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Table of Contents
Torque Tycoon > Game Components
Rumors
Rumors are time-limited leads to hidden sites. An active rumor 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.
Only a limited number of rumors can be open at once, and ignored leads eventually lapse. Cartography Institute adds one server-wide rumor slot. Tier 2 and Tier 3 rumors also require the appropriate regional Survey Station level.
Useful gaps in the local production chain receive extra priority. If a mapped Factory has no working supplier for one of its inputs within 75 km, a hidden Source or viable Factory that can close that route is favored. The reverse also applies: when a working producer has no working Factory in range that can take its cargo, a viable hidden consumer is favored. Open construction requirements count as cargo consumers so that actively needed Lumber and similar materials are not mistaken for orphaned production, but Projects do not create this extra priority by themselves. Existing cargo shortages, regional pressure, distance and rumor-tier requirements continue to apply. Distance priority uses the nearest mapped, operating Hub or City and reaches zero at 150 km.
An exploration backlog reduces the score of every new Rumor. The first three mapped-but-inactive economic sites are free; after that, each additional uncommissioned Source, Factory, Hub or City reduces Rumor scores by 10 percentage points. The factor cannot fall below 25%. Airfields, Projects and dynamic Sources do not count. Commissioning mapped sites reduces the backlog again.
Players investigate a rumor with SRS and the A/N audio signal. A continuous tone identifies a course line, an A or N Morse pattern shows that the aircraft has moved into one side of the range, and a repeated Z marker indicates the overhead cone. The full signal behavior belongs to A/N Direction Finding; the flight procedure is covered by the mapping guide.
