Warp Signature

Emissions are send out from systems depending on the amount of power consumption going on in them. This counts both power usage from cities and spacecrafts.

Emissions are then picked up by Airport Terminals in other systems. The range at which these emissions can be detected depends on the strength of the emissions and the TL of the sensors.

Range Calculation

This section has details missing or obscure mechanics that need clarification by Haxus. Description: Need information about the numbers and math. If you know the answer, please edit this page or state it on the talk page!

The range of emission detection depends on the highest TL of either Airport Terminal, Military Weapon System or Military Shield Generator.

DetectionRange (pc) = Max(AirportTerminal TL, MilitaryWeaponSystem TL, MilitaryShieldGenerator TL) + 10

(Waiting on reply from Haxus on the exact math)

Quotes from patch notes

Update 2013-3-7: Detect Cities in Unexplored Systems

• Star map now shows a yellow glow around unexplored solar systems from which city emissions have been detected.
  • Solar systems emit a signal based on the hourly consumption of power by all cities in the system. The strength of this signal determines the maximum distance at which the system can be detected.
  • Cities with sensors detect the signal emitted by solar systems. Detection range of cities is 10pc per sensor tech level. City sensor tech level is the highest tech level of the airport terminal and any bases.
  • Detected solar systems are remembered for up to 48 hours after the last signal is detected from that system.
  • This information accumulates as the servers run. It may take an hour or two after the servers start before you start detecting city emissions. This will always be the case as this information is not stored.

Update 2013-8-21: Empires Too Vulnerable to Raiders

• Empires were reported to be too vulnerable to raiders based in the void. There is no way to know where the raiders came from or went.
  
  System emissions are based on power consumed in a system. Power consumed by ships is now added to that signal; previously the signal was only based on power consumed by cities.
  
  This is a step toward solving the problem, not expected to eliminate the problem. I am still considering other steps.

Update 2015-3-3: System Emission/Detection Range

• System emissions are detectable too far away for the more compact area we are playing in. The number of detected systems can be overwhelming.
  
  City signals can no longer be detected as far away.
  
  City sensors no longer have as much range for detecting city emissions.