Table of Contents
Torque Tycoon > Game Components
Rumors
A rumor is a time-limited lead to a hidden site. It provides an exact radio frequency and modulation, plus a broad direction from a named anchor airfield. It gives no coordinates or search radius and does not reveal the final site position.
Rumors come from the notice board of a built Settlement. Every hidden site within 80 km of a Settlement can turn up on the board of the nearest one. A board holds one lead at Settlement level 0-1, two at level 2 and three at level 3, never two of the same kind. Which sites come up is random. A lead says when it would close a gap in the local production chain - a Factory with no supplier for one of its inputs nearby, or a producer with no Factory in reach - and a Settlement lead names the Food it would need. A Settlement below 50% trust gets no new leads, and one in unrest tells nothing at all until it has recovered; an empty board says why.
The board can only be read on the ground at the Settlement, under My Location > Rumors in the Radio Menu. A pilot who lands there is told when the board has something they have not seen.
Following a lead
Follow this lead turns the lead into a rumor for the pilot: they hear its frequency and the anchor airfield, and everyone hears who followed which lead from where. Following needs a Discord account linked through DCSBot, and a pilot can follow only one lead at a time. Following costs credits, by the kind of site the lead reveals:
| Lead | Price |
|---|---|
| Tier 1 (Grain, Timber, Food Processing, Sawmill, Construction Yard) | 800 GEL |
| Tier 2 (Iron, Coal, Steel Mill, Building Materials Plant) | 1,600 GEL |
| Settlement | 1,600 GEL |
| Tier 3 (Oil, Fuel Refinery, Industrial Parts Works) | 3,200 GEL |
The price is shown on the menu entry. Without enough credits the follow is refused and nothing is charged.
Only one lead of each kind - Settlement, Source, Factory - can be open across the server, from the follow until the site is built. While one is open, leads of that kind stay on the boards but cannot be followed; the menu names the site that holds them.
Asking around
A pilot looking for something other than what is on the board can ask around for something else. This swaps one lead for another site the same board could offer, possibly of the same kind. It works only on the ground at the Settlement, needs a linked Discord account, and costs 1,600 GEL. Every further swap at the same board doubles the price, up to 25,600 GEL; after four hours without a swap there, the price is back at 1,600 GEL. The swapped-out site does not come up on any board for six hours. If the Settlement knows of nothing else, the menu says so and nothing is charged.
Lapse and drop
A rumor lapses after 90 minutes if it is not mapped. Drop this lead gives it up early, as long as the site is not mapped yet. In both cases the lead goes back on the same board, and there is no refund.
Players investigate a rumor with the A/N audio signal, received through SRS or the radio menu's A/N Receiver: a steady tone marks a course line, and a Morse A or N tells you which side of it you are on. The full signal behaviour belongs to A/N Direction Finding; the flight procedure is covered by Map a Rumor.
