What are the circles around ships when Alt key is held?

Hi,

Another not-in-the-manual question; thx for any insight...

When I click/hold Alt, various ships (and structures) acquire various circles, which I naively thought were their range of fire circles, i.e. their 'reach'. But I subsequently saw illuminators firing at least double that distance in a sustained way, saw Starbase seeming to hit from a good half a gravity well away when their local alt circle is quite modest, etc, etc. So now am a little confused.

1. Is there any graphic that actually does show range of fire/reach?

2. If the Alt circles on ships are not that, what are they?

-evoke

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the circles are the firing range/how close they have to be to shoot

The Great Admiral Rain

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Firing ranges are denoted with orange circles, ability ranges denoted in purple.

Capital and structure weapon ranges are always visible as well as ability ranges for structures (PJIs and repair bays for example) when holding Alt. Frigate ranges are only visible when you select/mouse-over them, and abilities only when you mouse-over it on the bottom right.

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saw Starbase seeming to hit from a good half a gravity well away when their local alt circle is quite modest, etc, etc.

The starbases' range indicators are a bit out of whack. Whereas all ships with more than one weapon (capitals) have the same range on each weapon, Starbase weapons all have different ranges and the circle only shows the range of the first (default) weapon.

This causes some annoying side-effects for the Vasari SB, since its "lightning bolt" weapon is shorter range than the default weapon, but the default weapon's range is used when the starbase decides to stop moving - so you always have to manually move it closer when attacking stationary structures so that its anti-structure weapon can hit.

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