Returning player thoughts on Radar Dampening etc.

[chemical_art]

Fortresses and Mod Forts (but it's 30k range)
- This isn't really even normal radar dampening because the range is so enormous.  It was added by request, I'm not entirely sure why

[Prepares self-defense]

The reason why it was proposed was right around the time forts became immune to blades . It was to prevent ultra-long range units from wiping forts with no thought whatsoever.

On the player-side, I proposed it so that when an AI ultra-long range units(Sentinel frigates, etc) wave pops through a wormhole, my fort which is 40K units away doesn't eat that alpha and leave a very, very nasty bill in my game. There was no way to counter that if the AI decided that their whole AI Wave targeted my fort.

On the AI side, it prevents a player from sitting on a wormhole and capping a fort in a similar situation. Part of why forts are immune to blades was a player could sit with blade spawners and camp to kill them, and the same is true for ultra-long range units. It is true that AI forts have a range smaller then their dampening, but their superforts are like player forts and that causes all sorts of !fun! in attacking them. If you wanted to make AI forts follow the same idea as player ones though, you could make forts across the board have 19.5k dampening.

[snelg]

Is there a list...?

Keith's post just four posts above yours?

You probably misread the question, he's asking if there's a list of units with radar dampening immunity.
I guess the bladespawners count as kind of immune with the blades (as long as they don't get shot down).

[chemical_art]

Is there a list...?

Keith's post just four posts above yours?

I guess the bladespawners count as kind of immune with the blades (as long as they don't get shot down).

Sort of. However, blade immunity shuts them down.  Since the weapon type is limited, some units have it intentionally to shut blade spawners down.

[TechSY730]

I'm actually in defense of the current fortress radar dampening setups it's long enough such that artillery can still do their "thing" outside the range of the fort, but is just enough to force them to get close enough such that the other defenders on the system have a hope of dealing with them in time. (This helps improve the dynamic in both AI fighting human defenses and humans fighting AI defenses)

[Bognor]

... There was no way to counter that if the AI decided that their whole AI Wave targeted my fort. ...

Actually Sentinel Frigates are completely countered by anti-sniper measures such as Scout Starships.  I don't think the ship descriptions make this clear.  Zenith Bombards, though, yeah.

[Vacuity]

You probably misread the question,

You're quite right, I did.  Sorry about that.  As far as I know it's just artillery golems and the various ships that spawn drones of one kind or another get around the problem by having the drones fly into range in their stead.

[Bognor]

You probably misread the question,

You're quite right, I did.  Sorry about that.  As far as I know it's just artillery golems and the various ships that spawn drones of one kind or another get around the problem by having the drones fly into range in their stead.

Sniper Turrets also ignore radar dampening.  At least, they did before the turret re-balancing.  But I guess you were after mobile ships.

[snelg]

I'm actually in defense of the current fortress radar dampening setups it's long enough such that artillery can still do their "thing" outside the range of the fort, but is just enough to force them to get close enough such that the other defenders on the system have a hope of dealing with them in time. (This helps improve the dynamic in both AI fighting human defenses and humans fighting AI defenses)

I don't really mind it either, it's really large so you still feel there's a difference in what ships you send there. Rather than all of them having to go all the way up to it to damage it. And ships with very long range can still siege it without taking damage (from the fortress). It also prevents the quick peek out of a wormhole and sniping it without actually spending some time moving around the planet a bit.

If you can outrange it you won't have to worry as much about how close you have to get (somewhere a bit outside the fortress range) since it won't be murdering all your ships while you hope they won't get close enough to that MLRS guard post.

I'm not sure if the same thing would work on guard posts, since you're supposed to have to fight them. But a radar dampening range close to their attack range would go a long way in helping me estimate how close I have to get.

[Vacuity]

Sniper Turrets also ignore radar dampening.  At least, they did before the turret re-balancing.

Sadly not any more; my sniper turrets are completely failing to do anything about hostile Neinzul Enclave starships that enter their system.  It's a little frustrating, but I have mobile space docks and younglings to act as a "mobile reserve".  It's a little micro-intensive, but it certainly works and works quite well.

[chemical_art]

... There was no way to counter that if the AI decided that their whole AI Wave targeted my fort. ...

Actually Sentinel Frigates are completely countered by anti-sniper measures such as Scout Starships.  I don't think the ship descriptions make this clear.  Zenith Bombards, though, yeah.

Didn't realize that (the descriptions for anti-sniper defenses are garbage, by the way).

Still RD forces snipers to enter non-sniper range to wear down the forts, which was the goal. The goal wasn't to make them immune to snipers, just nerf them. If there was a method to make blade spawners have to enter close range, I'd say remove forts blade immunity. Sadly I can't think of one that is clean, so the immunity remains.

[TechSY730]

Aw man. Sniper turrets lost RD immunity? That wasn't in the patch notes.

Well, since that was my number #2 reason for using them, I'm probably going to be using them a whole let less now, and pretty much never unlocking spider turrets now except for fallen spire.

I guess it does make you think about positioning now if you want then to counter raid starships.

[keith.lamothe]

Sniper turrets still have the immune-to-RD flag.

Full list:

Ion Cannons
Core Warhead Interceptors
Orbital Mass Drivers
Counter Spies
Ion Eyes
Parasite Eyes
Translocator Eyes
Plasma Eyes
Spire Capital Ship and Spire City Rail Cannons
Artillery Golems
Translocator Command Stations
Sniper/Spider Turrets
Military Command Stations

[Vacuity]

Sniper turrets still have the immune-to-RD flag.

Huh?  Then why can't they shoot the Neinzul Enclave starships in my current game?  They shoot their younglings just fine, but never the starships.

Something's not right here...

[Tridus]

According to the wiki, Enclave Starships are immune to Sniper Shots.

[keith.lamothe]

According to the wiki, Enclave Starships are immune to Sniper Shots.

What a tangled web (of immunities) we weave.