Vector movement

Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires – William Shakespeare, Macbeth

We’re deep in space. Corner of no and where. You take extra care. ‘Cause we’re very much alone out here – Captain Malcolm, Firefly

In art and dream may you proceed with abandon. In life may you proceed with balance and stealth – Patti Smith

Intercept have four sensor types and five types of scans (Optical sensors can scan using Visual or IR). Each scan type in Intercept (Visual, IR, Radar, Neutrino and Mass) have their own strengths and weaknesses. To get a basic a basic understanding of how the different types actually work you should read Sensors part 1.

Visual

Location

Stay in the shadow columns of planets and asteroids or stay directly north of your target forcing him to scan with Sunglare. Have planets block the enemy scans of you if you know their location.

In shadow columns the Sun factor is 0 instead of the typical +6 but if your enemy is clever he will scan specifically in the shadow column using IR so, if approaching via the shadow column take your time and drift in with power off.

Approaching from the sun is another way of avoiding detection. Forcing your opponent to scan with Sunglare reduces his scan with the Sunfactor, typically by 6.

Self
Avoid thrusting unless absolutely necessary, drift instead.

Don’t thrust, specially if you have fission or fusion thrusters with their huge signatures, but even impulse or floater drives normally give off the same signature as your hull in sunshine.

IR

Location
Approach from the sun and force the opponent to scan with Sunglare. Use fission or fusion thrusters as little as possible. Have planets block the enemy scans of you if you know their location.

Just as for Visual scans approaching from the sun will force your opponent to scan with Sunglare and IR scans too subtract Sunfactor from the scan, typically 6. This is your only option, the shadow column won’t help your IR signature at all.

Self
Turn off the powerplant using Silent running. Use fission or fusion thrusters as little as possible.

Silent running reduce every signature of yours except Visual. Your ship would only have IR(Hull) for IR, typically with the same low strength as your hull in shadows. Don’t use fusion and fission thrusters except when absolutely necessary, impulse and floaters are fine but you need to have the powerplant running to use them of course. Keep in mind that if your powerplant is off you need to power it up using your repair crew which on larger vessels can take a turn.

Radar

Location
Have the planet block radar scans. Keep distance to the enemy.

Radar is rarely used except when the enemy knows they are detected. Try to keep distance to your enemy as radar falls off much faster than other sensors by range. Radar is unaffected by Sunglare so coming from the sun won’t help you.

Self
Pop in to reduce signature. Works on any ship except Open frame ships.

Popping in will reduce the radar signature of your ship by 6 on all ships except open frame hulls whose signatures are unaffected by popping in. Note that if you pop in you can no longer scan (except with neutrino or mass sensor), you will also lose any tracks you have (once again except if you track using neutrino mass sensors) and finally you will lose any launched missiles, drifting decoys remain however.

Neutrino

Location
Stay north of the enemy forcing him to scan with Sunglare. Neutrino sensors are always subject to Sunglare, even when in planetary shadow.

Coming from the sun forces your opponent to scan with Sunglare. Sunglare reduces the scan by Sunfactor, typically subtracting 6 from the Scan. As neutrinos can travel straight through a planet Sunglare affects scans even when a planet would normally block (sun column, shadow column questions are ignored for neutrino scans).

Self
Turn off your powerplant using Silent running. This works with both fission and fusion reactors. Use fission and fusion thrusters as little as possible.

Neutrinos are only given off in detectable quantities from fission or fusion reactors and fission or fusion thrusters. So, turn off your powerplant using silent running and don’t use your fission and fusion thrusters. With these off your ship has no Neutrino signature at all and thus no chance of detection from neutrino scans whatsoever.

Mass

Location
Stay away from known mass sensors, their falloff is as bad as radar so range alone might save you. Coming from the sun has no effect on mass scans, they ignore Sunglare.

Mass sensors fall off much faster than regular sensors because they rely on tidal force rather than gravity directly. Try to stay away from known mass sensors is about all you can do.

Self
Don’t use Impulse, Grav or Floater thrusters needlessly, fission and fusion thrusters work fine. Turn off floor field when drifting.

Thrusting using Impulse or Floater give off huge signatures, on par with fission or fusion thrusters for Visual and IR scans. Use them only when you absolutely must. Fission or fusion thrusters are actually fine and won’t show up on mass scans. When you are not thrusting your strongest signature comes from your floor field, turn it off when drifting. Your ship have a mass signature like a ship in sunshine when the floorfield is on and like a ship in shadow when the floorfield is off.

That’s all folks, stay cold, dark and inert.

This entry was posted on September 25, 2018 at 20:24 and is filed under Intercept, Rules. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.