Interference

Interference is a common phenomena on Nia. Robots in Perpetuum use waves to gain information about the surroundings, and such waves can interfere with each other.

The most common occurrence of interference is when several robots are near each other. Interference will affect these robots' sensors:


 * slower target locking
 * shorter locking range
 * dropping of sensor strength
 * dropping of signal detection

The measure of interference
Each robot has certain parameters about interference.


 * Interference emission - The amount of interference that your robot emits.
 * Interference minimum - The maximum amount of interference that your robot can tolerate before suffering sensor penalties.
 * Interference peak - The maximum amount of total interference that can affect the robot. Any additional unit of interference will not affect your sensors any more.
 * Interference radius - The distance that your robot's interference can affect others.

Obviously, it can be important not to have too any bots close together –friend or foe! To avoid deterioration of your sensors, avoid crowds, team up in smaller squads, and stay away from the center of large enemy forces. (Probably good advice in any extent!)

You can check your own level of interference on your robot's status bar, near the speed meter. When it's green, it means the total incoming interference is below the interference minimum value. When it reaches the orange section, that means your sensor's parameters will get worse. This will continue to worsen until your total incoming interference reaches interference peak, but after this point your sensors' abilities cannot decline any further.

The tactical use of interference
Interference affects robotic sensoring in a negative way, so it's obvious that this effect can be used as a kind of electronic warfare. The tactical interference equipment consists of two parts: a module and an interference emitter.

To utilize this, an interference module needs to be equipped onto your robot, with interference emitters loaded into the module. You can place the emitter anywhere on the terrain, but it affects robots only on beta islands. It won't interfere with robots anywhere on Alpha. Also, emitters cannot be deployed closer than 150 meters to each other.

The level of emission of the deployed emitter depends on the type of module you use, and also the extension levels you have installed.