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Can we get an explanation of "Sensor Focus"?


Nemarus

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There's no in-game explanation, you're right. However, I seem to recall (from a stream or something) that sensor focus is your sensor range within a 25 degree cone in front of you, or something like that.

 

I'm real specific, I know.

Edited by Armonddd
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I'm still trying to figure out a lot of stuff in regards to sensors. There doesn't really seem to be a lot of discussion on that topic compared to other aspects of GSF.

 

More than a few times I've been guarding a node with a careful eye towards the approach routes and been caught off guard from behind. I haven't figured out yet if behind you is a complete sensor blind spot or if you have limited range in your 4-8 range. LoS plays a part too, sometimes if a ship is behind an asteroid you can almost trip on them before you detect them while other times you see them far out even if an ally isn't near them.

Edited by Kain_Turinbar
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I do think that the "sensor" and "sensor focus" terminology is vague and confusing.

 

I suspect one is about tab-targeting and the other is about red-dots on the radar/map.

 

Going through google, I did find this thread helpful:

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=704642

 

 

In this thread's understanding, "range" and "focus" are additive, as in "You have targetable enemies in all directions within RANGE, on top of that, you see an addtional distance equal to FOCUS in front of your ship"

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So I saw this thread and wanted to see if I could find out for you. I spoke with Jason Attard, one of the senior game designers, and he had this to say:

 

Galactic Starfighter ships have a sensor radius around the ship and a sensor cone in front of the ship. Increasing your focused sensor range increases the length of the cone, while increasing your sensor radius increases the size of the sphere around your ship. Things that refer to "sensor range" generally modify both the cone and the radius.

 

Any hostile ships in your sensor cone or sensor radius will show up in your mini map and HUD. You can also see hostile ships that your allies can sense if your communication radius and the communication radius of your ally overlap.

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The very interesting tidbit here is that communication ranges work BOTH WAYS. So if your comm radius is higher, not only do you communicate the location of enemies your sensors see, but you also RECEIVE communications from further away.

 

This makes communications about twice as useful as I thought they were. Very nice.

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So I saw this thread and wanted to see if I could find out for you. I spoke with Jason Attard, one of the senior game designers, and he had this to say:

 

 

Thank you Tait and Jason! Might I suggest that this information be put into the tutorial help tips for GSF at some point?

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The very interesting tidbit here is that communication ranges work BOTH WAYS. So if your comm radius is higher, not only do you communicate the location of enemies your sensors see, but you also RECEIVE communications from further away.

 

This makes communications about twice as useful as I thought they were. Very nice.

 

Indeed, if your comm range and the comm range of your ally overlap, you can see enemies as far your ally can see. That's neat! A well-placed starfighter with full comm sensors at mid could be quite and asset for enemy spotting for the whole team.

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Indeed, if your comm range and the comm range of your ally overlap, you can see enemies as far your ally can see. That's neat! A well-placed starfighter with full comm sensors at mid could be quite and asset for enemy spotting for the whole team.

 

Yep. I've maxed out comm on some ships and can see turrets at C all the way from A, some 50-60km away.

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Yep. I've maxed out comm on some ships and can see turrets at C all the way from A, some 50-60km away.

 

And I imagine it works like a relay: if I see someone because I am in communication range of somebody who has direct sensors on that target, I imagine that people who are within communication range of MY fighter will also see that target.

 

So ultimately, communication might be one of the best way to beat dampening, so long as someone is close enough to see the dampened target, and in turn communicates it to someone else, who communicates it to others, and so on.

 

Very cool design, if this is the case.

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The very interesting tidbit here is that communication ranges work BOTH WAYS. So if your comm radius is higher, not only do you communicate the location of enemies your sensors see, but you also RECEIVE communications from further away.

 

This makes communications about twice as useful as I thought they were. Very nice.

 

yuh, might be worth playing with the other sensor systems on my scout!

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So I saw this thread and wanted to see if I could find out for you. I spoke with Jason Attard, one of the senior game designers, and he had this to say:

 

 

Thanks for this, had guessed this to be the case originally but nice to have a confirmation :)

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yuh, might be worth playing with the other sensor systems on my scout!

 

Yes, this is the one area the Blackbolt/Novadive takes a superior position over Flashfire/Sting. Unfortunately it's kind of hard to see if it has any notable advantage unless you're in a premade group - probably facing off against another premade. Have even one communications scout puttering around at B with maxed comm, and you can relay information to the entire fleet. Possible bonus if you put sensor beacons down in non visible locations so even out of the way places get caught to watch for incoming attacks well ahead of time.

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Thanks again for the explanation. Before it seemed to not make sense that your choices on the scout were between extending your sensor range but having a poor communication range and extending your communication range and gimping your sensor range. Now it's seems as if there is good/interesting interplay between the options. A comm-maxed scout at mid can really help extend the effective sensor range of teammates.

 

I wonder if they can be daisy chained. Fighter A's comm range overlaps with Fighter B who overlaps with Fighter C. Fighter C and Fighter A do of overlap in this example. Can Fighter A sense ships that Fighter C can see do to the overlapping comms sensors?

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Thanks for the dev info, always appreciated.

 

I wonder if they can be daisy chained.

I'd assumed they can - no reason they couldn't if you're simply communicating positional data. Ive definitely had targets over 50k away.

 

Watch the minimap when you're rushing in from respawn. It will suddenly flood with red dots as you get in comm range of allies, and you receive all their info on enemy locations. Minimap tells you where all your friendly ships are, but only shows enemies that can be seen by someone you're in contact with (I assume even through daisychain, or you couldn't see them all the way across the map).

 

The very interesting tidbit here is that communication ranges work BOTH WAYS.

Additionally, friendly ships don't have to be in your comm radius, your comm radii only have to overlap. Makes it much easier to keep contact with people because of the much greater area a contact can be in. Also makes comm increases more powerful.

 

The sensor focus aspect means it's worth pointing where you think enemies will come from, but also "sweeping" a bit.

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It's great knowing what the functional difference between Sensor Focus and Sensor Range is. Might I suggest though that the range of the Sensor Focus cone get it's own value on the ship stat sheet? Right now I believe it only shows the sensor radius value so it's a mystery what the focus cone's range is. For companions that have passives to boost both radius and range having stats that show both the radius and cone ranges would justify taking them for those passives.

 

Assuming that the focus cone range is longer than the radius range actually seeing what the ranges are would help justify taking a companion with a buff to focus rather than radius.

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