Considering 99% of the time I'm down there to steal their most precious belongings, murder someone, or condemn them to heat death so that I can upgrade my personal suit, I can't exactly blame them for assuming the worst. And sadly for them, it's generally not enough. When they open fire on me, they better make it count on the first shot...
Didn't hear the scan warning? Going to murder you then.
- Thread starter CMDR Foursyth
- Start date
I'd definitely agree if audio was the only cue but it's not.
This is the primary way you're warned and it pops up every time, right at the very beginning of the process.
There are some limited examples where the AI process for this fails and I think that some work could go into the algorithm to make it a bit more lenient and elegant (it's a tad simplistic right now) but these issues do not represent more than a very low percentage of cases, in my experience. So long as you pay attention to the HUD elements telling you what's going on.
This is important. The HUD tells you this and whether the scan will end up negative, too. It's really important that you learn the HUD (it's not an overly complicated HUD but nothing explains it so if you want help, shout up and someone will help). The idea that non-compliance results in an attack is just to emphasise that this is an end game moment on a mission or infiltration: the mission can hinge on this moment, which brings in two important game play elements:
1) Your ability to evade scans - adds tension and requires skill
2) The way you handle the scan if it comes - adds tension and requires experience
If the result of a positive scan is you just get a fine or told off, there's no consequence to the process, no tension, and you can complete missions without caring too much. The lethal response is just a game play element and I think it's perfectly balanced considering it's always possible to evade the scan in the first place. Guards will only scan you once every 2 minutes or so and they will only do it if you get closer than the red circle on your radar. So passive scan the guards as much as you can so you can see them on your radar and then you can gauge their distance based on this:
This is safe. That arrow is the guard, they won't scan you.
This is not safe. The guard hasn't started scanning yet but is now looking at you.
At this frame, the scan process has started.
As you can see, it's pretty lenient. But it helps to know this.
Edit: it's not "insta death" either. Shields up, run away. I've completed missions following a scan gone wrong. But if you cannot, just run away, get to your ship and launch (or just quit the game in a safe location).
This is the primary way you're warned and it pops up every time, right at the very beginning of the process.
There are some limited examples where the AI process for this fails and I think that some work could go into the algorithm to make it a bit more lenient and elegant (it's a tad simplistic right now) but these issues do not represent more than a very low percentage of cases, in my experience. So long as you pay attention to the HUD elements telling you what's going on.
This is important. The HUD tells you this and whether the scan will end up negative, too. It's really important that you learn the HUD (it's not an overly complicated HUD but nothing explains it so if you want help, shout up and someone will help). The idea that non-compliance results in an attack is just to emphasise that this is an end game moment on a mission or infiltration: the mission can hinge on this moment, which brings in two important game play elements:
1) Your ability to evade scans - adds tension and requires skill
2) The way you handle the scan if it comes - adds tension and requires experience
If the result of a positive scan is you just get a fine or told off, there's no consequence to the process, no tension, and you can complete missions without caring too much. The lethal response is just a game play element and I think it's perfectly balanced considering it's always possible to evade the scan in the first place. Guards will only scan you once every 2 minutes or so and they will only do it if you get closer than the red circle on your radar. So passive scan the guards as much as you can so you can see them on your radar and then you can gauge their distance based on this:
This is safe. That arrow is the guard, they won't scan you.
This is not safe. The guard hasn't started scanning yet but is now looking at you.
At this frame, the scan process has started.
As you can see, it's pretty lenient. But it helps to know this.
Edit: it's not "insta death" either. Shields up, run away. I've completed missions following a scan gone wrong. But if you cannot, just run away, get to your ship and launch (or just quit the game in a safe location).
Last edited:
I am not wanted, I am simply walking at a tourist site and if I don't hear the guard (or he decides to scan me through a wall) and don't immediately stop for a scan I should get killed?
What kind of a logic is that?
First non compliance should be a warning/fine. Or if I am allied with the faction a "no-no" should be enough.
But not insta death.
As I said, this would be gameable during the covert mission types because it would make every mistake moot by giving you another chance.
Not saying it makes sense or that I like it, just that the covert mission types rely on this mechanic.
A little help would be if the being scanned message was consistent with others.
In ships you get it in RED in the middle of the screen.
On foot it's a little popup in the corner.
It should be consistent IMO.
If you are caught doing something illegal or carrying illegal goods then of course the death penalty is justified.
But if you are clean with the faction and your only sin is not stopping for a scan, then no.
And I don't think this has any effect on any mission type.
So the suggestion should be this (add a red warning in the centre of the screen). I'm unsure it's necessary but if that's what it'll take to help you then I'm all for it.
The lethal response is important though. Without it, there's almost no risk to any mission except covert variants (and even then, not much risk there). The guards play a huge part of the way this process works and you'll notice as you play more that the security rating of the settlement increases guard count. If they were passive and didn't attack you for non-compliance then you could always just run away. No tension, no risk.
Honestly, give me a scav hunting mission and I'll breeze through it every single time. But a heist in a high security settlement I'm not 100% familiar with? The guards make it a challenge for me and I go into them not 100% confident I'll succeed. Despite how many missions I've done now (must be hundreds). Avoiding guards when I know a scan means failure is one of the most challenging and fun parts of the game. If I could just run off and take a 500cr fine then that would be ruined.
Last edited:
Yes, the red warning would help a lot of people (because them not seeing the message is usually the culprit from what I can see from these posts).
And yes, the lethal response is important if you are doing something illegal.
Getting killed for not stopping for a scan is over the top.
If they don't attack for running away, I'd never stop if I was carrying something illegal = the mission is not hard at all.
If all you want is slightly better code so they behave a little more cleverly then I agree (although determining intent is impossible, so it'll always have to be based on some strict logic that we as players must learn and adapt to). If you just don't want to get attacked because you don't comply then I strongly disagree.
But the reason this happens to you is you don't pay attention to both the audio and visual cues (sorry, not trying to be rude, it's just true; it's happened to me as well so it's not just you). So I don't think adjustments need to be made for that. Just keep an eye on your hud. And don't move so fast all of the time that you can accidentally whiz past before you notice it, either. That's got me once or twice but never again.
Last edited:
This is the main issue with the current system - every new person gets caught out, comes the the forums to complain, learns what to do and then the next turns up. Maybe they should add extra info into the rebuy screen (as with many other recurring things, like don't buy a T9 if you don't want to be interdicted by NPCs)
Deleted member 182079
D
It is kind of annoying though to be scanned constantly, especially if you're not on location to do something illegal.
Imagine going to the supermarket and police stop and search you every 30 seconds, sometimes even in shorter succession. Travelling through unrestricted space on the map shouldn't be as obnoxious and risky as it currently is.
Hehe this is true. Sadly, the rather good tutorial mission doesn't cover this at all. If I was the guy in charge of creating that tutorial, I'd be banging on the budget manager's office door (or teams call) daily to demand enough budget to build at least another 5-6 tutorials to cover the other elements of Odyssey.
As it is, the best thing we can do is make our own tutorials. But I think that perhaps even that isn't enough for some and they'd prefer it be changed without maybe fully understanding the consequences of what they want.
In this case though, if the OP just wants some slighty leniency and smarter code, I'm up for that (the AI has gone wonky for me sometimes). But if they want to do away with the "instant kill" (it's not instant, even less so if you get shields up) then that would ruin the infiltration game for me in one single change.
I feel like I do need to politely remind people very often that it's not 30 seconds. It's closer to 120 (and one of these days I'll remember to time it so I can say for certain how long it is). And in that time you can do quite a lot of damage without fear of getting scanned.
It's not annoying, it's necessary. Do away with it and the infiltration game is turned into this:
1) walk up to a guard at the beginning
2) get scanned
3) finish the mission without caring about guards
Even if this is only applied in "unrestricted" areas, it would ruin the game for me. Please consider that. And only a small fraction of space is restricted, which guards won't even scan you for entering. You just get one warning and then you get attacked.
Most of this logic has resulted in a set of rules that I think make infiltration very fun. Some of these suggestions threaten that fun significantly.
I don't agree on the gameplay but AI definitely needs a little tweaking and improvement.
About the the notification - it should be more visible.
If it's something that gets you killed then it must be in player's face to see it.
That's all.
That tutorial also actively trolls you into thinking that SRVs contain functioning power regulators, when 9 times out of 10 all you get is a degraded one.
Nope, a certain bug in behaviour causes a guard to scan you every time he/she goes through a door.
I had that happen quite often.
Other than that it's not 30 seconds, that's true.
That's a bug then. We need not discuss it as a feature.
I don't mind being told I'm wrong when I'm wrong but in this case what I said doesn't deserve "nope". Because what I said is true
The message I quoted did not mention a bug, it was talking about the common behaviour. Which isn't factual. And I think it's important that we say things that are factual as often as we can.
Yep, but for a new player it can still be confusing.
Maybe but the person I quoted is not a new player. And it's a bug. Bugs need to be fixed. I do not disagree with that and so I don't think we need to talk about that much more than that.
