Detect and Ranged Attacks

[Refplace]

I think were at the point of needing Kromm to weigh in and almost didn't reply to that last question as I really am not sure on the answer. I think it lasts the entire time your Concentrating which would be continuous from Turn to Turn if you keep using Concentrate.
Remember you can still defend and take a Step while doing so.

[oneofmanynameless]

Originally Posted by Refplace

I think were at the point of needing Kromm to weigh in and almost didn't reply to that last question as I really am not sure on the answer. I think it lasts the entire time your Concentrating which would be continuous from Turn to Turn if you keep using Concentrate.
Remember you can still defend and take a Step while doing so.

Yeah. I'm pretty interested in the answer and what Kromm would say.

Although I also just remembered that detect, by default, allows a follow-up IQ check the following second to analyze, which implies at least a little lingering awareness. I've always thought of that as like... squinting to get a clearer look, rather then carefully thinking about it, mostly based on Enhanced Senses description of Analyzing being equivalent to a discriminatory sense in terms of providing similar level of detail and info to sight upon initially seeing the target and so indicating it's a much higher resolution sense. But the fact that it's an IQ check instead of a Per check could indicating it's more of a internal mental analysis then paying closer attention over a somewhat lingering awareness.

If it was paying closer attention over the lingering awareness sort of thing then it would make sense that you could either follow-up with the IQ check for analysis OR follow-up with an attack roll (assuming you had precise or lock-on, as per the type of attack your trying to make.)

[whswhs]

In some ways Detect is comparable to Scanning Sense. Detect is defined as having to be turned on, while SS is defined as having to be turned off; but it seems that you could choose to turn off SS and leave it off—I don't see it as something you have to constantly concentrate on shutting down, and the rules don't say that. So if you've done that, you could turn on SS to check if anything is approaching you, and that would be rather like turning on Detect, except that SS emits a signal and Detect doesn't.

It's true that Detect functions instantaneously. But most scanning senses actually involve emitting a "ping" that really is effectively instantaneous. Of course you might emit multiple pings per second, but then I don't see why, during the second when you concentrate on Detect, you couldn't be switching it on repeatedly; that just seems like a special effect.

And suppose that you turn on Detect and leave it on. I don't see any reason to suppose that what you experience is "ping" there's a zombie here, "ping" there's a zombie here, "ping" there's a zombie here. It seems just as reasonable to suppose that you get an ongoing tingle in your zombie sense, one that provides a continuous trace of the nearest zombie, rather than a strobing zombie effect.

I'll stipulate that the baseline Detect tells you where a target is in second one, and then you have to shoot during second two. But I'll go with Refplace's exceptions to this rule. And I wonder if it might be fair to allow you to use both Detect (Precise) and Attack in the same turn, with a -2 to both for trying to do two things at once?

[oneofmanynameless]

Does that mean, then, for shooting at targets who aren't moving or don't move, that if you sense something with Detect (precise) you can't really "target" it properly so much as know which hex it's in for purposes of shooting blind? (And thus use the rules for "Attacker cannot see his foe, but knows his location for sure" under Visibility in basic 394.)

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by oneofmanynameless

Does that mean, then, for shooting at targets who aren't moving or don't move, that if you sense something with Detect (precise) you can't really "target" it properly so much as know which hex it's in for purposes of shooting blind? (And thus use the rules for "Attacker cannot see his foe, but knows his location for sure" under Visibility in basic 394.)

In the specific case where you Detect in turn 1 and shoot in turn 2, that seems plausible.

If you have multiple actions per turn, or have Detect with reduced time or Reflexive, or (if you accept my suggestion) are going with -2 to Detect and -2 to the attack roll, I think you're not shooting blind.