Space scanner + rockets question.

[JRup]

So... I've finally done it, I guess I just launched a hunk of metal into space (it only took about 3182 cycles give or take some -YKWIM) because I wanted to actually get a launch done in the base game that with all the DLC hype going on...

This is what I noticed on the first return event for the rocket: the dedicated scanner actually activated 200s prior to return landing... The bunker doors above were already closed so that should have lowered any kind of "detection precision" these scanners may have.

I've checked the wiki to see if that's going to be the case always (no info on that specific one, though) ...

Question:  Will space scanners that detect rockets always do so 200s in advance?

Here's the launch for your enjoyment.

[TheMule]

It depends on the network quality. At 100%, they detect objects at 200s.

That said, there's no reason not to open the doors, since everything in the silo should be meteor proof  anyway and regolith at the bottom of the silo is going to be crushed by the rocket.

Actually, for short trip rockets probably no doors are need. For long distance rocket it's situational.
 

[Urist McPilot]

Select one of the space scanners, and hover your mouse over the line that displays network quality, the popup message will tell you the detection time. It will be the same for all types of objects, on all scanners, even if the only scanner set to your rocket has 0% scan quality itself.

[JRup]

So I guess I was lucky in my first draw with the rocket... It would have been too nice to have the scanners for the rockets always give those 200s in advance.

[Kderosa]

Just be aware that if a meteor shower hits at about the time your rocket is returning to the base the bunker doors will close and sending the network quality to zero.  This will cause your rocket scanner to close the bunker doors above your rocket temporarily.  The scanner will then "re-detect" the rocket and it's a question of whether the bunker doors will fully open before the rocket reaches the base. You WILL lose some bunker doors to this "bug" every 100 cycles or so.

[JRup]

I kept one scanner underneath a single free tile (1st from left to right) that very rarely gets a puffy meteor and is handled by a robo-miner. This gives a mostly constant 1% network when there's a storm. The only thing repaired with this setup so far are mesh tiles.

I just hope this will reduce the chance of bunker doors getting crushed by a rocket.

 

[TheMule]

8 hours ago, JRup said:

So I guess I was lucky in my first draw with the rocket... It would have been too nice to have the scanners for the rockets always give those 200s in advance.

You need 6 100% quality scanners to reach 100% network quality. The only meaning of scanner quality is for the contribution to the network quality (1/6 of the scanner quality, so at 100% it's +17%). It affects nothing else.

The detection time of each scanner is based only on network quality. A scanner can have zero visibility and contribute zero to the network but still be able to detect objects thanks to the other scanners. I used to place my rocket scanners under the silos (slightly off to avoid the exhausts), with zero visibility.

The minimum guaranteed delay is (net quality) x 2.  One perfect scanner (100%) gives you 17% so the detection range is 34s - 200s. You need at least 36-37s for the doors to close, so you have a 1% chance to miss the target.
With 2 perfect scanners you have 68s - 200s and so on.