Radar Jammers

[Avior]

Do you actually use them?

[this_is_your_life]

My whole bactrian fleet is equipped with them... But they are sold with them so that's why.
Right now there is little reason to use them. Game needs more illegal goods and outfits.

[JanaSzar]

Nope.

Either I have Anti-Missile to cover all types of missiles, I have a fleet large enough to act as a buffer/something would still get hit, or I'm equipped with enough Shield/Hull regen to not worry about it.

Still a bit spotty on how it actually works as well... But that's a thing I can look up.

[✦✧iNSaNiTY✧✦]

I see no point in using them as the only thing they could consistently be any use against if at all would be meteor missiles. But I have not done any testing at all so they may or may not be as bad as I think they are.

[rob59er]

if i have some random outfit space then maybe
but really no

[toilethinges]

Never.

[Anima]

kinda sad that the tracking types were introduced, and nobody uses the countermeasure added to help against them. There is little reason to keep them around when they are so situational. To add to that, we have generic AM which does the job of the jammer and blocks the other two types with good efficiency too. There aren't enough missile varieties in the game (and thats saying something) to warrant always having such a device.

Edit: I would like to note though, it would be interesting in the reconciliation line of the FW story because Nukes use Radar tracking.

[Avior]

Originally posted by Kryes.flif:

Edit: I would like to note though, it would be interesting in the reconciliation line of the FW story because Nukes use Radar tracking.

It also has 100% optical tracking.

void Projectile::CheckLock(const Ship &target)
{
	double base = hasLock ? 1. : .5;
	hasLock = false;
	...
	if(weapon->OpticalTracking())
	{
		double weight = target.Mass() * target.Mass();
		double probability = weapon->OpticalTracking() * weight / (200000. + weight);
		hasLock |= Check(probability, base);
	}
	...
}

Now, I have no clue what any of that means, but a coder can come figure it out.

[Anima]

Originally posted by Avior:

Originally posted by Kryes.flif:

Edit: I would like to note though, it would be interesting in the reconciliation line of the FW story because Nukes use Radar tracking.

It also has 100% optical tracking.

void Projectile::CheckLock(const Ship &target)
{
	double base = hasLock ? 1. : .5;
	hasLock = false;
	...
	if(weapon->OpticalTracking())
	{
		double weight = target.Mass() * target.Mass();
		double probability = weapon->OpticalTracking() * weight / (200000. + weight);
		hasLock |= Check(probability, base);
	}
	...
}

Now, I have no clue what any of that means, but a coder can come figure it out.

It means that the larger the ship (by mass) the better the nuke's tracking. Small ships with radar jamming have a good chance to dodge or disable nukes.

[JanaSzar]

It seems it effectively caps out at ~98% chance to hit with >=3100 total mass and 100% optical. But for the low end, 100 mass means ~5%, 200 mass is ~16.7%, 500 mass is ~65%. So you need to be in something really small.
But since the missile is still live, if it hits anything else, such as a fleetmate, you better be out of the radius or else you pop.

[22144418]

i use them!

only to fill my outfit space

they should make secondary weapons more versatile somehow

[malakhglitch]

I usually sell them off and favor adding a second anti-missle if off to fight ships with missle loads, like the Korath automatons.

[this_is_your_life]

I just realized Radar Jammers does not have "scan interference" attribute. Ouch.
But they definitely should!

[Anima]

Originally posted by this_is_your_life:

I just realized Radar Jammers does not have "scan interference" attribute. Ouch.
But they definitely should!

that would be an interesting addition, although I doubt the scanners work by radar...

[tehhowch]

EM interference is EM interference...

It's worth a Feature Request discussion on GitHub if the math for a few common ships vs a few common missiles is included (obviously only for relevant situations such as navy pirate, fw, and syndicate interactions).
Plating should probably be 5-10x more effective than a broad spectrum jammer, as it is specially designed for scanner frequencies and not target locking frequencies.

[Division By Zero]

You''re aware it's just your EM signature that's hidden, right? Works fine until someone looks out a window.

Antimissile turrets largely obsolete anti-tracking countermeasures, especially on large ships. Even worse, anti-tracking doesn't stop unguided rockets.

Considering smaller ships are harder to track, it might be worth putting anti-tracking on fighters and small warships lacking turret slots. Outside of that, just use antimissile turrets.