealth ability. It's no small advantage. I thought it was like the F35, but it is much more like an F22. I want a Sabre now!
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