FSD Wake Scanner needs to be balanced/fixed...

[Th3Nark]

Hello Commanders!

I'm a rather dedicated pirate in the Elite universe but was getting sick of just pulling people out of supercruise and scanning them style of pirating and decided to try something a little different.

I set myself up at a High traffic station and got myself a Wake Shift scanner + Cargo scanner, waited till a juicy looking target came out and cargo scanned to make sure their worth the time and then on their way out of the system scanned their Wake and "followed" them.
When I get to the other side no-ones there... I don't think its a fact of jumping to the wrong system I think its more that it takes too long to chase ppl via wake shift scanning and it makes it impossible to use them viably.
I've tried to do this 20+ times now and I think I've found my target on the other side maybe once or twice.

The whole affair from my side pretty much goes like this -
1. Target Jumps
2. Takes 10 seconds to scan the wake
3. Another 10 secs or so to spool up and jump yourself
4. Another 5 secs or so travel time/loading screen
5. Get to the other system and no-ones there (presumably already jumped)

From their side -
1. Jumps
2. 5 secs or so travel screen
3. 10 secs or so to spool up and jump again
4. Not able to be caught

The time that it takes to actually scan the wake makes chasing someone using them pointless, by the time you get across to the system they jumped to their gone.

I think that the actual scanning of the wake needs to be cut out of the process and also make it take 50% less time to actually jump after them so you have a fighting chance of catching the person on the other side before they jump, and if you don't catch them in time to interdict you still should at least be there in time to see their wake so you can follow again.

Currently the system just doesn't work properly and it makes having the wake shift scanner nearly pointless. Right now you can't even scan high energy wakes from Supercruise (which is ANOTHER thing that needs to be fixed) and you also don't even need the scanner to drop in on low energy signatures which is just ridiculous, why have it so that you have this wake system and a scanner for it if you're not going to even implement it so you need to HAVE the scanner to interact with wakes?

Please hurry up and sort the Wake shift mechanic so it actually works viably, I think it's an awesome system to have and would be a great boon to us pirates and probably even those do gooder bounty hunters would benefit from having it streamlined

 

[cheekibreekisuka]

I once scanned the H.E.W. of an NPC and followed him to another system, I found him and chased after him until he dropped near a station, less than 15 seconds later I followed him using his Low energy FSD when the "Safe disengage ready" popped up but the game decided to put me in an instance where no one was there and I was left at around 20 Km away from the station where the NPC supposedly went...

The problem is that you don't even know if the game put you in the same instance as the person you are chasing after despite using their wake, and since the "space" in this game it's nothing more than a bunch of separate instances that get created specifically for every action that happens and erased after that action ends (don't know if I'm expressing it well enough), if the game fails to place you in the same instance you cannot interact with whatever happened even though you would be occupying the same exact coordinates as the other player.


-> Even though you scanned his wake and followed him in time, the trader could have been already jumping when you got there or the game could have failed and placed you in different instances... I don't know if reducing the time it takes to scan the wakes would fix that, but I don't think so



-D, F.

 

[purf]

in before:

Works as intended. I'm entitled to not ever have my spacetruck touched.

 

[Jezzah]

Totally agree OP on the problem you describe. not sure on the solution though it's going to get a lot of hate I think here.

 

[Yabba Addict]

Yeah, I've tried wake scanning cmdrs before, even if you're lucky enough that they're heading to a station, by the time you arrive they are way out of range of any interdictor and the way SC works means literally no chance of catching them up. Just remove the bloody timer on the FSWS, the target already has a headstart on you. Even then I'm not sure this would be enough.

 

[Th3Nark]

in before:

Works as intended. I'm entitled to not ever have my spacetruck touched.

LOL... I know right, space truckers think that they should be able to just cruise around with no armaments, the cheapest shields and no shield banks, max out on cargo and just relying on the broken parts of the game to be safe and that is what about 80% of them do, So annoying.

I ran into 1 trucker who actually knew how to play, he was in a Type-6 with high level shields, shield banks and chaff, although he did do the submit and run trick though but his type-6 was pretty damn tough, those things actually have some pretty decent shields if you invest into it, I was finding it hard to put any kind of dent into them with C2 Rails and C1 Pulses (my trusty old cobra).

-> Even though you scanned his wake and followed him in time, the trader could have been already jumping when you got there or the game could have failed and placed you in different instances... I don't know if reducing the time it takes to scan the wakes would fix that, but I don't think so

-D, F.

I don't know too much in regards to the instance side of things but if that is the case then also fixing that when you scan the wake it lines you up with the same instance as their in would also be needed.

Totally agree OP on the problem you describe. not sure on the solution though it's going to get a lot of hate I think here.

Yeah wouldn't be surprised but like Purf said it's just going to be cry baby space truckers thinking that they should be able to trade with no risk at all.

Yeah, I've tried wake scanning cmdrs before, even if you're lucky enough that they're heading to a station, by the time you arrive they are way out of range of any interdictor and the way SC works means literally no chance of catching them up. Just remove the bloody timer on the FSWS, the target already has a headstart on you. Even then I'm not sure this would be enough.

Yeah I think removing the timer all together would be a good idea, at least if they were going to a station you would be able to catch them on their approach and have a chance to at least see them spooling up if they were jumping to another system, but like cheeki said, if you jump into the wrong instance then you're screwed anyway.

 

[Yabba Addict]

Well, the fsws is supposed to connect you to the right instance, that's one thing that does work from what i've seen. And from what cheeki said, yeah i've seen that but the npc does usually appear if you wait. I just boost ahead abit and wait.