I am pretty sure that the handheld bio scanner does add stuff to the Codex, I will try to confirm that tomorrow if I find anything new to me.
Hunting for Bacteria in Exobiology is Extremely Unfun: Better markers for Microbes on the ground!
- Thread starter sfried
- Start date
there have been times on dark planets where i would just land on a flat spot and blindly scan in a circle around me, move up some, and repeat.
it was not fun.
and sometimes even in daylight ,the bacteria are the same color as the turf. it's possible, but not fun and they pay the lowest of all species.
beware, the scanner runs out of charges... you have to board the ship to refill it. there is no indicator, it just stops working after about 50 blind scans
it was not fun.
and sometimes even in daylight ,the bacteria are the same color as the turf. it's possible, but not fun and they pay the lowest of all species.
beware, the scanner runs out of charges... you have to board the ship to refill it. there is no indicator, it just stops working after about 50 blind scans
Sure you're not just low on power?
No need, I can confirm it does indeed add to your in game codex, however it doesn't provide as much information to the journal as the ship or SRV scanner, so it's preferable to at do a scan with the ship instruments on any bio before or after doing the hand scanner.
Thanks! I got to say I drove around on a planet with a different bio, with the Comp Scanner as primary on the SRV, and when it pings it also moves the reticule, so it's not like you wouldn't see that. I guess the only problem is bacteria needs to be on the slope or you need to drive around with the turret down a little. But let's be honest we do the second thing for geo anyway.
One of the problems with doing bacteria from your SRV or ship on dark planets, not completely black but very dark, is the lights of the vehicle affect your ability to see what is outside the ship. Using the free camera or turning off all the lights makes a huge difference on dark planets, you need to take advantage of all the features available in game like as you say the comp scanner in the SRV. Yes it's hard, not everything in the game needs to be easy, and we certainly don't need big arrows pointing to bacteria as we approach it. Sometimes you just need to either decide it's not worth the time and fly on to the next system or body, specially for the low value bio's.
Yeah there is a saying in IndyCar "use your tools" which means there are dozens of adjustments, use every one to the last mm to get the last hundredth, and I quite often think about that on these threads.
So how could bacteria be made more visible while incrasing the depth of the exploration experience?
I'd suggest scanning data collected in orbit includes what signs to look for on the ground. In example if you detect methane plumes look for gas clouds with your eyes.
Higher cost scanners could allow marking specifically detected sites from orbit, with a waypoint.
I'd suggest scanning data collected in orbit includes what signs to look for on the ground. In example if you detect methane plumes look for gas clouds with your eyes.
Higher cost scanners could allow marking specifically detected sites from orbit, with a waypoint.
I guess if you did want to make it visually obvious, you could enhance the Comp Scanner so that it added waypoints and a night-vision-alike trace on the HUD. That might even encourage people to use the SRV more if you had a gameloop where you find the darned stuff using the SRV and then download it to your suit's HUD for when you get out to go and get it.
That gets you around the issue of near-black bacteria on near-black regolith.
That gets you around the issue of near-black bacteria on near-black regolith.
Having a bad time finding worthless bacteria on badly lit planets? A Jargon File entry comes to mind.