And im was detected at about 3200 meters at night doing a night surface attack
Which was the whole point of uppping the light factor, to make night surface attacks more feasible. Unfortunatly, dawn or dusk conditions will also be effected. Fog also has an effect, as does waves. It's all one big sum of the whole.
*sigh* I just can't win. the whole AI sensor implentation by the game sucks balls and needs to be redone from the ground up.