Detection on Spinblocks?

[XIII]

Short question, is detection on spinblocks just as capable as static detection?

[Sabertoothproton]

Yes and it can also see through the hull unobstructed (Kinda cheaty)

[XIII]

Originally posted by sabertoothproton:

Yes and it can also see through the hull unobstructed (Kinda cheaty)

Ah thanks, that's all I needed to know. Not really woried about the hull, I'm building realistic ships right now and the radar/detection turret thingies atop the superstructure are a pretty good place to put detectoin.

[R1tzo]

Originally posted by XIII:

Ah thanks, that's all I needed to know. Not really woried about the hull, I'm building realistic ships right now and the radar/detection turret thingies atop the superstructure are a pretty good place to put detectoin.

These are called fire directors, and it works with pistons too.

[FourGreenFields]

Note on the cheaty detection inside the hull: To my knowledge, trackers don't work like that. They need actual line-of-sight (and will get blocked by the hull because of that). Only works with detectors.

[Rattler]

Originally posted by rotgtie:

The superior option in my opinion is to just offboard your detection to a drone or a standalone satellite with an intra-vehicle transmitter, but I can see that being not really an option in a realistic design.

I wouldnt say its unrealistic. Depending on the time many (Battle-) ships had one or two reconnaissance planes on board, which they could launch via a sling shoot. (Yamato as example)

Of course they didnt use them in combat, but they were still there.

[XIII]

Btw, since we got so many experienced players in the thread, what kind of detection do you usually use?

I'm generally going for camera tracker/radar tracker/laser. Sometimes retroreflection. Seems to have the best stats, although I'm not sure why I've started using laser.

Originally posted by rotgtie:

Putting detectors and trackers on a turret is a great way to get them as far from the vulnerable parts of the hull as possible, while also giving a good vantage point and minimizing the actual number of detection devices you need.

One thing to be aware of is that the Coincidence Rangefinders can be used as AI connectors in addition to their detection and tracking abilities. This means you can put a 360 detector directly on top of the rangefinder, then connect a wireless receiver to the rangefinder and both of the devices will be connected to the AI. I don't think this works with the armored rangefinders, but the standard ones can do this.

The superior option in my opinion is to just offboard your detection to a drone or a standalone satellite with an intra-vehicle transmitter, but I can see that being not really an option in a realistic design. You can also use the cheaty spinblock method to have a "real" detection suite inside your hull while on the outer visible parts of your ship you use non-functional components to build things that look like radars or scopes but don't actually do anything.

Interesting points. A drone or recon aircraft would make a lot of sense in a historical context, although I'd be worried that the AI would just shoot down that plane^^

That said, when I'm building ships with full superstructures, which is obviously quite excessive with the more realistic ships, I basically never lose detection. The enemy aiming at ammo and AI makes it extremly predictable, and rockets rarely hit the upper structures.

With the Baltimore class cruiser I'm using right now, they also got each two large fire directors both at the front and back super structure, so they're even less vulnerable. Not to mention each of the turrets got detectors, and then there is sonar below the ship... And I'm also going to add sonar/radar decoys, which are yet another possible detector.

[FourGreenFields]

Originally posted by XIII:

A drone or recon aircraft would make a lot of sense in a historical context, although I'd be worried that the AI would just shoot down that plane^^

Make it small, slow, low-flying, and unarmed. Chances of getting targeted are very low then.

Still add some detection on the main craft though, in case it does get downed.

Originally posted by XIII:

Btw, since we got so many experienced players in the thread, what kind of detection do you usually use?

Visual for initial detection. 90° cameras will detect allmost anything at allmost any range, and even 360° cameras work fine, against any but the smallest craft.
For missile-boats, visual detection may allready be sufficient.

Radar as general-purpose. Also, the 90° radar fits nicely into the hull, which is an advantage if going for looks. I often add a rangefinder to a turret, which also fills the same niche.
For smaller ships, I'll often leave it at that.

Laser-tracker for range-accuracy. Never without radar though, as all trackers (including radar-trackers) can be stopped by smoke.

IR-trackers for fast fliers. Too short-ranged for cold craft, but has good ping-rate.

Sonar more or less the same as radar, but it's optiona until you meet submarines.

[XIII]

Originally posted by FourGreenFields:

Make it small, slow, low-flying, and unarmed. Chances of getting targeted are very low then.

Still add some detection on the main craft though, in case it does get downed.

Considering we're talking about crafts that are so extravagant that they use recon planes, the redundant detection is basically a given :D

Visual for initial detection. 90° cameras will detect allmost anything at allmost any range, and even 360° cameras work fine, against any but the smallest craft.
For missile-boats, visual detection may allready be sufficient.

Radar as general-purpose. Also, the 90° radar fits nicely into the hull, which is an advantage if going for looks. I often add a rangefinder to a turret, which also fills the same niche.
For smaller ships, I'll often leave it at that.

Laser-tracker for range-accuracy. Never without radar though, as all trackers (including radar-trackers) can be stopped by smoke.

IR-trackers for fast fliers. Too short-ranged for cold craft, but has good ping-rate.

Sonar more or less the same as radar, but it's optiona until you meet submarines.

Interesting!

Do you manually set up the detection systems, or is automatic for the individual systems enough?
And more interestingly, is it possible/viable to have multiple AIs use different detection systems? I'm already starting to use different AIs to control slow/fast guns with different target priorities, I wonder if it's useful to give them seperate detection systems.

(sorry for the mountain of questions, but I know little about the finer optimization)

[Oobaneko]

Well, you can use standalone frame for vessel detection equipment, while cannons could have own detection equipment with same channel as cannon. Also, you can add missle laser targetter on cannons and set targetting for vessel (means, all missle launchers on vessel will receive target from that targetter). You can also make small missle boats without detection equipments that will shoot targets of flagman, if you will turn on "For fleet" on flagman's laser targetter.

[FourGreenFields]

Originally posted by XIII:

Do you manually set up the detection systems, or is automatic for the individual systems enough?

Depends. If the ship relies on missiles, I just use autoadjust. If it relies on cannons (or, even worse, fridge-launchers) I'll adjust myself because I think autoadjust isn't doing a good job (but haven't bothered to test yet).

Originally posted by XIII:

And more interestingly, is it possible/viable to have multiple AIs use different detection systems?

Usefull, but not necessary. Helps make use of the 2 processing power all mainframes have, adds redundancy - and allows for more specific targetting for CIWS (a CIWS-controller only shoots missiles detected by its own mainframe, so if it's hooked up to one without passive sonar it'll ignore torps).

[XIII]

I guess I'll mostly try the dual detection thing, since I got seperate AIs anyway.