Kill Warrant Scanner – thoughts

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

If it's a passive thing, like the DSS, doesn't that just make it a "+30~% credit buff"...?

Not saying I wouldn't mind it being passive, just making an argument... Lol

 

[IndigoWyrd]

That would remove unnecessary downtime from combat, resulting in more fluid gameplay, marginally more credits per hour for players, and a more fun combat experience.

Or in Frontier's words, an exploit.

Looking back, I can think of only once where I've heard Frontier folk actually use the E-word, and that was in relation to the Engineer's Exploit they to a large mallet to not that long ago.

But Forumites, they love to throw the E-word around.

Figure out a clever way to do something? Exploit.
Think of something someone else hasn't? Exploit.
Discover an easier way to do common tasks? Exploit.

At least as far as the forums are concerned.

 

[Hedyn Brand]

Figure out a clever way to do something? Exploit.
Think of something someone else hasn't? Exploit.
Discover an easier way to do common tasks? Exploit.

Team up with people in group play instead of Open? Exploit! No, seriously - somebody posted that. Some people here are not well.

I find the KWS too annoying to use anymore. Why can't it use the same signature it captures as you do a normal scan and just send a copy to whichever authority handles those extended bounties, instead of requiring yet another scan of the same ship, which has not changed owner or criminal status since the scan a few seconds before?

I can't see any way this would make anything unbalanced. It just gives us more time to do other things, or shoot other ships at least.

 

[Doolittle]

OP is correct. The mechanic makes no sense other than to force gameplay that is arcadish at best. FD wants your view to be the rebuy screen. If you are looking for criminals then it makes sense. When you are defending yourself........all the logic goes down the drain real fast. I have to scan before I defend.............noooooooooooooo. Bad mechanic.

So much arcade that an NPC who shoots you first survives while shortly after letting off a round to defend yourself you are dead in a sec by the authorities who did nothing to the NPC who started it. Kinda like the LA riots. Sitting back and watching the citizens who were used as sacrificial lambs as the cops stood 50ft away and did nothing but watch those people die, or come close to it.

 

[Vasious]

Just metaphorically thinking aloud here and wondering why the Kill Warrant Scanner can’t be a Post kill process instead of a Pre kill?

I find when dabbling in Bounty Hunting it takes so long to complete a scan that I may not actually get credit for taking out a bad guy. In theory it is just scanning the galactic data-banks and looking to see what other systems the person is also wanted in. If I participate in his demise and my computer shows that I have credit for him, why can I not just, post-fight, run his name through the data-banks and also get credit in the other systems?

You would still need the KWS to run the scan and it would still take time if you want to run all the names through, it would just let you seamlessly move from target to target. I would think that in a combat situation when facing a deadly opponent, it would not be in the best interest of a pilot to pause the action to scan the adversary for any outstanding parking tickets.

Thoughts?

I'm less sure about why the KWS is not a passive, omni-directional device.

The only place that stores all the information on a Cmdrs Bounties and fines, in the on-board computer, ala the left hand MFD Transaction Tab, vs some need to FTL comms to access all Jurisdictions bounty lists.

So I am pretty sure the KWS is actually hacking into that, and logging it, so you can claim them all.

 

[metascrawl]

I just think it's funny that a scanner that only has to scan one ship for one type of information from a couple of km away uses loads of power, whereas a scanner that scans an entire solar system uses almost none.

 

[d8veh]

Bind the KWS to the caps lock key or the slider if you have an X52 or similar. As soon as you drop out of supercruise, switch it on and forget about it. Thereafter, it becomes automatic. There's no need to wait for it to scan because it'll complete the scan while you're shooting. Basically, it behaves how OP wants it. If you forgot to switch it off when you leave the instance, you have to switch it off first, then on, in the next instance to reinitialise it and make it automatic again.

 

[Stealthie]

Never really seen the point of the KWS TBH.

I get what it does, I just don't really care.
I've probably paid more to transfer my FdL into a system than I'm going to get back from additional bounties as a result of KWSing bandits.
When I burst another ship it's cos I want it to go away, not because I want paying for doing it.

In fact, by way of comparison, I just noticed that my SLF pilot has earned Cr127m since I hired her.
That's not bad coin for the dozen or so missions she's flown with me.
If I was interested in optimising my income stream, giving her the boot would probably be top of my list of things to do.

 

[Drelthar]

The only thing missing from the scanner is a dedicated key bind, which is also missing from all limpet types.

They finally sorted it with ECM some time ago, and shield cells and heat sinks and chaff were solved a good while back.

It's totally crazy having utilities in the actual weapon groups.

 

[Witcher 7]

I stopped using the KWS because my targets kept dying before the scan finished.

All scanners should be passive, point and work devices, especially the discovery ones. I'm sick of wearing joystick buttons out or being the macro master to use them.

I agree with both of you, hence also don't use the KWS. The first passive scan to confirm they are Wanted in the system already takes 10 secs ... why do you have to actively scan a 2nd time (with a shorter range) to check if they are Wanted elsewhere - just to get more bounty CRs?

 

[Schmack]

True bounty hunting is to get an assigned bounty and set out looking for it. Maybe a list of bounties, not the scripted pirate so and so from the mission board with predictable surprises and such, but a real list of bounties in the system you happen to be in. You chose them like you'd choose which fragments to pick up, then you go out and kill them.

Right now it's just targets of opportunity, since there's no real hunting involved.

 

[CMDR Poet Starwind]

I really only use the KWS to keep rep balanced with minor factions. I hate having to trudge all about just to find somewhere to turn bounties in without losing 25% to IF.

 

[kofeyh]

I agree with both of you, hence also don't use the KWS. The first passive scan to confirm they are Wanted in the system already takes 10 secs ... why do you have to actively scan a 2nd time (with a shorter range) to check if they are Wanted elsewhere - just to get more bounty CRs?

Because the first establishes wanted status local, the second, global. It's a game. So sometimes it has game mechanics.

The OP is asking a question that's already been answered; it's a non-event at this point as frontier have already solved the issue through engineers; both long range scanner, or fast scanner, solve the issue. If scanning a ship in as little as 2-3 seconds is still a problem (when it takes that longer than that to deploy hardpoints) then short of "don't use a KWS", I'm not sure what more can be done.

 

[Ca$hback]

I like the KWS as a tap on the shoulder. Little less invasive than a manifest scanner.