Kill Warrant Scanners - Discussion.

Chewbacca

C
Kill Warrant Scanners are great, they quickly pay for themselves with extra bounty goodness, but i do have a couple of questions with regards to how they work within the game lore.

1) Why must them be fitted to external hard-points and deployed externally before use? Surely if the detailed surface/discovery scanners can be used from internal compartments (presumably via links to the main sensors) then the Kill Warrant Scanner (or even Cargo Scanner) could be fitted and used in the same way?

2) Why do they consume so much power? Have you seen how much power they consume, compared to other modules? Even when they're not being used! I can understand that they might need a lot of power to communicate via long range - to ascertain any unclaimed bounties, but surely only when they're being used?

Anyway, is there anything in the official lore/novels that explains any of my questions? If not... as the old exam papers from my youth once said: Discuss. (Or just let this thread drop down to the deepest reaches of the board)
 

Cmdr Pli55ken

C
You have to look at it in terms of game logic (what does the chosen implementation try to achieve) rather than "does it all make sense in a real world"

Why must them be fitted to external hard-points and deployed externally before use?
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So that others get the "XXX has deployed hardpoints" message. KWS-ing someone is supposed to be seen as a (very) aggressive maneouver.

Why do they consume so much power?
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So that there's a real dilemma when installing them. It becomes an either/or choice, not a "let's just buy everything" and you have a measure of strategic thinking to do (or you even have to engage with another game mechanic: systems on/off and system power priorities)

If you want a 'scifiy' explanation: Keeping a good connection to all authorities accross several thousand light years of space takes a bit of juice :D
 
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Sim Maker

S
I have read on these forums that David Braben wanted combat to be more cinematic..........I would like to make a suggestion....
...
Can we speed up the time, by maybe a few seconds, that it takes the KWS to work.............I tell you why......
...
I am hunting in RES, have just destroyed my 5th pirate of the day, I see LASER flashes in the distance, full pips to engines, and boost away..............as I approach the 3-2.5 km range of my KWS....I begin to drop speed and manouver behind the target.........BUT.....and here is where I think a few secods would make a difference........I always have to come to an almost complete stop.........my fast diving "swooping" fighter, gets turned in to a slow turret for a few seconds......once they have been KWSed.......then throttle back up and back to fighting speeds.........(My favorite move being the last citch death plung as they try to jump away, 2.5km distant, so you have to boost and shoot, then turn to avoid the impact from their exploding ship....
....

It is all very cinematic, smooth, and flowing......graceful even........the combat is superb..........but that KWS scan, just puts a halt to things, even for a few moments..........if it is 10seconds now.....make it 7......if it is 5, make it 3....(I have not timed it but you get the idea)....

...

Other than that, KWS for the win...... :)
 

flyboychuckles

F
It just seems weird that you can get other bounty and hard point information from the normal scan, but KWS and cargo are special trigger needed modules. I wouldn't mind if the modules were still needed on the utility points, and you still needed to be in range, but it would just happen passively like everything else. I've done quite a bit of bounty hunting and the KWS portion gets a bit repetitive.
 

Darth Ender

D
10 seconds is fine. I KWS the moment I interdict a ship. They usually begin opening fire on me while it completes and that's fine. They all die in the end. 10 seconds at the beginning of a battle is easily doable with any npc.

With a human player, i'm not going to waste any time with KWS because 9 out of 10 times they'll either immediately run away or try logging off rather than fight, and usually humans dont leave bounties un-paid anyway.
 

eachann

E
Darth Ender said:
10 seconds is fine. I KWS the moment I interdict a ship. They usually begin opening fire on me while it completes and that's fine. They all die in the end. 10 seconds at the beginning of a battle is easily doable with any npc.

With a human player, i'm not going to waste any time with KWS because 9 out of 10 times they'll either immediately run away or try logging off rather than fight, and usually humans dont leave bounties un-paid anyway.
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I personally hate the 10 seconds. I see no reason why it shouldn't be almost instantaneous... you hit them up for an identity, and the computer on your own ship should be doing the rest of the work tracking down bounties on that ID. It is such a drag trying to fight and scan at the same time.... I would like to see higher class KWSs have a shorter scan time. So your class E can take 10 seconds...drop down 1-2 seconds per class until you get to class A where it takes 1 second.
 

Cmdr Pli55ken

C
I think the 10 seconds is fine. There should be added risk if you want added reward (and I also like that the potential prey gets a good warning without the bounty hunter just opening fire like your common assassin/pirate)
 

Yokai

Yokai
Personally I don't use a KWS any more. If they're wanted I attack. If they shoot at me when I don't have a bounty on my head, they become wanted and I attack. The 10 seconds of scanning is too bothersome, and the power draw could be used for moar weapons fire or other more useful things.
 

huwthomas

huwthomas
Personally I don't use a KWS any more. If they're wanted I attack. If they shoot at me when I don't have a bounty on my head, they become wanted and I attack. The 10 seconds of scanning is too bothersome, and the power draw could be used for moar weapons fire or other more useful things.
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I'm slowly coming to a similar conclusion. They are good for maximising profits but the alternatives potentially open up more interesting gameplay.
 

CMDR Holycow

CMDR Holycow
Sim Maker said:
I have read on these forums that David Braben wanted combat to be more cinematic..........I would like to make a suggestion....
...
Can we speed up the time, by maybe a few seconds, that it takes the KWS to work.............I tell you why......
...
I am hunting in RES, have just destroyed my 5th pirate of the day, I see LASER flashes in the distance, full pips to engines, and boost away..............as I approach the 3-2.5 km range of my KWS....I begin to drop speed and manouver behind the target.........BUT.....and here is where I think a few secods would make a difference........I always have to come to an almost complete stop.........my fast diving "swooping" fighter, gets turned in to a slow turret for a few seconds......once they have been KWSed.......then throttle back up and back to fighting speeds.........(My favorite move being the last citch death plung as they try to jump away, 2.5km distant, so you have to boost and shoot, then turn to avoid the impact from their exploding ship....
....

It is all very cinematic, smooth, and flowing......graceful even........the combat is superb..........but that KWS scan, just puts a halt to things, even for a few moments..........if it is 10seconds now.....make it 7......if it is 5, make it 3....(I have not timed it but you get the idea)....

...

Other than that, KWS for the win...... :)
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You're missing the point where you should be spending that time positioning your ship directly in view of their boosters, so when the scan is complete and you let your lasers rip, you're in a strategically advantageous position from the start. You shouldn't be just sitting there as a stationary turret waiting to start your attack. Positioning is part of the attack. They can be done together.
 

Chewbacca

C
I only use the KWS on human players once I've taken down their shields. Generally at this point they're doing their best to get away and this allows for a kw-scan whilst letting rip with multi-cannons.

But I'm genuinly curious about the questions i asked. (I'm not trying to whine, it makes selecting the right scanner quite interesting - just curious.)
 
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