What does Active Resolution mean when building AMMs?

[ErikEvenson]

Question

When building missiles, what does "Active Resolution" mean? Does it relate to the size of the target? I'm building AMMs and have them down to size 1 for maximum rate of fire. Will reducing the active resolution do anything?

Answer

Active Resolution on a sensor (whether it's a missile's onboard seeker or a missile fire control) determines the size of target it's optimized to detect, measured in HS where 1 HS = 50 tons.

Yes, it directly relates to target size:

• Resolution 1 = optimized for 50-ton targets (missiles)
• Resolution 10 = optimized for 500-ton targets (small ships/FACs)
• Resolution 100 = optimized for 5,000-ton targets (capital ships)

The sensor achieves its full rated range against targets at or above its resolution size. Against targets smaller than the resolution, detection range drops proportionally via:

Effective Range = Base Range × sqrt(Target_HS / Resolution)

For AMMs specifically

Since AMMs target incoming missiles (tiny targets, typically 1–12 MSP = 2.5–30 tons), you want:

1. Resolution 1 on the AMM's onboard active sensor — this gives the seeker the best possible acquisition range against missile-sized targets. A higher resolution would severely reduce the range at which the AMM can "see" its target.

2. Resolution 1 on the missile fire control (MFC) guiding the AMMs — same logic. The MFC is an active sensor, and it needs to detect incoming missiles to guide your AMMs. A high-resolution MFC would have drastically reduced range against missile-sized targets.

Bottom line: For AMMs, resolution 1 is correct on both the onboard sensor and the fire control. Don't increase it — you'd be optimizing for larger targets that AMMs aren't designed to hit. Since 1 is already the minimum, you can't reduce it further. Size-1 AMMs with resolution-1 sensors are the right call.

Verification Status

Verified (against AuroraDB.db v2.7.1):

• Active sensor range formula including Resolution^(2/3) — verified against 10 sensors in the game database, matching within rounding error (Section 11.3.1, ref 11.3-3)
• Detection range scaling against smaller targets uses sqrt(Target_HS / Resolution) (Section 11.3.2, ref 11.3-8)
• Resolution scaling for MFCs follows cube-root: Effective Range = Base Range × (Target/Resolution)^(1/3) — verified with zero error across all test cases (Section 12.1.2, ref 12.1-13)
• Each MFC engages one target at a time (ref 11.3-9)
• Missile onboard sensors require minimum 0.25 MSP (ref 12.3-9)

Unverified claims in related manual sections:

• Missiles losing guidance going ballistic when MFC loses lock — (unverified — Verify: Chapter 11 community-documented sensor mechanics (8 claims) #1283)
• Active sensor activation/deactivation being instantaneous — (unverified — Verify: Chapter 11 community-documented sensor mechanics (8 claims) #1283)
• "Max Active Resolution" field behavior in Naval Organization — (unverified — Verify: Chapter 11 changelog-sourced stealth/cloak mechanics (5 claims) #1284)

Manual Sections

• Section 11.3 Active Sensors — sensor resolution mechanics and MFC guidance
• Section 12.1 Fire Controls — MFC resolution matching and range scaling
• Section 12.3 Missiles — AMM design philosophy and onboard sensors