Newcomer / Intro I need your help Commanders! Big problem to scan megaships or installations.. :(

[RHAD0X]

Hello everyone!

After a long time I'm back in the game and unfortunately come across a phenomenon that is inexplicable to me. I have decided to upgrade my Federal Corvette with various engineers and for that I need a wide variety of components. I have to scan surface installations and megaships with the "Data Link Scanner". I thought no problem. But unfortunately something seems to be wrong with my configuration or to have a bug. I hope you can eventually help me.

As an example, I am in front of a military installation. I choose it in the navigation menu..

I've already watched numerous videos and guides to this issue, but unfortunately it didn't help me at all. Why is my next picture showing. Actually, the military installation should now appear in the contact menu, which unfortunately is not the case.

I've already done several ship reboots and everything seems to be ok with my sensors.

I have exactly the same problem with surface installations. After selecting it, nothing appears in the contact menu.

I hope you can help me. Many thanks in advance.

 

[Ashnak]

I have to scan surface installations and megaships with the "Data Link Scanner"

Colour me confused, but which game are you playing? At least in Elite Dangerous Horizons, scanning Megaships or Surface Installations with a datalink scanner won't give you any data mats to use at Engineers for ship upgrades.

Next point would be that that hunk you're pointing at is neither a Megaship nor a Surface Installation.

Thirdly, you don't have the datalink scanner in your current firegroup (yes, you need to assign it to a fire group and deploy hardpoints if you want to use it from a ship).

In ED Horizons, you (usually) get data materials from scanning ships (just select and point at them), scanning high wakes (need a wake scanner for that), scanning private beacons in Encoded SS or scanning data points on planetary surfaces, usually in settlements. The latter is basically impossible to do in a 'vette, as the range of the scanner is less than the length of the 'vette - and often, those datapoints are either marked as private or inside a fenced off area, so scanning them makes the people who own them a bit angry...

 

[Para Handy]

... or go to the crashed Jameson' s Cobra, park your SRV in the debris field and scan all four comms arrays in turn, relogging until you fill up with AEC - then go trade.

CMDR John Jameson Crashed Cobra MkIII | Canonn Research Group

The crashed Cobra Mk III of ill-fated CMDR John Jameson can be found in the HIP 12099 system on planet 1B -54.3803, -50.3575.

canonn.science

INARA

The community site for Elite: Dangerous, Starfield, Kingdom Come: Deliverance with the game databases, information, gaming news and other handy content...

inara.cz

 

[rootsrat]

Colour me confused, but which game are you playing? At least in Elite Dangerous Horizons, scanning Megaships or Surface Installations with a datalink scanner won't give you any data mats to use at Engineers for ship upgrades.

There are various "things" on installations that you can scan for data. Like satellites, comm arrays etc.

@RHAD0X - This does indeed seems incorrect. That should be displayed in your contacts. Seems like a bug to me. Did you try any other ones?

 

[RHAD0X]

Colour me confused, but which game are you playing? At least in Elite Dangerous Horizons, scanning Megaships or Surface Installations with a datalink scanner won't give you any data mats to use at Engineers for ship upgrades.

Next point would be that that hunk you're pointing at is neither a Megaship nor a Surface Installation.

Thirdly, you don't have the datalink scanner in your current firegroup (yes, you need to assign it to a fire group and deploy hardpoints if you want to use it from a ship).

In ED Horizons, you (usually) get data materials from scanning ships (just select and point at them), scanning high wakes (need a wake scanner for that), scanning private beacons in Encoded SS or scanning data points on planetary surfaces, usually in settlements. The latter is basically impossible to do in a 'vette, as the range of the scanner is less than the length of the 'vette - and often, those datapoints are either marked as private or inside a fenced off area, so scanning them makes the people who own them a bit angry...

Hey and thanks for the reply!

1. Actually I am playing Odyssey. I switched back to Horizons hoping it would eventually work there. Unfortunately not. My main problem is that I simply don't see any installations in the contact menu so that I can target them and then scan them with the data link scanner. Actually, it should go like this in this video. But it fails because the corresponding installation does not appear in the contact menu for me

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzMmO4NOjcE


2. I have all the time the data link scanner in a fire group. But I cant scan the installation cause not in the contact menu to target it.. like in the video..

 

[RHAD0X]

There are various "things" on installations that you can scan for data. Like satellites, comm arrays etc.

@RHAD0X - This does indeed seems incorrect. That should be displayed in your contacts. Seems like a bug to me. Did you try any other ones?

Thanks so much for your reply!

I'm really at a loss right now. I'm just reinstalling the game. I really think it's a bug. I have no idea what to do about it and destroy my fun. I don't give up but slowly I don't know what to do next. To your question.. I tried surface installtions or any kind of installations .. but never an installion appears in the contact menu..

 

[Ashnak]

Ok... I think I see.

Yes, that looks like a bug in your case. I'm playing in Horizons - haven't yet tried scanning a surface installation, but the last couple of dozen or so times I tried to land at one in the last two days, they always showed up in the contacts menu.

Best I can suggest - short of contacting support - would be to verify your game files.

 

[Factabulous]

Dunno - I'd like to see the OP trying to scan an actual scannable thing before anything else. So far all I see if trying to scan an very old Military Inst, so who knows what they're trying to scan on a planet ...

 

[RHAD0X]

after a complete reinstallation of the game the problem is still there. This time I'm flying over a Surface installation and no matter what I try .. It just doesn't appear in the contacts. Did I miss something ??? I'm desperate :/

 

[Para Handy]

after a complete reinstallation of the game the problem is still there. This time I'm flying over a Surface installation and no matter what I try .. It just doesn't appear in the contacts. Did I miss something ??? I'm desperate :/

Why would you expect it to appear in the Contacts page? There is nothing for you to be in contact with, it isn't a port. You only see things that you can actually "contact or interact with" on that page - ports, ships, data points, materials, cannisters, etc. If you got close enough then probably skimmers, defence turrets and data points would appear in the contacts panel.

 

[RHAD0X]

Why would you expect it to appear in the Contacts page? There is nothing for you to be in contact with, it isn't a port. You only see things that you can actually "contact or interact with" on that page - ports, ships, data points, materials, cannisters, etc. If you got close enough then probably skimmers, defence turrets and data points would appear in the contacts panel.

Thanks for your reply!

I will go into more detail and use the fandom page for the topic of installations as a reference.

Installation

Installations are orbital structures with various purposes. Unlike Starports and Outposts, they lack docking facilities, but are still popular gathering places for independent pilots of all walks of life. Some Installations are guarded by ships that open fire on trespassers. Installations appear...

elite-dangerous.fandom.com

"Interaction​

The interaction with Installations is similar to Megaships.[5]

Initiating Interactions:[6]

• Installations need to be scanned with the Data Link Scanner before any of the interaction objects become interactive.
• Doing so will release a scan pulse which highlights all interaction objects attached to the Installation.
• Interaction objects are added to your contacts panel and can be targeted and interrogated to discover how to interact with them."

I cant do this things. Cause I cant scan the Installation with the Data Link Scanner. Cause the Installation is not in the Contact list to target it.

 

[Para Handy]

OK so I couldn't be bothered to make a video so here are screenshots - arrival at a structure you CAN interact with:

Turned on night vision so you could see the hauler and there in the contacts:

After doing the Datalink Scanner scan:

Not all structures can be interacted with.

 

[RHAD0X]

OK so I couldn't be bothered to make a video so here are screenshots - arrival at a structure you CAN interact with:

View attachment 242278


Turned on night vision so you could see the hauler and there in the contacts:

View attachment 242279


After doing the Datalink Scanner scan:

View attachment 242280

Not all structures can be interacted with.

Thanks for your work!!

But in my case I cant interact with any kind of installation.. I tried installations in missions, random and so on. I have never an installation in my contact list. Some days ago I saw all the time installations in my contact list.. But after the newest update I cant see any installations in my contact list..

 

[Para Handy]

OK - I was referring to your screenshots of a planetary settlement in my post #10. I don't know where you were with your OP screenshot EDIT: Figured it out, see posts 16 and 17 below - but here in the CG system of Luyten's Star there are a couple of orbital installations one can interact with. The main thing is that you should get the big blue notice up in the top right which tells you you can interact with the structure. Here for example is one in the CG system:

and you can see it in contacts:

As I said, there are some you can't interact with, so you need to look for the blue notification.

Good luck

 

[RHAD0X]

OK - I was referring to your screenshots of a planetary settlement in my post #10. I don't know where you were with your OP screenshot but here in the CG system of Luyten's Star there are a couple of orbital installations one can interact with. The main thing is that you should get the big blue notice up in the top right which tells you you can interact with the structure. Here for example is one in the CG system:

View attachment 242284

and you can see it in contacts:

View attachment 242285

As I said, there are some you can't interact with, so you need to look for the blue notification.

Good luck

Thank you so much for all your help and hints!! I will check your system right now. Hope for a wonder. Btw I wrote already a ticket to the support.

 

[Para Handy]

I worked out where the images in the OP were from. So here is the Military Installtion (an Imp navy shipyard) and as you can see it cannot be interacted with:

 

[Para Handy]

In the same system (Mandh) there are other installations and megaships, here is one installation and you can see it can be interfered with, so have a try at one of these:

 

[RHAD0X]

In the same system (Mandh) there are other installations and megaships, here is one installation and you can see it can be interfered with, so have a try at one of these:

View attachment 242291

Great news!!! I am in front of "General Biological". The first time I visited it some minutes ago nothing new.. But after another reboot of my ship and some other things (turned all modules off and on again / light on and off and many other things) + a restart of the game it seems to work! Now I can see the grey square again to target the installation.. And I got also the "structure detected" message.. and the installation is also in the contact list.. cant believe it.. really a wonder . Thanks for all your help and hints again Case closed (I hope hehe)

 

[RHAD0X]

Here is a small list for everyone who may have the same problem or something similar and what exactly I did to fix it:

1. Switch all modules on your ship off and on again
2. Turn all other functions on your ship off and on as well
3. Do a ship reboot
4. Maybe it helped to validate the game files under "options" on the Elite Dangerous Launcher (for me it takes some time.. try out all other options first)
5. If you are playing the Odyssey add on (like me) just restart the game again and hope for some changes.. If not just make a restart under Horizons and then back to Odyssey
6. It helped me to do this procedure in a more distant system

Every game has some bugs but I am impressed how quickly the team resolved previous instabilities in Odyssey. With a little patience, topics like mine or something similar will soon be a thing of the past. And the quick reaction of the community to such topics here in the forum speaks for itself.

Good luck out there and have a good journey commanders!

 

[rootsrat]

Yes, what Para has said makes perfect sense now.

@RHAD0X - You can only scan "installations" or "megaships". Not everything is an "installation". The structure from your first screenshot is a dry dock for Capital Class battle ships (which are completely different to a scannable megaship - as opposed to a capital ship).

There are many other types of locations (this goes for both planetary and orbital), some are dockable, some are not, some are scannable, some are not etc. Each type is denoted by a specific icon in your Navigation tab. Once you learn what each symbol means - you'll know 100% what's what.