Turret mechanics: Difference between revisions

Line 28:

==Tracking==

{{update|Tracking (in rad/s) has been replaced with a "Weapon Accuracy score", which is a mixture of tracking and signature resolution. While the principles remain the same, the in-game numbers are different.}}

If you 'show info' on any turret you will find it has a figure for tracking speed in its list of attributes, measured in 'rad/sec', radians per second. This tracking speed measures the maximum speed that the turret can turn as it tries to track your target.

The smaller a turret is, the faster its tracking speed will be: small autocannon, for example, track faster than medium autocannon. Short-ranged varieties of turret have better tracking than their long-ranged counterparts -- so, for example, medium pulse lasers track faster than medium beam lasers and large blasters track faster than large railguns.

[[File:QSM_track_on.gif‎‎|frame|left|alt=turret tracking fast enough to hit target|Tracking speed matches angular velocity]]

In chance-to-hit calculations, your guns' tracking speed is compared against your target's angular velocity~~, which is also measured in radians per second~~. Angular velocity is a geometric concept to do with radii of circles, but it can be hard to visualise. One way to think about it is to imagine that your screen's point of view in Eve is looking out above the barrels of your turret as it looks at your target -- a turret's-eye-view, so to speak. If your target was moving quickly across your turret's point-of-view, it would have a high angular velocity, and if it was moving slowly across your turret's point-of-view it would have a low angular velocity.

In chance-to-hit calculations, your guns' tracking speed is compared against your target's angular velocity and signature radius. Angular velocity is a geometric concept to do with radii of circles, but it can be hard to visualise. One way to think about it is to imagine that your screen's point of view in Eve is looking out above the barrels of your turret as it looks at your target -- a turret's-eye-view, so to speak. If your target was moving quickly across your turret's point-of-view, it would have a high angular velocity, and if it was moving slowly across your turret's point-of-view it would have a low angular velocity.

[[File:QST_track_slow.gif|frame|alt=turret tracking too slow for orbiting target|Tracking speed too slow for angular velocity‎ ]]

The ratio of ~~your guns' tracking speed to~~ your target's angular velocity is what's important. If their angular velocity is high, the ratio will be high, and you're very unlikely to hit them. If your target's angular velocity is below your guns' tracking speed, your chance to hit increases above the baseline. If your target's angular velocity is very much lower than your guns' tracking speed, you will have a very good chance to hit.

The ratio of your target's angular velocity to your guns' tracking speed is what's important. If their angular velocity is high, the ratio will be high, and you're very unlikely to hit them.

The speed at which a target moves across a turret's field of view doesn't depend only on the target's real velocity. The direction the target's moving in relative to the ship firing at it matters too: a ship that burns straight towards you could be quite easy to hit, regardless of its speed, because it's not moving very fast across your turrets' point-of-view. Range also affects angular velocity: a target orbiting you at 400m/s at a range of 7,000m has a much higher angular velocity than a target orbiting you at 400m/s at a range of 30km.

Note that the actual [[Turret Damage|mathematics of tracking]] make use of several formulae, and there can be quite a bit more involved than the basic summary here. Angular velocity itself depends on the ratio of transversal velocity and range (it's to do with the geometry of circles and radii) -- but it's easier to think about angular velocity since measurements of it in radians per second relate easily to the figures for gun tracking speed ~~which are also in radians per second (ie, they have the same units)~~. Mathematically, we can talk of substituing the formulae into each other, so our ratio of angular/tracking becomes transversal / (range * tracking). You can find a brief explanation of the differences between angular and transversal velocity [[Overview Guide#The Columns Tab|here]] within our overview guide.

Note that the actual [[Turret Damage|mathematics of tracking]] make use of several formulae, and there can be quite a bit more involved than the basic summary here. Angular velocity itself depends on the ratio of transversal velocity and range (it's to do with the geometry of circles and radii) -- but it's easier to think about angular velocity since measurements of it in radians per second relate easily to the figures for gun tracking speed. Mathematically, we can talk of substituing the formulae into each other, so our ratio of angular/tracking becomes transversal / (range * tracking). You can find a brief explanation of the differences between angular and transversal velocity [[Overview Guide#The Columns Tab|here]] within our overview guide.

===Speeding Up or Slowing Tracking===

Line 47:

Line 45:

Tracking Disruptors, as the name suggests, can reduce their target's gun tracking speed, especially when loaded with Tracking Speed Disruption scripts.

==Signature ~~Resolution~~==

==Signature Radius==

Every ship in Eve has a [[signature radius]] (you can find a figure for yours on the fitting screen). Signature radius represents, roughly speaking, a ship's footprint on everyone else's sensors.

Line 58:

Line 56:

Base signature radii can be altered by various things: shield extenders, for example, increase your sig radius, while an active MWD boosts your sig radius by 500%.

~~All turrets have a figure for signature resolution in~~ the ~~Attributes tab of their show info window. Sig resolution indicates the size of target that the gun's designed~~ to ~~shoot, and represents, roughly speaking~~, the ~~gun~~'s ~~ability to accurately aim at~~ the ~~target's sensor footprint~~.

In the chance-to-hit calculation, the target's current sig radius multiplies the weapon tracking attribute.

~~(Do not confuse ''signature'' resolution with ''scan'' resolution: although scan resolution does interact with~~ signature radius ~~when you~~ are ~~locking~~ on to a target~~, it~~'s ~~entirely separate from your guns'~~ signature ~~resolution and definitely does not effect gunnery~~.)

In fact, what happens is that the target signature radius feeds into the tracking calculation. If the target has minimal or no angular velocity (if, for example, both ships are sitting still, or the target is flying straight towards or away from the firing ship) then the tracking calculation has very little or no effect on the chance to hit, and therefore the target's signature will be irrelevant.

~~In the chance-to-hit calculation, the target~~'~~s current sig radius~~ is ~~compared to the gun~~'~~s sig resolution. It~~'~~s not strictly accurate, but most~~ of ~~the time it's enough~~ to say ~~that when~~ the ~~target~~'s ~~sig radius is larger than~~ the ~~gun's sig resolution~~ the ~~chance to hit increases~~, ~~and when~~ the ~~target~~'s ~~sig radius~~ is ~~smaller than the gun's sig resolution the chance to hit decreases~~.

This is why it ''is'' possible for a rack of battleship guns to hit a frigate for (as they say) massive damage despite the frigate's very small signature: if the frigate sits still, or burns straight towards or away from the battleship, or is at a long enough range that despite its speed it doesn't have much angular velocity from the battleship's point of view, it is toast.

~~In fact, what happens is that~~ the ~~comparison between gun signature resolution and~~ target signature radius ~~feeds into the~~ tracking ~~calculation. If the target has minimal or no~~ angular velocity ~~(if, for~~ example~~, both ships are sitting still, or the target is flying straight towards or away from the firing ship) then the~~ tracking ~~calculation~~ has ~~very little or no effect on the~~ chance to hit~~, and therefore~~ the ~~target's signature will be irrelevant~~.

Since the tracking depends on all three: target signature radius, turrent tracking and angular velocity it can be hard to intuitively see when it is possible to hit. For example medium autocannon with 50 tracking shooting a cruiser with 150 m signature radius with angular velocity of 0.073 rad/s has 90% chance to hit. In same situation but when shooting at frigate with 50 m signatus the hit chance is only 39%.

~~This is why it ''is'' possible for~~ a ~~rack~~ of ~~battleship guns to hit a frigate for~~ (~~as they say~~) ~~massive damage despite the frigate's very small~~ signature: if the frigate sits still, or burns straight towards or away from the battleship, or is at a long enough range that despite its speed it doesn't have much angular velocity from the battleship's point of view, it is toast.

{| class="wikitable" border=0

! Hit chance from tracking || Angular velocity (rad/s) as a function of <br /> tracking (T) and signature radius (S)

|-

| 50% || T×S/40000

|-

| 60% || T×S/47000

|-

| 70% || T×S/56000

|-

| 80% || T×S/70000

|-

| 90% || T×S/103000

|-

| 100% || 0

|}

===Boosting or Reducing Signature Radius===

Target Painters increase their target's signature radius and (as mentioned already) microwarpdrives increase a ship's sig radius by 500% when active. (Except on ~~Interceptors~~, which have bonuses which reduce the sig bloom caused by MWDs.) There are implants (Halo) which reduce your ship's signature radius, but their effect probably doesn't justify their price unless you are very, very rich.

Target Painters increase their target's signature radius and (as mentioned already) microwarpdrives increase a ship's sig radius by 500% when active. (Except on certain t2 hulls, which have bonuses which reduce the sig bloom caused by MWDs.) There are implants (Halo) which reduce your ship's signature radius, but their effect probably doesn't justify their price unless you are very, very rich. X-insticnt drug reduces signature radius for more reasonable price but the effect is not long lasting.

==Practical Applications==

Line 87:

Line 99:

===Dodging Fire===

The conclusion from all the information about tracking speed and signature ~~resolution~~ is: when you want to avoid damage, you want your angular velocity ~~(as your enemy sees you)~~ to be ~~higher than their guns' tracking speed~~ and your signature radius to be ~~lower than their guns' signature resolution~~.

The conclusion from all the information about tracking speed and signature radius is: when you want to avoid damage, you want your angular velocity to be as high as possible and your signature radius to be low.

====Under the Guns====

@@ Line 28: / Line 28: @@
 ==Tracking==
-{{update|Tracking (in rad/s) has been replaced with a "Weapon Accuracy score", which is a mixture of tracking and signature resolution. While the principles remain the same, the in-game numbers are different.}}
-If you 'show info' on any turret you will find it has a figure for tracking speed in its list of attributes, measured in 'rad/sec', radians per second. This tracking speed measures the maximum speed that the turret can turn as it tries to track your target.
 The smaller a turret is, the faster its tracking speed will be: small autocannon, for example, track faster than medium autocannon. Short-ranged varieties of turret have better tracking than their long-ranged counterparts -- so, for example, medium pulse lasers track faster than medium beam lasers and large blasters track faster than large railguns.
 [[File:QSM_track_on.gif‎‎|frame|left|alt=turret tracking fast enough to hit target|Tracking speed matches angular velocity]]
-In chance-to-hit calculations, your guns' tracking speed is compared against your target's angular velocity, which is also measured in radians per second. Angular velocity is a geometric concept to do with radii of circles, but it can be hard to visualise. One way to think about it is to imagine that your screen's point of view in Eve is looking out above the barrels of your turret as it looks at your target -- a turret's-eye-view, so to speak. If your target was moving quickly across your turret's point-of-view, it would have a high angular velocity, and if it was moving slowly across your turret's point-of-view it would have a low angular velocity.
+In chance-to-hit calculations, your guns' tracking speed is compared against your target's angular velocity and signature radius. Angular velocity is a geometric concept to do with radii of circles, but it can be hard to visualise. One way to think about it is to imagine that your screen's point of view in Eve is looking out above the barrels of your turret as it looks at your target -- a turret's-eye-view, so to speak. If your target was moving quickly across your turret's point-of-view, it would have a high angular velocity, and if it was moving slowly across your turret's point-of-view it would have a low angular velocity.
 [[File:QST_track_slow.gif|frame|alt=turret tracking too slow for orbiting target|Tracking speed too slow for angular velocity‎ ]]
-The ratio of your guns' tracking speed to your target's angular velocity is what's important. If their angular velocity is high, the ratio will be high, and you're very unlikely to hit them. If your target's angular velocity is below your guns' tracking speed, your chance to hit increases above the baseline. If your target's angular velocity is very much lower than your guns' tracking speed, you will have a very good chance to hit.
+The ratio of your target's angular velocity to your guns' tracking speed is what's important. If their angular velocity is high, the ratio will be high, and you're very unlikely to hit them.
 The speed at which a target moves across a turret's field of view doesn't depend only on the target's real velocity. The direction the target's moving in relative to the ship firing at it matters too: a ship that burns straight towards you could be quite easy to hit, regardless of its speed, because it's not moving very fast across your turrets' point-of-view. Range also affects angular velocity: a target orbiting you at 400m/s at a range of 7,000m has a much higher angular velocity than a target orbiting you at 400m/s at a range of 30km.
-Note that the actual [[Turret Damage|mathematics of tracking]] make use of several formulae, and there can be quite a bit more involved than the basic summary here. Angular velocity itself depends on the ratio of transversal velocity and range (it's to do with the geometry of circles and radii) -- but it's easier to think about angular velocity since measurements of it in radians per second relate easily to the figures for gun tracking speed which are also in radians per second (ie, they have the same units). Mathematically, we can talk of substituing the formulae into each other, so our ratio of angular/tracking becomes transversal / (range * tracking). You can find a brief explanation of the differences between angular and transversal velocity [[Overview Guide#The Columns Tab|here]] within our overview guide.
+Note that the actual [[Turret Damage|mathematics of tracking]] make use of several formulae, and there can be quite a bit more involved than the basic summary here. Angular velocity itself depends on the ratio of transversal velocity and range (it's to do with the geometry of circles and radii) -- but it's easier to think about angular velocity since measurements of it in radians per second relate easily to the figures for gun tracking speed. Mathematically, we can talk of substituing the formulae into each other, so our ratio of angular/tracking becomes transversal / (range * tracking). You can find a brief explanation of the differences between angular and transversal velocity [[Overview Guide#The Columns Tab|here]] within our overview guide.
 ===Speeding Up or Slowing Tracking===
@@ Line 47: / Line 45: @@
 Tracking Disruptors, as the name suggests, can reduce their target's gun tracking speed, especially when loaded with Tracking Speed Disruption scripts.
-==Signature Resolution==
+==Signature Radius==
 Every ship in Eve has a [[signature radius]] (you can find a figure for yours on the fitting screen). Signature radius represents, roughly speaking, a ship's footprint on everyone else's sensors.
@@ Line 58: / Line 56: @@
 Base signature radii can be altered by various things: shield extenders, for example, increase your sig radius, while an active MWD boosts your sig radius by 500%.
-All turrets have a figure for signature resolution in the Attributes tab of their show info window. Sig resolution indicates the size of target that the gun's designed to shoot, and represents, roughly speaking, the gun's ability to accurately aim at the target's sensor footprint.
+In the chance-to-hit calculation, the target's current sig radius multiplies the weapon tracking attribute.
-(Do not confuse ''signature'' resolution with ''scan'' resolution: although scan resolution does interact with signature radius when you are locking on to a target, it's entirely separate from your guns' signature resolution and definitely does not effect gunnery.)
+In fact, what happens is that the target signature radius feeds into the tracking calculation. If the target has minimal or no angular velocity (if, for example, both ships are sitting still, or the target is flying straight towards or away from the firing ship) then the tracking calculation has very little or no effect on the chance to hit, and therefore the target's signature will be irrelevant.
-In the chance-to-hit calculation, the target's current sig radius is compared to the gun's sig resolution. It's not strictly accurate, but most of the time it's enough to say that when the target's sig radius is larger than the gun's sig resolution the chance to hit increases, and when the target's sig radius is smaller than the gun's sig resolution the chance to hit decreases.
+This is why it ''is'' possible for a rack of battleship guns to hit a frigate for (as they say) massive damage despite the frigate's very small signature: if the frigate sits still, or burns straight towards or away from the battleship, or is at a long enough range that despite its speed it doesn't have much angular velocity from the battleship's point of view, it is toast.
-In fact, what happens is that the comparison between gun signature resolution and target signature radius feeds into the tracking calculation. If the target has minimal or no angular velocity (if, for example, both ships are sitting still, or the target is flying straight towards or away from the firing ship) then the tracking calculation has very little or no effect on the chance to hit, and therefore the target's signature will be irrelevant.
+Since the tracking depends on all three: target signature radius, turrent tracking and angular velocity it can be hard to intuitively see when it is possible to hit. For example medium autocannon with 50 tracking shooting a cruiser with 150 m signature radius with angular velocity of 0.073 rad/s has 90% chance to hit. In same situation but when shooting at frigate with 50 m signatus the hit chance is only 39%.
-This is why it ''is'' possible for a rack of battleship guns to hit a frigate for (as they say) massive damage despite the frigate's very small signature: if the frigate sits still, or burns straight towards or away from the battleship, or is at a long enough range that despite its speed it doesn't have much angular velocity from the battleship's point of view, it is toast.
+{| class="wikitable" border=0
+! Hit chance from tracking || Angular velocity (rad/s) as a function of <br /> tracking (T) and signature radius (S)
+|-
+| 50% || T×S/40000
+|-
+| 60% || T×S/47000
+|-
+| 70% || T×S/56000
+|-
+| 80% || T×S/70000
+|-
+| 90% || T×S/103000
+|-
+| 100% || 0
+|}
 ===Boosting or Reducing Signature Radius===
-Target Painters increase their target's signature radius and (as mentioned already) microwarpdrives increase a ship's sig radius by 500% when active. (Except on Interceptors, which have bonuses which reduce the sig bloom caused by MWDs.) There are implants (Halo) which reduce your ship's signature radius, but their effect probably doesn't justify their price unless you are very, very rich.
+Target Painters increase their target's signature radius and (as mentioned already) microwarpdrives increase a ship's sig radius by 500% when active. (Except on certain t2 hulls, which have bonuses which reduce the sig bloom caused by MWDs.) There are implants (Halo) which reduce your ship's signature radius, but their effect probably doesn't justify their price unless you are very, very rich. X-insticnt drug reduces signature radius for more reasonable price but the effect is not long lasting.
 ==Practical Applications==
@@ Line 87: / Line 99: @@
 ===Dodging Fire===
-The conclusion from all the information about tracking speed and signature resolution is: when you want to avoid damage, you want your angular velocity (as your enemy sees you) to be higher than their guns' tracking speed and your signature radius to be lower than their guns' signature resolution.
+The conclusion from all the information about tracking speed and signature radius is: when you want to avoid damage, you want your angular velocity to be as high as possible and your signature radius to be low.
 ====Under the Guns====