Post by garyp on Aug 25, 2020 4:06:45 GMT -4
A small VTOL of mine was crossing a water tile and triggered a battle with a pair of small bandit submarines. I knew the VTOL would need to use its magscan sensor mode to penetrate beneath the surface, but after a comprehensive search without any contacts something seemed off and I rechecked the sensor rules.
I was right that in the TacOps sensor rules a magscan is the only sensor able to pass through the surface of water hex (with the exception of sensors mounted in body location of ships on the surface, but that isn't going to apply here). The problem is magscans can only detect units 20 tons or larger, and both the bandit submarines and my VTOL are less than 20 tons. So even with my VTOL hovering directly over a submarine at minimum altitude there is no way for the VTOL to detect a submarine or the submarine detect the VTOL. Without a way for Princess to detect my VTOL the bandits will forever sit submerged and not engage. (If my VTOL was larger than 20tons, does anyone know if Princess would be able to use and make decisions based on contacts from an alternate sensor mode like magscan? It's not something I've ever tested.)
Should I just consider the battle a draw, treating it as both sides being unwilling or unable to continue combat? Essentially my VTOL detected a vague 'something' in the area and interrupted its planned movement in an unsuccessful investigation. Which seems quite fine to me, not every encounter needs to produce an epic battle, but there might be someway to force a resolution that I have missed.
