Radar

Radar

Edit

Recipe
0.5 + 5 + 5 + 10 → 1
Total raw
9.25 + 7.5 + 25
Map color
Health	250 325 400 475 625
Resistances	Fire: 0/70% Impact: 0/30%
Stack size	50
Rocket capacity	50
Radar coverage distance	Continuous: 3 4 5 6 8 Exploration: 14 15 16 17 19
Dimensions	3×3
Energy consumption	300.0 kW (electric)
Mining time	0.1
Prototype type	radar
Internal name	radar
Required technologies
Produced by
Consumed by

Object description

The radar reveals the map for the force it belongs to. They continuously reveal a small area around them, and slowly scan a much larger area. They also transmit signals to other radars on the same surface.

A radar can be continuously powered by eight solar panels and six accumulators. Seven solar panels and five accumulators is the most efficient; it gives the radar full power for all but a short time in the morning, and never dips below the 20% power threshold for nearby scanning.

Despite being categorized as a military building, radars will not be attacked by enemies unless they block their path to another target, which means that radars can be safely placed in biter-infested areas without needing to be defended. The radar will show enemy lifeforms and structures, as well as trains, cars, and other players in the scanned area.

Continuous coverage

The radar continuously reveals an area of 7×7 chunks (224×224 tiles), centered on the chunk the radar occupies. This range can be seen on the minimap when placing the radar. This nearby area is updated as a single pulse, approximately every second if the radar is fully powered. At reduced power levels, this pulse will happen less frequently, which can lead to 'blinking' on the player's map similar to the long range scan. This is particularly noticeable at dawn and dusk on solar powered radar stations without accumulators.

A radar can keep an area constantly revealed if supplied with as little as 25 kW, though the area will appear periodically dimming when zoomed out on the map. A single solar panel can supply two radars, and one isolating accumulator can supply around 10.

Players, roboports, and spidertrons similarly chart an area of 5x5 chunks (160x160 tiles) around them, so radars are not necessary in the areas with roboport coverage.

Vehicles and remote control

Cars and tanks remain visible in the fog of war as white triangles with red border. Their position will be up-to-date.

Tanks in visible chunks can be remotely entered and controlled. They cannot be entered when out of radar range, but can still be controlled if driven into that area, though lack of detail may make navigation difficult. If a tank is exited while outside radar range, it will become impossible to remotely enter until coverage is provided.

Trains are always visible and can be entered and remotely controlled even when outside of radar range.

Since spidertrons provide their own radar coverage, they can always be entered.

Exploration coverage

Radars also periodically scan chunks in a much bigger range of 29x29. The radar charts one distant chunk every time the sector scanning progress bar fills. This takes 33.333 seconds if the radar is receiving full power. The bar can be seen in the mouse-over panel. Once a chunk is scanned, it is revealed for 10 seconds. The last known state of the chunk will be visible on the player's map as a dim image that cannot be zoomed into. This allows the radars to slowly reveal the terrain, resources, and enemies in a large area.

The radars will scan the unexplored (black) chunks first. They will prioritize the top-left chunk, then follow clockwise. If all chunks are revealed, they will re-scan the longest-ago revealed chunk. The actual chunk is picked when the scan is complete, so multiple radars can work in tandem to scan the area faster. Since the radar draws 300 kW of power and a scan takes 33.333 seconds, it takes 300 kW * 33.333 seconds = 10 MJ of energy to scan one chunk. Supplying less power will slow exploration down accordingly. With a total number of 792 chunks (29×29 − 7×7), it takes one radar 7 hours 20 minutes to complete one full scan cycle without interference.

Keep in mind that only the last known state of the chunk is shown on the map. For example, if expansions are enabled, it is possible for the enemies to create a new nest in a previously scanned chunk; it won't be visible until the chunk is revealed again (by a radar re-scan or otherwise). This is true regardless of how the chunk was revealed, but is most noticeable with radars.

Firing artillery also reveals chunks along the projectile's path, which can be used as a faster but costlier method of charting.

Animation of chunks in the upper-right area being revealed by radars.

Circuit network

A radar can send wireless signals to other radars. With regard to circuit connection, a radar has two modes of operation: Surface and Universe.

A Surface mode radar has a circuit network connection to every other Surface mode radar on the same surface. Any circuit signal sent into such a radar is output from every other such radar. On each surface, one can think of there being two surface-wide networks for radars, namely red and green.

A Universe mode radar is connected to every other radar with the same channel anywhere in the universe.

When the radar loses power, it loses its circuit connection. The output signal can only be seen in connected objects like electric poles, because the radar does not have a GUI.

Quality

Quality radars both reveal a bigger area continuously and can explore a bigger area.

	Common	Uncommon	Rare	Epic	Legendary
Continuous range	3	4	5	6	8
Continuous chunk area	7x7	9x9	11x11	13x13	17x17
Exploration range	14	15	16	17	19
Exploration chunk area	29x29	31x31	33x33	35x35	39x39
Total exploration chunks	792	880	968	1056	1232
Full scan time	7 hours 20 minutes	~8 hours 9 minutes	~9 hours	~9 hours 46 minutes	~11 hours 24 minutes

Gallery

The coverage area of a radar and the player.

History

• 2.1.7:
  • Added "universe" mode of operation to radar circuit connections for transfer of cross-surface signals.

• 2.0.7:
  • All radars on a surface are now connected to a single circuit network.
  • Enemies no longer actively target radars.

• 0.17.0:
  • When holding radar in cursor, area covered by existing radars is also highlighted on minimap.

• 0.15.0:
  • Radar now allows remote view via map.

• 0.12.17:
  • Updated icons.

• 0.11.11:
  • Radar ignores chunks outside the map radius.

• 0.10.0:
  • New graphics.

• 0.9.0:
  • Halved radar electricity consumption.

• 0.7.3:
  • Radar continues refreshing chunks after all chunks in range have been discovered.

• 0.5.1:
  • New Graphics

• 0.1.0:
  • Introduced

See also

• Enemies
• Long-term radar behavior