Jamming
Jamming disrupts the sensors of every ship affected by a launched jammer, including the launching ship. It is useful for hiding a retreat or confusing pursuit, but it does not physically hide a ship, block a directional phaser beam, or remove projectiles already in flight. Jammer command covers launcher requirements and command use.
A jammer is not a persistent object. Its effect is applied at launch, and each affected ship records its own jamming state until it expires or is cleared.
Classic: distance changes duration
Classic 3.2e stores one jammer countdown per ship. Any positive value represents full scanner interference; there are no severity levels. The nominal maximum range is the launching ship class's scanner range. For a ship inside that range, including the launcher, classic calculates:
proximity = 1 - (distance / launcher's scanner range)
countdown = integer part of (JAMTIME * proximity)
The countdown decreases on each main ship-state update, normally about every six seconds. The stock JAMTIME is 3. The launcher, at distance zero, receives three updates of jamming. Distance reduces duration, not strength; integer truncation means much of the nominal range has no real effect:
| Distance from launcher | Stored countdown at stock JAMTIME | Approximate maximum duration |
|---|---|---|
| Zero | 3 updates | 18 seconds |
| Greater than zero through one-third of scanner range | 2 updates | 12 seconds |
| Greater than one-third through two-thirds | 1 update | 6 seconds |
| Beyond two-thirds, but inside scanner range | 0 | No effect |
Actual elapsed time depends on where launch falls between updates. Classic can still send the incoming-jamming warning to a ship whose computed countdown is zero. ge-next 0.2.1 corrected that misleading warning while it still used the classic jammer model. Classic refuses scans and torpedo/missile guidance while the countdown is positive, and suppresses sensor notices such as mine-proximity warnings. Phasers, mines, and weapons already in flight are not stopped.
Another classic jammer simply replaces each affected ship's stored countdown. A weaker or more distant launch can therefore shorten a stronger effect, or even clear it by replacing a positive countdown with zero. Elwynor's 32-bit classic port preserves this classic model.
ge-next: distance changes severity
ge-next 0.3 replaced the binary countdown with separate severity and remaining duration. Every jammer affects ships out to 50,000 distance units regardless of the launching class's scanner range. A newly affected ship receives the configured JAMTIME duration; distance changes severity instead of duration.
Without enhanced scanners, severity is 10 - floor(distance / 5000), clamped to 1–10:
| Distance | Severity |
|---|---|
| 0–4,999 | 10 |
| 5,000–9,999 | 9 |
| Each further 5,000-unit band | One level lower |
| 40,000–44,999 | 2 |
| 45,000–50,000 | 1 |
The launcher is at distance zero and jams itself at severity 10 for the full duration. ge-next avoids printing an incoming-jamming notice to the launcher after its “Jammer fired!” response. An affected ship with enhanced scanners uses 3,000-unit bands instead: severity reaches 2 at 24,000–26,999 and bottoms out at 1 from 27,000 through 50,000. Enhanced scanners reduce distant interference but do not change the jammer's maximum range.
Effects in ge-next
A ship's own severity determines what it can see and do:
- Severity 1–2: Scans may show some map interference, but ordinary target selection and most detailed sensor information remain available. Torpedoes and missiles can still establish a firing solution.
- Severity 3–7: Ship identifiers, bearings, headings, distances, speeds, planet data, and map objects may be hidden or scrambled. A scan or manual
LOCKattempt can fail entirely with probability1 / (9 - severity), from one in six at severity 3 to one in two at severity 7. A successful command can still return incomplete data. Torpedo and missile guidance is blocked at these levels. - Severity 8–10: Scans and manual scanner locks are refused outright; projectile guidance is also blocked.
When a scan gets through, the interference is visible: characters in ship or planet names and in readings such as bearings and distances may turn into ?. Range and sector maps can show stray printable characters in empty space, sometimes in unexpected colors, while real objects may disappear from the map. The pattern changes between scans rather than presenting one consistent false picture.
An existing scanner lock is not necessarily erased by jamming, but moderate or heavy interference prevents a torpedo or missile from obtaining a firing solution. Phasers remain directional rather than depending on this guidance lock. Moderate and heavy interference also suppresses automatic sensor reports and can keep NPCs from selecting new targets, although an NPC may retain a pursuit selected earlier. Because severity is recorded separately for each observer, nearby and distant ships can receive very different information from the same jammer.
Duration, overlap, and clearing
The stock JAMTIME remains three ship-state updates, at most about 18 seconds from launch. In ge-next, a new stronger jam raises the stored severity and resets the timer; an equally strong one refreshes the full timer. A weaker jam cannot lower the existing severity, but may extend a nearly expired timer by a smaller amount scaled to its own severity. When the timer reaches zero, severity clears and the affected player is notified. ge-next also clears both values when a ship travels through a wormhole, a change introduced in 0.2.4; classic does not clear its jammer countdown on wormhole travel.
NPCs with jammer capability use the same effect, and NPCs can themselves be jammed. ge-arena uses the ge-next range, severity, duration, and overlap behavior during matches.
See also
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