Vision & Detection

One side, one set of eyes

Icaroids on the same side share combat data. Anything one of your frames can see, all of them can see - and shoot at, within their own range. Vision is a team resource, not a per-unit one: a single spotter on high ground lights up targets for the whole force behind it.

That makes a dedicated scout punch well above its weight, and it makes blinding the enemy's lead eyes - or staying out of their arc entirely - a real tactic. Everything below is about how that sight is drawn for one Icaroid; the result is pooled across your side.

Line of sight

Sight is a straight line from the center of the observer's hex to the center of the target's, and it's fundamentally a height contest. Each Icaroid has a sighting height - the elevation of its hex plus its body height (its core and the height of its mobility parts). If any hex on the line between two units stands taller than the line of sight passing over it, the view is blocked and neither can see the other.

Heights are measured eye-to-eye, so detection between two units of the same height is symmetric - if you can see them, they can see you. Standing on high ground raises your line over intervening Terrain & Environment; ducking behind a tall hex, a wall, or a woodland canopy breaks it. There is one exception: anything in an adjacent hex is always visible, no matter the terrain - nothing sneaks up right beside you.

Sight range

Clear line of sight still only reaches so far. An Icaroid's base sight range comes largely from its brain - sharper brains add their thinking rate to how far the frame can see - and certain components and glyphs extend it further. Whatever the total, effective sight is hard-capped at 16 hexes: no frame sees past that, however it's kitted out.

Range and line of sight are separate gates - a target has to clear both. A unit in the open at 20 hexes is out of range even with a perfect line; a unit at 4 hexes behind a hill is in range but unseen. The Indirect Sensors effect widens the net, while Sensory Disrupted shrinks what you can detect and spot.

Terrain that blinds

The Terrain & Environment along a sightline doesn't just block it by height - low-visibility layers eat into range too. Recall that a hex's visibility is the worst of its terrain, weather and battle-damage layers:

• REDUCED hexes - dust, snow, rain, a sandstorm - each subtract a hex of range when they lie on the line of sight. Cross two reduced hexes to reach a target and your effective reach to it drops by two.
• OBSCURED hexes - woodland, fog, a blizzard, smoke from a fire - block the line outright. A single obscured hex anywhere on the path cuts the view, the way a tall blocker would.

So weather and cover are blindness you can position around or hide behind. Fog that collapses a sniper line into close-range brawling can be exactly what a short-ranged force wants; a clear lane across open plains is a killing field for whoever sees down it first.

Being seen

Detection cuts both ways: the same height that lets a tall frame see far also makes it easy to spot. By default an Icaroid can be picked out from roughly twice its height in hexes away - a squat height-2 frame stays hidden until something closes to 4 hexes, while a towering height-10 walker is visible from almost anywhere on the map, wherever it tries to hide.

That's the core trade of building tall: reach and sightlines versus a signature you can't hide. Low-profile frames give up the long view to stay off the enemy's sensors until they choose to be seen, and several glyphs and components shrink a frame's detectable profile further. Pick a height that matches the role - a spotter wants to see; a flanker wants to not be seen.

Giving yourself away

Some actions break your concealment no matter how well you're positioned:

• Firing a direct-fire weapon and striking an enemy reveals the attacker - a shot from the shadows lights you up for the return volley.
• Overloading your reactor - pushing past normal limits on speed, shields or firepower - emits an energy pulse that makes you automatically visible to the enemy for that burst of power.

So sight isn't only about terrain; it's about what you do. An ambusher stays dark right up until it fires, then has to weather being seen. A frame that overloads to land a decisive blow accepts a round of full exposure for it. The flip side is that you can bait those tells out of the enemy and answer them.

The fog of war

Ground you've never seen is shrouded - the map won't even show its terrain type or height until your side draws line of sight to it. Once you've seen a hex, it's remembered: it stays on your map as dimmed, last-known information even after you look away. That memory shows the lay of the land, but it is not live - it won't reveal an enemy slipping through a hex you can no longer see.

You don't start completely blind. Your whole deployment zone is seeded into that memory from turn one, so you begin a battle already knowing your own ground (see Deployment & Setup). And some frames see without a clear line at all: Indirect Sensors detect enemies straight through terrain via ichor resonance, and a planted Beacon Signal broadcasts targeting data from where it sits - ways to light up the map that don't depend on a naked sightline.

Putting it together

Vision is shared across your side and gated by two things at once: a clear, height-winning line of sight, and range under the 16-hex cap. Reduced terrain trims that reach, obscured terrain cuts it dead, tall frames are spotted from far off, and firing or overloading gives you away outright - while the fog of war keeps the unseen map dark and the once-seen map dimly remembered. Win the sight game and you shoot first; lose it and you eat fire from an enemy you never spotted. Pair this with Terrain & Environment for what blocks a line and Movement & Positioning for how to get your eyes where they matter.