Exploring: Different scanners

[Lange_666]

I'm doing a bit of exploring and i noticed that there are various scanners available.
I also run into the problem that i sold my basic scanner only to find out that the detailed one then didn't work.
In the mean time, i also got me an intermediate system scanner.

So my questions:
How many scanners are there?
What are the differences between them?
Can they be combined (like the detailed surface scanner together with an intermediate system scanner + basic scanner)?

 

[Harbinger]

These are the available discovery scanners:

• The Basic Discovery Scanner will find all astronomical objects within 500 LS when triggered. It comes fitted as standard but costs 1,000 CR to replace.
• The Intermediate Discovery Scanner will find all astronomical objects within 1,000 LS when triggered. It costs ~500,000 CR.
• The Advanced Discovery Scanner will find all astronomical objects within the star system when triggered. It costs ~1,500,000 CR.

The above are straight replacements for each other.

The Detailed Surface Scanner is an addon to the Discovery Scanner, costs ~250,000 CR and needs to be installed in a separate Internal Compartment. It provides more detailed information on scanned objects such as atmosphere and composition of the scanned body.

 

[stephen_usher]

These are the available discovery scanners:

• The Basic Discovery Scanner will identify astronomical objects within 500 LS when triggered. It comes fitted as standard but costs 1,000 CR to replace.
• The Intermediate Discovery Scanner will identify astronomical objects within 1000 LS when triggered. It costs ~500,000 CR.
• The Advanced Discovery Scanner will identify all astronomical objects within the star system when triggered. It costs ~1,500,000 CR.

The above are straight replacements for each other.

The Detailed Surface Scanner is an addon to the Discovery Scanner, costs 10,000 CR and needs to be installed in a separate Internal Compartment. It provides more detailed information on scanned objects such as atmosphere and composition of the scanned body.

Actually it's 250,000Cr in Beta 3, it was 10,000 in Beta 2. This is why I've not so far managed to raise enough cash to buy one using exploration alone.

 

[Harbinger]

Actually it's 250,000Cr in Beta 3, it was 10,000 in Beta 2. This is why I've not so far managed to raise enough cash to buy one using exploration alone.

Ahh, never noticed when I purchased but then it was a couple of weeks ago when Beta 3 launched. I've edited my post appropriately.

 

[Jackie Silver]

If there's a bound on the range of the Advanced Scanner then it's at least 900,000ls.

I think the range of the Intermediate Scanner should be considerably increased (say 10,000ls) so that triggering it would almost certainly return planets directly orbiting the star you're at, but not necessarily return all companion stars.

That way you'd have:

Basic Scanner - gets only stuff near you
Intermediate Scanner - gets stuff around the star you're nearest to
Advanced Scanner - gets everything

Or possibly differentiate by mass, so that the Intermediate scanner would return all massive bodies in a system and the Advanced scanner would return small planets and moons as well.

I expect it's all subject to major change anyway.

 

[Ravenov]

Does anyone else think the Advanced scanner is a bit too powerful? I could buy 2500, maybe 5000ls range, but from 1000 for the intermediate to god like takes out any skill in exploration.

 

[Harbinger]

The range increase from basic to intermediate is definitely a little underwhelming considering the price difference. Also the infinite range of the advanced scanner does take all the fun out of exploring IMHO.

If there's a bound on the range of the Advanced Scanner then it's at least 900,000ls.

I've heard people state they've detected items at 1,200,000 LS out with the Advanced Scanner. I think it's safe to assume there is no limit and it's system-wide.

 

[Jackie Silver]

Does anyone else think the Advanced scanner is a bit too powerful?

No, I think it's exactly right. Squinting at the screen to spot tiny moving dots is tedious. With the AS you still need to fly close to objects to fully identify them, so you still need to tour a system if you want to map it properly.

 

[Swan]

These are the available discovery scanners:

• The Basic Discovery Scanner will find all astronomical objects within 500 LS when triggered. It comes fitted as standard but costs 1,000 CR to replace.
• The Intermediate Discovery Scanner will find all astronomical objects within 1,000 LS when triggered. It costs ~500,000 CR.
• The Advanced Discovery Scanner will find all astronomical objects within the star system when triggered. It costs ~1,500,000 CR.

The above are straight replacements for each other.

The Detailed Surface Scanner is an addon to the Discovery Scanner, costs ~250,000 CR and needs to be installed in a separate Internal Compartment. It provides more detailed information on scanned objects such as atmosphere and composition of the scanned body.

That's great thanks - although, where is that info from? There are a number of in-game items that I'd like to actually get some details on (hopefully they'll provide more info in the full release).

 

[Harbinger]

That's great thanks - although, where is that info from?

Personal experience. I've tested all of them.

 

[stephen_usher]

Personal experience. I've tested all of them.

You obviously didn't make that much money through exploration. I'm making, maybe, 10KCr a night (a couple of hours) if I'm lucky. No-where to trade around my base of Jula Oh as it's the last populated system in the lozenge it seems. Up to ~80KCr now. Only another couple of hundred to go before the detailed surface scanner is affordable.

 

[CapnSnuggie]

I, personally, would like to see some improvement in the 'Discovery Scanners' department.

I'm okay with the Ranges, but I think it should operate in effect like a 'sonar ping'. And the 'Quality' of your scanner returns a 'Definite' response in range of the scanner, but a 'Ghosted/maybe/anomaly' response on objects outside of the scanners range.

Much like how your standard scanners work to find ships outside their range. (The little ghosted type ship icons).

And also, there needs to be a 'penalty' when using the Discovery Scanner. Like everyone within range gets your ship lit up brightly on their scanners. Or possibly interference with their scanners (To annoy them and make them want to come after you).

So basically in this operation, you can make do with the cheapest scanner, it'll just take you longer as you go on a 'Wild Goose Chase' (No offense meant Commander Swan ), to find those 'Ghosted Anomalies' outside your scanner range, which may lead you to an Outpost made out of range so the Pirates have a save hiding place, which they'll most likely kill you to keep secret.

And you still get the 'drive' to want to upgrade your scanner (For convenience, safety, and accuracy).

Detailed scanners need more flavors. There needs to be Mineral, Organic, and other types, so that it keeps diversity in the 'Scanning' and deepens the explorer class.

Just my thoughts, sorry to hijack the thread.

But back on topic... There was a statement that said: "Beta 3's exploration sales to the Cartographers have had a 10x increase in sales cost." Which indicates they are still working to finalize the 'right feel' for discovery and earning potential. So look for slight changes in the next weeks as we near launch.

 

[_Flin_]

Did anyone test the payout difference between

1. Astronomical object found
2. Astronomical object scanned with basic scanner
2. Astronomical object scanned with detailed surface scanner

?

 

[Dynamo]

You obviously didn't make that much money through exploration. I'm making, maybe, 10KCr a night .

Wow. Yesterday I made 250K exploring. I got 25K from scanning just one system, average is about 5K per small system (2 stars and a maybe a planet).

Guess depends where you are - I am half way down the pill, towards the "top" of the edge.


I agree though - it appears you have to be rich to start earning good money from exploring.

 

[Ravenov]

I, personally, would like to see some improvement in the 'Discovery Scanners' department.

I'm okay with the Ranges, but I think it should operate in effect like a 'sonar ping'. And the 'Quality' of your scanner returns a 'Definite' response in range of the scanner, but a 'Ghosted/maybe/anomaly' response on objects outside of the scanners range.

Much like how your standard scanners work to find ships outside their range. (The little ghosted type ship icons).

And also, there needs to be a 'penalty' when using the Discovery Scanner. Like everyone within range gets your ship lit up brightly on their scanners. Or possibly interference with their scanners (To annoy them and make them want to come after you).

So basically in this operation, you can make do with the cheapest scanner, it'll just take you longer as you go on a 'Wild Goose Chase' (No offense meant Commander Swan ), to find those 'Ghosted Anomalies' outside your scanner range, which may lead you to an Outpost made out of range so the Pirates have a save hiding place, which they'll most likely kill you to keep secret.

And you still get the 'drive' to want to upgrade your scanner (For convenience, safety, and accuracy).

That's a really good idea, would add a lot to the discovery experience. Have some rep

 

[Harbinger]

You obviously didn't make that much money through exploration. I'm making, maybe, 10KCr a night (a couple of hours) if I'm lucky. No-where to trade around my base of Jula Oh as it's the last populated system in the lozenge it seems. Up to ~80KCr now. Only another couple of hundred to go before the detailed surface scanner is affordable.

Not all of it no, I did a bit of a grind towards the end of Beta 2 after it was revealed that we would keep the credits in Beta 3. I had enough cash to buy a type 6 with an intermediate scanner, detailed surface scanner and some mining gear upon starting Beta 3. I had to earn 1m+ credits to get the Advanced Discovery scanner afterwards which I gained from mining.

I have made some reasonable credits from exploring though. The most I've had from a single system was 46K credits.

 

[Commander Dave]

I'm okay with the Ranges, but I think it should operate in effect like a 'sonar ping'.

Difficult to use effectively.
To detect things using a "ping" like radar or sonar you have to transmit and then wait for the return of reflected energy.
For example, if you jumped into the Sol system and did your ping you would be waiting for 39400 seconds for the echo to return from Pluto. That's 11 hours in real time.
And the Sol system is pretty small.
If it were the extreme one with the station out at 1200000 ls, you'd be waiting for 27.7 days for the energy to get back to you.

At the moment the scanners seem to me to be operating using a combination of active sensors, passive sensors detecting incoming light etc... from system bodies, and a fairly heavy dose of magic.
Perhaps they're using gravitational methods as well. But these would still be limited by the speed of light.
At the moment I can't think of a way of doing the ping thing and still staying within the bounds of the reasonable fantasy that's already been constructed. That's why I suggest there's a fair bit of magic in them already.
I don't really mind about that. But I can't think of a plausibly in-keeping way of doing it.

 

[mono]

Slightly OT but pertinent to scanning, I've got a stack of info from scanned systems, some up to 10K Cr if I choose to sell them. However, if I sell the info, will that info be lost from my galaxy map, ie will I have to scan those systems again to get the stars/planets/stations?

 

[Zieman]

Difficult to use effectively.
To detect things using a "ping" like radar or sonar you have to transmit and then wait for the return of reflected energy.
For example, if you jumped into the Sol system and did your ping you would be waiting for 39400 seconds for the echo to return from Pluto. That's 11 hours in real time.
And the Sol system is pretty small.
If it were the extreme one with the station out at 1200000 ls, you'd be waiting for 27.7 days for the energy to get back to you.

At the moment the scanners seem to me to be operating using a combination of active sensors, passive sensors detecting incoming light etc... from system bodies, and a fairly heavy dose of magic.
Perhaps they're using gravitational methods as well. But these would still be limited by the speed of light.
At the moment I can't think of a way of doing the ping thing and still staying within the bounds of the reasonable fantasy that's already been constructed. That's why I suggest there's a fair bit of magic in them already.
I don't really mind about that. But I can't think of a plausibly in-keeping way of doing it.

The scanners use a SuperCruise ping, with much higher 'speed' cap than ships. Yes?

 

[Hellhawk666]

The problem I think they have tried to address is how to locate distant stars in multi-star systems without tedious parallax detection by eyeball or sheer luck. Hence the infinite-sensitivity Advanced Scanner.

It might work better if instead all the stars in a system showed up on the nav list automatically with charted locations when the system is entered, in the way that at the moment only the main star shows up. Starports would automatically be pre-charted. However everything else would have to be scanner located, with the effective distance of the advanced scanner lowered to 2000 ls.