How do you scan a whole system???

[Aura Lorell]

Hi all,

How do YOU scan a whole system??? i mean the way of scanning, i know you scan with a scanner
Just wondering how you scan a whole system efficiently.
Do you fly to the closest body and then the next closest and the next ect....
When i do this, sometimes other bodies get so far away i have to backtrack a lot to scan the body.

How do YOU scan???

Note 1: I use a fast G4 DSS upgrade.
Note 2: My left panel has always the asteroids filtered out.
Note 3: If I overshoot a planet, right at the point where it says "slow down" I drop the throttle to zero and dip the nose down until the planet is 90 degrees angle from the ship. The point up again while raising the throttle to 75%.

- Upon reaching the system, scan the star fuel scoop, open system map to check.
- Open the left hand panel, choose the body close, accelerate towards it at max throttle.
- Drop the throttle to 75% when reaching 7s away, keep moving until scan begins, drop throttle to zero.
- Use the left panel to target the next body, rinse and repeat.

Separate process for gas giants:

- Keep the throttle to full until 5s away, then drop to 0. This way the ship slightly overshoots but usually stops right by the gas giant.
- Simply rotate around, pointing at the moons and scan away most of the times without having to move.

Scanning is an almost unconscious process for me at this stage.

 

[Cliff Dobbs]

Personally, Thargoids be damned: I'd love to see exploration actually given a little depth. Replace the ridiculous infinite-speed honker with some sort of passive, parallax-based observation system (i.e. you have to move around so your sensors can see bodies moving against the background, and they might miss tiny ones - the faster and further you move the more chance of pinning something down), then put in some actual gameplay for the process of analysing each planet you find - maybe different sensor types, a need to cover the planet from many angles, etc.

While I completely agree with you sentiment, you could just go back to using the basic disco scanner (I have seriously considered this), but that only partially resolves the lack of exploration mechanics. I've put some thought into this and haven't really come up with a workable idea (I'm no game designer, after all).

I like your idea of essentially nerfing the DSS and making it a little more challenging to map an entire planet (even in 3303, I suspect scanning a whole planet should take more then a few seconds to do). OK, if a planet is just a big rock, perhaps a scan to identify the basic make up is a point-and-click operation, but life bearing worlds need something more. If there is life in them there seas, it'll take a bit more time to locate and identify it than that point-and-click device we currently use.

EDIT for afterthought: In the year 33-whatever, is it entirely beyond modern technology to have a shipboard system that automatically plots the most efficient route between the planets, or those we've tagged as being of interest?

Yeah, nuff said

C

 

[T'Kitr]

If there is life in them there seas, it'll take a bit more time to locate and identify it than that point-and-click device we currently use.

I suddenly have images of the old game Starflight, where you could send down a shuttle - carrying an SRV of sorts - and zip around a planet's surface basically abducting aliens. Or Spore. Spore did something similar.

But I'm sure the ability to land on atmospheric planets will be along shortly, and I've no doubt it'll include an engaging and well-thought-out mechanic for sampling and examining the local biologicals.

 

[mikelipino]

If I decide to do a full scan of all bodies, I use the left nav panel to select the nearest body, point my nose toward it and get just close enough to scan it then zero throttle.
By keeping your distance, you don't get bogged down in the gravity well and you can accelerate to your next body quicker. Sometime I avoid scanning moons for this reason.
When the scan is complete, I select the next closest body and repeat until they have all been scanned.

More often than not this results in a fairly efficient path that circles around the star, though sometimes there is a bit of back and forth.
I think any inefficiency is countered by time saved not having to fly up to get an overview and plan a route.

This is my technique as well. You will tend to circle the star spiraling outwards. Pretty efficient. It usually makes sense to pair this with the system map so that you skip rocky planets that aren't worth too much for a scan and that you have to get really close for the DSS to kick in (see the point about the gravity well above). I'll continue this while gas giants are under 2000 ls, skipping the moons, and definitely hitting earth-likes, water worlds, and ammonia worlds (I assume? not sure if I've found one...)

Make sure however to filter out the asteroids or you will continually select them as the next closest target though. That was really annoying until I figured out you could filter the left menu targets!

 

[EUS]

I always try to be heading away from the star, zig zagging to the furthest body.
But there's always at least that one sonofagun that has to be on the other side of the star.

 

[Cliff Dobbs]

But I'm sure the ability to land on atmospheric planets will be along shortly, and I've no doubt it'll include an engaging and well-thought-out mechanic for sampling and examining the local biologicals.

Like Astroneer

C

 

[Kolato]

I just pick out all the interesting stuff and then leave. Scanning whole systems is pretty pointless.

 

[Lestat]

I scan the full system. But what I like to do is account distance to help scan faster. Those planets that are closer then the star your heading to. I scan them first if possible

No wonder I been out in deep for 2 bloody years.

 

[Kenneth McGrew]

Hi all,

How do YOU scan a whole system??? i mean the way of scanning, i know you scan with a scanner
Just wondering how you scan a whole system efficiently.
Do you fly to the closest body and then the next closest and the next ect....
When i do this, sometimes other bodies get so far away i have to backtrack a lot to scan the body.

How do YOU scan???

these days I only scan ELW's and WW's also planets I land on with interest, or have orbited around for interest, but I do whole system scans sometimes if they are hard to reach systems, or something unique, in these cases I just travel from nearest object to the next nearest unexplored object, there possibly is a faster way but I CBA to work it out for the 1% of the time I full scan a system

There is one exception, if its 100kls away it can sod off - even ELW's , I would rather eat a 48 pack of Weetabix dry without the aid of liquid than sit in SC for 45 minutes


oh ill add I use a long range scanner now, scanning ELW's from 300ls away :O amazing...

 

[orizh]

It really depends. Right now I am doing some extensive surveying to collect data, so I am scanning every body (except asteroid belt clusters, but scanning those only gives arrival point and nothing else) of my target systems. On the in-between systems I'll scan ELWs, and WWs/HMCs if I'm not trying to make progress, but otherwise, I have a goal in mind and don't want to deviate too much from it. I'll also scan WD, NS, BH, and giants that come across my path.

Edit:

I realize the above does not actually answer the question.

As far as when I find a system where I want to scan everything, I'll do a mix of sysmap and nav panel selection. For selecting the path out, if my next closest target is behind me (compass-wise) then if there is any body within 1.5x the distance of whatever is behind me, I usually continue forward. I think if I was better at reading the radar and taking advantage of aligning myself on the ecliptic I could make these decisions a bit better though...

 

[Gandalf06]

It really depends. Right now I am doing some extensive surveying to collect data, so I am scanning every body (except asteroid belt clusters, but scanning those only gives arrival point and nothing else) of my target systems. On the in-between systems I'll scan ELWs, and WWs/HMCs if I'm not trying to make progress, but otherwise, I have a goal in mind and don't want to deviate too much from it. I'll also scan WD, NS, BH, and giants that come across my path.

Edit:

I realize the above does not actually answer the question.

As far as when I find a system where I want to scan everything, I'll do a mix of sysmap and nav panel selection. For selecting the path out, if my next closest target is behind me (compass-wise) then if there is any body within 1.5x the distance of whatever is behind me, I usually continue forward. I think if I was better at reading the radar and taking advantage of aligning myself on the ecliptic I could make these decisions a bit better though...

Glad this question has been asked because I was wondering the same thing and thought I'd missed something obvious
I use a mixture of left hand pane and system map but so find myself backtracking quite a bit. It would be useful if the system map gave you a map of the system and body positions as scanned not as a graphical representation.

I have set myself the target of scanning all bodies in an undiscovered system with a 500k limit to the furthest body. It's amazing how many I've found that are 498k away! It's as if the program knows...

Regards
G

 

[RevLogos]

If and/or when we get NPC companion travelers, one thing they could do is solve the traveling salesman problem. Select a list of bodies to scan, and the NPC determines the most efficient order to scan them.

In the mean time, I decide what to scan and usually work more or less outwards. I'll orient the orbital plane vertically so I am always moving in pitch. Often I can scan a gas giant from quite a long way away so I'll do these when they come into view.

 

[Old Duck]

If and/or when we get NPC companion travelers, one thing they could do is solve the traveling salesman problem. Select a list of bodies to scan, and the NPC determines the most efficient order to scan them.

In the mean time, I decide what to scan and usually work more or less outwards. I'll orient the orbital plane vertically so I am always moving in pitch. Often I can scan a gas giant from quite a long way away so I'll do these when they come into view.

NPC companion travelers - yes, please!!!

 

[ChiefRedCloud]

When I scan the entire system, I open the left hand panel and always target the closest unscanned planet. If I have to fly past the sun from one planet to the next, I scan the sun.

When I fly towards a planet I go full throttle until the timer goes below 10 seconds. I try to bring it to 7 seconds afterwards. When the scanner kicks in, I continue flying until I halved the distance (i.e. 70 ls the scan begins, throttling down at 35 ls)
When I scan twins or a planet with a moon. I first scan the first planet and further reduce the distance if the other object is substantially smaller. During the scan of the second body, I take a look at the results in the system map.

o7

Just remember .... this isn't a Spit or 109 ..... LOL

Chief

 

[orizh]

It would be useful if the system map gave you a map of the system and body positions as scanned not as a graphical representation.

I believe an orrery map is "on the list" though I don't remember hearing anything about it from Frontier any time recently. Here's hoping!

 

[MrFailfactory]

If you are looking to scan systems as quickly as possible, go visit Felicity (preferably Cheung, if you have him unlocked), and get the Long Range DSS mod. This thing can save you so much time because you don't have to get nearly as close to any of the bodies. Additionally, with a good L5 Long Range, those annoyingly-not-close-enough stars that are 3-5k from the entry point can now be scanned while scooping. The farthest star scan I have done so far (at 150%) was at a distance of 11k. Larger stars can be done from even farther away, I am sure.

As far as technique, I have found that following the lanes of the racetrack (actually flying in them), so to speak, works a lot better than flying across the orbital plane. In effect, you would be flying a spiral, as someone else mentioned previously. If I intend to skip some things between my current position and my target, I will fly in a parabola, instead of a straight line. Thinking a step or two ahead with your positioning is also a good idea, so you don't have a cluster of bodies directly between you and the next target(s).

I would also venture the opinion that scanning an entire system, and being in a hurry, are mutually exclusive goals. That said, there is nothing wrong with trying to be efficient.

As yet untested by me; for those items that are quite a distance from the entry point, I have heard rumor that flying towards them with nothing targeted will cause you to accelerate more quickly. Could be true, could be misperception - some day, I'll remember to test it.

Have fun.

Riôt