Space Combat - Did I miss something?

[Anstett]

Over on Fantasy Grounds someone is building an extension to try to automate Sensors for Starship Combat.

I have added sensor operator to the list of roles and wired up the sensor scanning of ships (visible or not) on the combat tracker. I've made a field visible on the ship record to allow the referee to set a sensor ID so that the crew can have an empty combat tracker, then the sensor operator selects active or passive sensors and scans for contacts. The list of detected contacts will appear if the difficulty set by the DM is met.

To assist with the sensors, a new selection of Spacecraft effect have been added to the effects control. Please refer to the core rulebook and high guard sections on sensor use, there is a lot to take into account. At the moment the difference between the TL of the scanning ship and target ship is a DM, the class of sensor (basic, civilian etc) also has a DM. If the target ship has an active manoeuvre drive, transponder or has used active sensors the appropriate Effect should be added to the ship on the combat tracker prior to the sensor operator pressing 'Scan'. The list of contacts with detection detail at range will be displayed. I'm repeating the data at the moment, but hope to have something in the future that if a map is set with appropriate ranges, I'll be able to highlight the range the contact is in.
The sensor operator will be able to 'lock on' to a contact which will add an effect to the combat tracker that grants the ship that locked on a +2DM. This effect will not expire until removed by the Referee if he deems the NPC ship has succeeded its electronic warfare roll.

The engineering integration to the power system has also been partially updated so that if sensors are not powered, the sensor operator won't be able to scan or lock on to contacts.

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[ProfGrizzlyJon]

We could just start using the 2300AD rules for heat:

Heat​

Every component in a ship generates heat, from the power plant to the electronics, weapons and even the crew. This heat must be disposed of.​

Heat is a major limiting factor for military starships in 2300AD, although it rarely has an appreciable impact on civilian craft, save in combat situations.​

The vacuum of space is neither hot nor cold. Rather, it is a near-perfect insulator. The heat generated by a spacecraft’s systems can only​

escape the ship using radiators, typically large, wing-like panels on a ship’s engineering section and habitation areas. Heat from the ship’s​

systems is transferred to the radiators, where it slowly bleeds out into space.​

Further information on heat can be found in the Aerospace Engineer’s Handbook, in the Advanced Combat Rules chapter.​

Oddly enough, they integrate extremely well with Traveller...
I'd almost say that @Geir should integrate them as "Optional- Harder Sci-fi" expansion in this High Guard Update/Rules Compendium we keep hearing about.

 

[rinku]

It's worth remembering too that objects in space usually have half of their surface lit up by the star, and the reflected light from the sun side usually outstrips the thermal emissions if it's in view.

 

[Sigtrygg]

True for a spaceship with a 5kW power system, not so true for a ship with a 5TW power system.

 

[rinku]

Depends on where you position the heat sinks for said power system and how hot you're running it at the moment.

A ship that's ACTIVELY trying to look like space junk has options.

Actually... probably the easiest way to stealth would be to deploy a suitable shield between the ship and the direction you expect to be detected from. It would slowly heat up from the radiated heat from the ship, but the ship side surface could be thermally reflective to minimise that. And the ship would be trying to minimise its emissions in the shieldwise direction.

Distance would help too. The masking shield most likely just has to eclipse the general direction of the mainworld. The ship trying to hide just has to station keep so that the shield is between it and the point of interest... it might be able to be quite some distance away from the shield, especially if the point of interest is a long way away.

And... it does occur to me that the simplest way to stealth jump into a system (depending on angles and local surveillance capacity) is probably to do so to the far side of a massive body. Opposite side of the star would be simplest, but odds are good that there's some satellite or other already positioned to notice that. Otherwise, a distant Gas Giant - especially if there are more convenient ones to use in system. Those might be monitored too, sure, but it moves the story from "everyone can detect everything" to "sneaking into the heavily monitored compound" zone.