How do signature radius and cloaking work?
Turrets track based on your signature radius, so a smaller signature is harder to hit.
Your signature grows in flight with heat in the reactor, each shot you fire, any throttle above zero, and a SCRAM (+1,500). A ship coasting cold with its guns silent is hardest to track.
- Shrink it: Dampening Baffle (-14%), Ghost Rack (-16%), Echo Array (-10%).
- Grows it: a Mining Laser (+20%), or an enemy Target Painter on you (+200%).
- Signature doesn't affect missiles or mines, or how far away you're detected.
Detection is separate:
- Everyone sees up to 10 km. Within their own sensor range (usually 4–6 km) they also see details.
- Outside someone's sensor range you show as an orange dot. A Cloak hides even that from enemies.
- Missiles can't track cloaked ships.
- Sensor range beyond 10 km gives no benefit for now.
- The system is still being refined.