Newcomer / Intro Help.... Combat and sensors

Texasmagpie

T
Ok, so now that I have my sensor issues fixed, I went to the closest low level extraction core to try my hand at combat. The “local authorities” quickly scanned. In fact they were identified as soon as they popped in, but the minors, and what I am assuming are pirates, never scanned. I followed one ship that was getting pelted by the po-po from the time he jumped in to when he violently expired, and my sensors never confirmed he was a baddie. It was a good five minutes I followed this malcontent about. I even tried targeting him via contacts.
Am I doing something wrong?
 

Cmdr_Ajay31091

Cmdr_Ajay31091
Texasmagpie said:
Ok, so now that I have my sensor issues fixed, I went to the closest low level extraction core to try my hand at combat. The “local authorities” quickly scanned. In fact they were identified as soon as they popped in, but the minors, and what I am assuming are pirates, never scanned. I followed one ship that was getting pelted by the po-po from the time he jumped in to when he violently expired, and my sensors never confirmed he was a baddie. It was a good five minutes I followed this malcontent about. I even tried targeting him via contacts.
Am I doing something wrong?
Click to expand...
Have you equipped a kill warrant scanner?
 

SciTrekker

SciTrekker
Texasmagpie said:
Ok, so now that I have my sensor issues fixed, I went to the closest low level extraction core to try my hand at combat. The “local authorities” quickly scanned. In fact they were identified as soon as they popped in, but the minors, and what I am assuming are pirates, never scanned. I followed one ship that was getting pelted by the po-po from the time he jumped in to when he violently expired, and my sensors never confirmed he was a baddie. It was a good five minutes I followed this malcontent about. I even tried targeting him via contacts.
Am I doing something wrong?
Click to expand...
Video please (or it didn't happen)
 

Faded Glory

Faded Glory
Well, first off, you do have to have the ship targeted before it will scan. Then you have to point your ship at the ship you want to scan for as long as the scan takes, which is around 5, perhaps 10 seconds. This is a purely passive scan. Any time the ship goes outside the range of the scanner (for the sake of ease, just expect that you need the target dead ahead) then the scan breaks and needs to start again from the beginning.

You can tell whether you are scanning or not by the little whirly icon in the info panel (front right HUD). You will typically see the ship type and ship name, sometimes the NPC name if it has previously scanned you, and once the scan completes the rest of the info, rank, legal status and faction affiliation will fill in.

My guess is that you are either not targeting the ship or not keeping the ship in your sights for long enough and that the scan keeps restarting.
 

Ashnak

Ashnak
Ok, let me go back a step. You said "quickly scanned" - how? Here is what it should look like:
  • you select the target. Multiple ways to do that - in VR, I just look and press "target in front". Depending on your mapping, you might also just cycle through the "next target"/"previous target" cycle until you end up with whom you want
  • the target then shows up in your target display (left side from the radar)
  • you need to point at the target, though, for the target info to show up (this one is not WANTED, so you better don't shoot him)
pIULuLM.png


Which part of that sequence doesn't work for you, and what happens instead?
 

Vetinari

V
Yeah you have a 'cone' of view in front of you, roughly equal to the V on the radar but also above and below, the target needs to be targeted and in this cone to be scanned. You can get an engineered bigger cone but better to go for long range I find.

Scanning is cumulative eg it takes 5s to scan and you lock on for 4s, next time you only need to lock on for 1s to finish the scan, not the full 5s from scratch.

Basic ship scanner is auto fitted on every ship and no fire button required it passively scans just by looking at target, Cargo Scanner and Kill Warrant Scanner are optional purchases and need a fire button assigned as need to actively scan by holding button.
 

Texasmagpie

T
Ashnak said:
Ok, let me go back a step. You said "quickly scanned" - how? Here is what it should look like:
  • you select the target. Multiple ways to do that - in VR, I just look and press "target in front". Depending on your mapping, you might also just cycle through the "next target"/"previous target" cycle until you end up with whom you want
  • the target then shows up in your target display (left side from the radar)
  • you need to point at the target, though, for the target info to show up (this one is not WANTED, so you better don't shoot him)
pIULuLM.png


Which part of that sequence doesn't work for you, and what happens instead?
Click to expand...
I am on Xbox1. See to see the list of contacts I have to hold x and tap the left d-pad. It is a bit arduous to go through the process. Hold this, scroll there, tap, scroll down, then over one, then down to a selection on on the list of contacts. Similar to PS4. If there is a quicker way, I would appreciate knowing.
Do I HAVE to have a kill warrant scanner?
 

Texasmagpie

T
Vetinari said:
Yeah you have a 'cone' of view in front of you, roughly equal to the V on the radar but also above and below, the target needs to be targeted and in this cone to be scanned. You can get an engineered bigger cone but better to go for long range I find.

Scanning is cumulative eg it takes 5s to scan and you lock on for 4s, next time you only need to lock on for 1s to finish the scan, not the full 5s from scratch.

Basic ship scanner is auto fitted on every ship and no fire button required it passively scans just by looking at target, Cargo Scanner and Kill Warrant Scanner are optional purchases and need a fire button assigned as need to actively scan by holding button.
Click to expand...
My scanner is not targeting. It highlights the friendlies in green, in fact their info pops up quickly, but not the others.
 

Faded Glory

Faded Glory
There should be a binding to target object ahead. Have a look in Options > Controls, I'm assuming that's the same for Xbox. Then, when a ship is directly ahead of you, it will get a small square outline around it and pressing whatever key is bound to that will target it and you will see that it is selected as it gets the three triangles around it - also you will see it in the info box in the HUD.

No, you don't need a kill warrant scanner. All that does is let you collect bounties from outside the local faction if they exist.

Edit - It sounds as though you are having issues targeting things or perhaps keeping something targeted long enough, hence why the scan is not happening. System authority ships, and sometimes mission targets will automatically show full info as soon as you target them, but random ones won't, you will need to keep them targeted and in front of you until the scan completes.
 
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d8veh

d8veh
No, you don't need a kill warrant scanner. All that does is get you some extra bounties. What you do is select the ship so that it has the little triangular markers around it, then keep pointing at it for about 5 of 10 seconds. You then see "wanted" in the bottom left of your screen where it has the details about the target.
 

Vetinari

V
Button A on XB targets whatever is in front of you (which will have a square box around it as described above). Works on ships, installations, Nav Beacons, other Beacons, planets, asteroids, everything in fact. Organic targets (planets etc) usually have a circle rather than a square. Cant remember what shape Combat Zones and similar are but the principle is the same, if theres an object in front of you with a 'box' around it in whatever shape, pressing A will target that.

The X & Left means you target sequentially through everything in range. I do this then turn the ship until theyre in front to scan then do next one. Yes it is a bit repetitive but its what we have (unless youre cheating with 'illegal' software which will get you banned)
 

Texasmagpie

T
Faded Glory said:
There should be a binding to target object ahead. Have a look in Options > Controls, I'm assuming that's the same for Xbox. Then, when a ship is directly ahead of you, it will get a small square outline around it and pressing whatever key is bound to that will target it and you will see that it is selected as it gets the three triangles around it - also you will see it in the info box in the HUD.

No, you don't need a kill warrant scanner. All that does is let you collect bounties from outside the local faction if they exist.

Edit - It sounds as though you are having issues targeting things or perhaps keeping something targeted long enough, hence why the scan is not happening. System authority ships, and sometimes mission targets will automatically show full info as soon as you target them, but random ones won't, you will need to keep them targeted and in front of you until the scan completes.
Click to expand...
I’m getting it figured out. Targeting is good now. BUT now, since I’ve adjusted my modules I can’t HS jump to a system 7+ LY away. So now I’m stuck in Deomi. Grrrr And Deomi doesn’t have CRAP for upgrades.
 

Faded Glory

Faded Glory
What modules have you upgraded? Obviously not your FSD... ;)

If you want to post a link to your build using Coriolis, then we may be able to help you out a bit. But remember, if you need to temporarily change modules out to help you get better jump range you can put them in storage, so you won't lose them - and if you have the credits you can transfer them back to you at a different station.

Frustrating as it may be, it's a great learning experience, figuring out how to get what you need from your ship.
 

A C Ender

A C Ender
Texasmagpie said:
I’m getting it figured out. Targeting is good now. BUT now, since I’ve adjusted my modules I can’t HS jump to a system 7+ LY away. So now I’m stuck in Deomi. Grrrr And Deomi doesn’t have CRAP for upgrades.
Click to expand...
The heavier your ship (more modules, heavy modules), the shorter it jumps. Pay close attention to this during outfitting.

Buy a better frame shift drive too! They're arranged A-E from best-worst (this is true for most modules). There's almost no situation where you don't want the best FSD of the biggest size your ship can use! Until you know exactly why you don't want the best one, you're not advanced enough to make that choice.

Don't ever downsize your FSD unless you are very advanced!
 
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aRJay

aRJay
A C Ender said:
The heavier your ship (more modules, heavy modules), the shorter it jumps. Pay close attention to this during outfitting.

Buy a better frame shift drive too! A rated if you can, B if not, C if not the first two etc. There's almost no situation where you don't want the best one, and until you know exactly why you don't want the best one, you're not advanced enough to make that choice.
Click to expand...
Just remember when getting a better grade Frame Shift Drive getting one that is smaller than the slot size is usually a bad idea.
 
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