Discover astronomical objects sooner

[Bobe]

Obviously it would be really unbalanced to tag objects as discovered as soon as you can see them, because often you can spot distant planets or stars when they are no bigger than those in the skybox. However, I feel it's a bit silly to have to get within about 3 Ls of them for it to trigger, only once a star fills your entire view do you suddenly realize you may have discovered something.

You could argue that it's a limitation of the sensor range, but the range should only apply to the scanner. I just envision that objects could easily be tagged manually by the pilot.

I think that objects should be deemed discovered once you're close enough that the actual model of the object is rendered rather than just a light sprite. The range for scanning them would remain unchanged.

 

[SquidgyB]

Also, having the Intermediate/Advanced Scanners should arguably modify the time taken/distance required to initiate a scan of an Unknown stellar body.

 

[graham.reeds]

To discover them earlier try 'firing' your basic discovery scanner. It will find everything within a 500ls radius.

 

[Bobe]

To discover them earlier try 'firing' your basic discovery scanner. It will find everything within a 500ls radius.

Is that what using it does? I was wondering why it was in the fire groups window.

Is the basic discovery scanner different from a ship's internal scanner, or does it just have passive and active modes? In other words, if I removed it from the ship, could I still scan like normal when I approach an object?

 

[Paranoid Android]

Is the basic discovery scanner different from a ship's internal scanner, or does it just have passive and active modes? In other words, if I removed it from the ship, could I still scan like normal when I approach an object?

Discovery scanner is like some kind of sonar (it's been referred to as the space horn) - it'll discover all objects in a set range (depending on scanner level) but it won't know what that object is. You'll need to get get close enough (distance varies depending on what's found and how big it is) to scan it with the internal scanner to determine the object's type/makeup/name(!)

If you get close enough to any object you'll discover it without the need for the discovery scanner... again the distance varies depending on type/size.