Make the SRV scanner actually useful.

[Tryst]

Loads and loads of signals, but 90% of them amount to nothing at all and disappear as you get closer. The scanner shows practically nothing that makes any sense at all.
Those that do, often lead to containers with skimmers around them. I don't want stupid containers, especially since my SRV can only carry 2 at a time.
I want resources, specifically Germanium to make FSD booster fuel and get FSD upgrades.

All I want is a scanner that tells me where the resource nodes are, so I can drive around and find them, I'm not asking for much.
Even a filter on it to filter out the crap I don't want, such as cargo containers and outposts etc would help.
Also a way to filter out the interference that only gives the illusion that there is something, that's the most annoying part.

I just spent 2 hours searching for Germanium resources, I found 2 piles of cargo containers with skimmers around them and 2 resource nodes that contained nothing but Iron, Carbon and Nickel.

I'm going to have to give up playing until this is done, I can't progress without Germanium because it's required for FSD upgrades and FSD boost fuel, I can't buy the stuff from material traders, nor can I find any. All I am doing is wasting my time playing a game where progression is stunted.

 

[Zieman]

These give you raw materials. Common on left and rare on right.
Although every mat on one particular body can be found in the left three, the probabiility for the rare ones is quite low.

 

[Vedmo]

If you are only looking for raw materials, ignore the top half.

The interference is useful, keep centering your direction as best you can on it and it will clear up to a readable signal as you close in on it.

I found it very frustrating at first too, and had a difficult time making sense of it. It just took time behind the wheel for me, and now it I find it an easy to decipher and useful tool.

 

[Factabulous]

Yeah, definitely the scanner's fault, not the player needing a clue

 

[Tryst]

The interference is useful, keep centering your direction as best you can on it and it will clear up to a readable signal as you close in on it.

No, it doesn't 99% of the time, it disappears completely.

View attachment 210455
These give you raw materials. Common on left and rare on right.
Although every mat on one particular body can be found in the left three, the probabiility for the rare ones is quite low.

If only the scanner actually looked like that, at least then, it would be useful.

Seeing an image like this makes no sense to me at all.

 

[Zieman]

No, it doesn't 99% of the time, it disappears completely.


If only the scanner actually looked like that, at least then, it would be useful.

Seeing an image like this makes no sense to me at all.

Looks like your ship in front of you and something (Metallic Meteorite?) in your right front quarter, right side of it.
You might want to zoom out the 'radar' a step or two, btw.

 

[Tryst]

"something (Metallic Meteorite?)"
See, even you can't make out what it is!

What are the small, solid vertical bars then? They keep appearing and disappearing all over the place.

A filter to get rid of what you don't want would be a LOT better. We have metal detectors today with discriminator circuits (effectively filters to get rid of unwanted signals), why can't they make one a thousand years in the future?

 

[Eliza]

Maybe these will help:

Also combinations of all sort can "overlap" on the scanner. The art of using the scanner is to interprete the signal as "real" Explorers do.

Happy hunting, Commander! o7

 

[Zieman]

Verticals mean nothing, it is the horizontal bars that matter.
Interminttent, whole scanner wide bar means the object is far away, 1/5 width should be visible & targettable - at least soon, if not already.

 

[Zieman]

Maybe these will help:

View attachment 210457

View attachment 210458

Also combinations of all sort can "overlap" on the scanner. The art of using the scanner is to interprete the signal as "real" Explorers do.

Happy hunting, Commander! o7

This is pretty good.
I have found Polonium, Yttrium & Arsenic from Bronzite Chondrites too, albeit rarely and usually only one dropping at a time.

 

[Zieman]

"something (Metallic Meteorite?)"
See, even you can't make out what it is!

If that pic wasn't so tiny, or it had been taken 1/10 of a second later, I'd be more certain.
Video would be even better.

 

[Vedmo]

No, it doesn't 99% of the time, it disappears completely.

That isn't the way it works. What I'm assuming you mean by interference is what I would call a week signal, and the closer you get to it, the clearer it becomes. If it is disappearing on you, then without being able to see what is actually happening, I would guess you are not centering in on it and are just seeing the edge of it until you pass it by.

I think Zieman is probably on to something with zooming out, that might make things a bit easier.

There is another way for you to get that Germanium too, but will take some research. Biological and geological sites won't require reading the radar and while I have no clue which ones would give you Germanium, any of them will reliably give you plenty of stuff you can trade for Germanium at a material trader.

 

[Eliza]

This is pretty good.
I have found Polonium, Yttrium & Arsenic from Bronzite Chondrites too, albeit rarely and usually only one dropping at a time.

Thanks! Found them on the Wiki a long time ago. These charts helped me a lot, before Bio-/Geo-Sites could be found so easily.

 

[Tryst]

Maybe these will help:

View attachment 210457

View attachment 210458

Also combinations of all sort can "overlap" on the scanner. The art of using the scanner is to interprete the signal as "real" Explorers do.

Happy hunting, Commander! o7

That's the problem, my scanner NEVER looks like that. If it did, I wouldn't mind so much.
Besides, I'm not an explorer, I am a trader. Would you expect an architect to be able to make sense of car mechanics manuals?

 

[Zieman]

 

[Eliza]

That's the problem, my scanner NEVER looks like that. If it did, I wouldn't mind so much.

I really don't want to offend you, BUT...

The picture you have posted as a proof of a "defective" scanner-mechanics is just an example that is also posted on the scanner-related Wiki-Thread.
What that picture shows, seems to be a combination of a legal salvage combined with the ship's signal in front (as you can clearly see on the radar-disc).

The scanner works perfectly.

 

[Eliza]

...
Besides, I'm not an explorer, I am a trader. Would you expect an architect to be able to make sense of car mechanics manuals?

Okay...switching goalposts here?
IF you are a trader ONLY, what do you do in an SRV? There's nothing on the surface of a "space-rock" worth trading for.
I just wanted to be helpful, but now I'm starting to get "troll-bored".

Never mind. I just want to please you to stay civil in here. Word of advice: We are a really kind community but we also can be VERY unforgiving against "rude manners".

 

[PontifusRex]

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the audio clues.

While I rely on the visual clues to point me in a certain direction, it's the audio clues that tell me what I'm heading towards.

I rely on the audio much more than the visual to find the good stuff when using the scanner personally.

 

[Tryst]

The scanner works perfectly.

From my point of view it doesn't. I can't make any sense of what's on the screen at all, it may as well be a waveform on an oscilliscope because I wouldn't have a clue what I was looking at there either. Those guides you posted don't look anything like what's on my screen most of the time, there's a lot more interference with it that makes the entire screen meaningless.

It makes the SRV a complete waste of time for me, 2 hours to find 2 nodes, neither of which even gave me even one piece of Germanium. It's no wonder people are asking to buy the materials instead of trading them.

It would help if we could trade anything for anything, I have more high wake scans than I know what to do with, but they can only be traded at a certain type of trader and I don't need the items they will supply in return. If I could trade the result of high wake scans for materials, then I could actually do something because I know how to scan wakes and flying around a station getting those would be worth my time.

@Eliza: I am not an explorer, I am a trader, but even a trader needs more range on the FSD sometimes. That means engineering mods and that means going down on a planet to get mats for them.

 

[Eliza]

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the audio clues.

While I rely on the visual clues to point me in a certain direction, it's the audio clues that tell me what I'm heading towards.

I rely on the audio much more than the visual to find the good stuff when using the scanner personally.

Audio-files are hard to implement in this very forum, you know.
But you are absolutly right! Audio is very helpful.