8 replies to this topic

[Oldbob10025]

Can anyone explain in detail or show me a link or wiki about the sensors in this game.. Been working on a video and want to get everything right.I cant find anything from PGI about how the sensors really work and what it really does.

Thanks

[Void Angel]

Hrm... There's a lot of minutae about sensors, so bear with me here; I'll be as accurate as memory allows, but while I'm totally sure of the broad strokes, some of the minutae is fuzzy. Some of the really, really old patch notes aren't available on the web page any more - like the original release of ECM. Sadness, but I shall soldier on. It might be a good idea to test what I'm telling you on the Testing Grounds, regardless.

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BASICS:
Sensor range, by default, is 800m. This is the range where you can see triangles and hit your R key (by default) to select an enemy as your primary target. Anything that increases that sensor range is based on this number; multiple bonuses are additive, not multiplicative. So, if you have an Advanced Sensor Range module and a Beagle Active Probe, your total range is 1200m, not 1250. Whenever your sensors see an enemy, its icon is placed on the minimap and you will see an inverted triangle over the enemy 'mech on your HUD.

It's vitally important to note that sensors in MWO are line-of sight, and front-facing. An enemy can be standing right behind you, strung up with Christmas lights and blasting heavy metal, and you won't be able to see him on your minimap. Play with the sound on. If an enemy 'mech moves out of the line of sight of your entire team, after a short period of time (2.0 seconds) you will lose sensor contact. That 'mech is still your primary target, and will immediately pop back up on your screen if it is spotted again - unless of course you select another target in the mean while.

Currently, the only system that reduces sensor range is the Guardian ECM suite. ECM reduces your effective sensor range for any 'mechs within 90m of the equipped 'mech to 25% of your total range - i.e. it doesn't work on the base range of 800m. ECM also increases target information times, as well as increasing the time to lock on and disrupting target information sharing within its area of effect. Thus, a 'mech with only the standard sensors will be able to detect and lock on to an ECM-shielded 'mech from 200m out - while a 'mech with both a Beagle and the Advanced Sensor Range module will be able to see the 'mech from 300m away. Streakboats take note.

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TARGET INFORMATION AND LOCK-ON:

When you select a primary target (hitting R, by default,) your sensor suite begins the process of target idenfification and analysis. The first level is the 'mech's chassis/variant; after this is its loadout information, and specific damaged locations. Certain pieces of gear, such as the Beagle Active Probe or Target Information module, will increase the speed at which this information is uncovered by your 'mech's computers - this can be quite important for anyone (from a brawler to a scout) who wants to quickly identify enemy threats or target weak points efficiently. It is important to note that while UAVs do allow your team to target and lock on enemies, they do not relay advanced information.

An important point about information sharing is that all of your sensor information, including enemy locations on the minimap (and battle map, for that matter,) are shared with your team as well - unless you are affected by a hostile ECM system. You are still able to select a shared target as your primary, and to lock onto them - though Artemis should only work if you have line of sight (this might still be bugged.)

Locking onto a target requires you to select it as your primary target, but is itself a separate mechanic. If you are not using LRMs or Streaks, your 'mech cannot lock on, nor does it need to. In order to acquire and hold a sensor lock, you must keep your arm reticle centered on the enemy 'mech; there's no direct line of sight, but you have to keep it on the 'mech's body (this isn't difficult.) If you have any lock-on weapons, you will see a circular lock indicator that compresses inward as the lock is acquired - once you are locked, you'll recieve a visual and audio cue. If you lose sensor contact, you will lose the lock, and will need to re-acquire it; similarly, the lock's progress will reverse quickly (or become lost) if you cannot keep your reticule trained on the enemy.

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That's about all I can think of right now without doing more forum research than I have time for to shore up my memory - feel free to hit me up with any questions you may have.

Edited by Void Angel, 19 August 2016 - 10:53 AM.

[Lorcryst NySell]

Very nice write-up.

One thing though, and I might be wrong about that : I did several test sessions in the Testing Grounds, and I think that the base sensor range is 750m instead of 800m ... I could lock a 'mech 750m away with direct line of sight, but as soon as I backed away 10m I lost the lock.

As I said, I might be wrong though.

A bit of math : Beagle Active Probe (or Clan Probe) adds 25% to your base sensor range, the Command Console adds 6% for Inner Sphere 'mechs while the best and biggest Targeting Computer (Mk VII) for Clan 'mechs adds 7.5%.

Meaning that the maximum bonus to sensor range you can get without Modules is 31%, for a max sensor range of 1048m (800m base).

With the Advance Sensor Range skill at level 1 you get another 15% range bonus, and at level 2 (max) you can get up to 25% range bonus with the Module equiped, for a grand total of 56% sensor range bonus for IS 'mechs and 57.5% for Clan 'mechs.

Grand total with all the skills, equipment and modules, on a base sensor range of 800m : 1248m for IS 'mechs and 1260m for Clan 'mechs.

EDIT : I was wrong, further testing yielded a different result, base sensor range is indeed 800m.
EDIT 2 : I was wrong on the sensor range boost of the Clan Targeting Comps too.

Edited by Lorcryst NySell, 21 August 2016 - 12:31 AM.

[Void Angel]

Yeah, it's 800m base range - the final range of 1248m is correct. The Command Console, however, is very much a poor man's Targeting Computer III, and I never use it except to round out a build that didn't have enough space to fit the three tons - It's a Fun Build, though.

Edited by Void Angel, 20 August 2016 - 09:57 PM.

[Oldbob10025]

Thank you Void Angel,

Why they dont make a up to date wiki is beyond me about the Electronic warfare about this game.. With the new cyclops coming out soon with a +150% range should be interesting with bap,sensor range modules etc... so we shall see as I love playing support mechs in MWO..

Thank you so much and keep it up my friend

[Lorcryst NySell]

A couple of edits of my previous post, I was wrong on a couple of points, and did some beautyfication too.

[Oldbob10025]

Lorcryst NySell, on 21 August 2016 - 12:31 AM, said:

A couple of edits of my previous post, I was wrong on a couple of points, and did some beautyfication too.

To the slave pits of Kurita with you... you did fine my friend and thank you

[Koniving]

Lorcryst NySell, on 20 August 2016 - 09:16 PM, said:

EDIT : I was wrong, further testing yielded a different result, base sensor range is indeed 800m.
EDIT 2 : I was wrong on the sensor range boost of the Clan Targeting Comps too.

Note: On certain (okay, all maps but not as obvious on most), there are 'invisible' walls and obstacles that can cause you to fail to get reads. These are usually corners to buildings, edges of pillars, things of that nature. More complex "natural" formations such as Tourmaline's huge ....rock things?... will have all sorts of issues.

This is because the server side renders nothing in 3D, and keeps them as "numbers." To simplify and speed up things, these numbers that define the shapes and barriers of objects are divided by a number (we'll use 4) and then forced to a multiple of 8 compared to the actual polygons used ob the objects. So something with 300 polygons only uses 75 polygons, bumped to the nearest multiple of 8 so 72 polygons and this becomes the collision box. Gotta simplify things quite a bit when you do that. This means things aren't nearly as 'round' or as 'shapely' as you might see them.

A prime example are the ship parts in Tourmaline Desert. The ones that make large walls. Some spots you can shoot through and most spots despite clear spaces... you can't.

These invisible walls will mess with testing.
Also consider: You can use a TAG to locate and examine these "walls." PGI calls them collision boxes. Enjoy, you might find out what was the real problem with "poptarting" in very short order; it had nothing to do with jumping and shooting from cover... but abusing these collision boxes to see things before jumping and be invincible while doing so.

[Void Angel]

The server-side compression is also why lowering your terrain detail can cause issues - higher detail settings will yield the closest correlation to the actual server-side map.