[Request] Increase max range zoom out on scanner.

[Zak Gordon]

Ok first training mission, cargo canisters. Even with the scanner zoomed out to maximum range you can loose where these are after about 1 min of flying in one direction.

Silly me for trying to fly to the planet, then trying to get back to finish the mission! Impossible.

Do the better scanners improve range enough to be able to actually find things in a system if you are not 'on top' of them? I suspect the starting scanner in the training missions is very weak, but even so i was surprised at just how ineffective it is in the games scale. Are the better scanners huge improvements (like times how much in terms of scanning range?).

 

[schuesseled]

better sensors increase your detection range by kilometers.

 

[Zak Gordon]

better sensors increase your detection range by kilometers.

That does not sound like much in a game where you have 'real world' spatial distances. It's 384,403 km to the moon from earth. Or what if you were looking for something in Saturn's Rings (not saying this would come up in the game...but it is more to get a sense of scale of the game galaxy and the range of the sensors):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rings_of_Saturn

Maybe it is just in the training missions where you can not select the items of the mission when they are out of view (no in GUI option to do so)? maybe in the actual game you can select items in the system and get a point on the scanner HUD to head towards even if outside the current range of your scanner? Otherwise how do people find things (space stations, other ships, asteroids etc) with the incredibly short scanner ranges?

Edit: or maybe is it that when objects fall of your scanner range you can still find them in the 'System Map'? I don't have access to that in the training missions so if this is the case my issue with the very tiny claustrophobic size of scanner range might be moot?

 

[Zak Gordon]

Had the same issue in the Sidewinder Face Off training mission. I assume we both just 'lost' each other so i had to quit out of it.

It seems when you have targeted an object, once it is off the (short) range of your scanner it loses the target.

What had happened was i had lost shields and some hull pretty quick on starting the training mission, so decided to boost engines and put some distance between us to give my shields a chance to repair. That worked fine, but when i turned around to re-engage with the target he was no where to be seen.

I tried flying back where i had come from but i could not be sure i was exactly right due to the dogfighting earlier. I even stopped all forward movement and hung around for 10 mins, still no sign of the enemy target. I took the time to try to see if i could find anything useful to enable me to re-target the enemy ship in the HUD screens, but nothing there.

So there is a combination of very short scanner ranges and losing the targeted status once fallen off that short range that just makes it very easy to lose stuff. If i could keep the targeted status until choosing another target maybe, and that leaving a point of reference on the HUD, it would feel more 'functional' in relation to finding objects around you. Other games do this so this is not an impossible thing to achieve.

 

[GerminVermin]

Upgrade your scanner. There's a reason it can be upgraded. Part of the challenge in the game is situational awareness. As long as I remember what general direction my target is in, compared to the star or some other kind of marker, it takes a little practice not to get turned around but even if a ship is off my scanner, I can usually sit and look in that general direction and wait for one of the points of light to "move" much faster than the rest. The movement catches my eye's attention and I boost off in that direction. Before I know it, the target pops back up on radar.

If you know you have crummy sensors and you refuse to upgrade them then you're just going to have to deal with making greater mental efforts to keep track of your target if you do something silly like boost off light years away from them.

 

[Zak Gordon]

Hmm. I just lost my target, well we lost each other maybe, in the Sidewinder Face off. Had to quit out the mission as they had just vanished. Replayed the mission using the same kind of pattern and same thing happened, so this has happened a few times now.

Also been trying an experiment in the first trainer mission with the cargo canisters. Fly just out of the plane of the asteroid field near where they are, then head in a straight line toward the center of the planet. After you have used one section of fuel, turn around and fly in a straight line back for one section of fuel, try to re-locate the canisters to finish mission.

I've done this three times now and failed all times to relocate them. I'm wondering if maybe the game just makes them vanish once you are at a certain range from them?

But yeah there are no tools/systems it seems for finding things once they are outside the range of your scanner, other than your eyeballs? I don't think the answer is just upgrade my scanner (as i can't in the training missions), as i suspect that even on an upgraded scanner this pattern would just be the same, just at a slightly further distance.

In the game itself do you see things on the System Map maybe? things you can click on to get a nav point, or just to see where stuff is outside the range of your eyeball and scanner?

 

[GerminVermin]

So if you know flying far away from your target will put you in a situation where you can't find your target, STOP DOING THAT. It's not broken just because you don't like it. It's not broken at all. You're making poor choices and blaming the game that was specifically designed to function this way. You cannot have infinite scanner range and there's nothing wrong with the range on the upgraded scanners.

The purpose of the training missions is not to test how far out your scanner can read. You're breaking the parameter or the purpose of the training mission. Get into game, learn to fly, and stop whining about what's not broken.

 

[Zak Gordon]

So if you know flying far away from your target will put you in a situation where you can't find your target, STOP DOING THAT. It's not broken just because you don't like it. It's not broken at all. You're making poor choices and blaming the game that was specifically designed to function this way. You cannot have infinite scanner range and there's nothing wrong with the range on the upgraded scanners.

The purpose of the training missions is not to test how far out your scanner can read. You're breaking the parameter or the purpose of the training mission. Get into game, learn to fly, and stop whining about what's not broken.

Not asking for infinite scanner range, more just a set of game systems that can find things inside a solar system (as this is the practical scale the game works at), or very specifically mission important things at the very least. And the reason for repeating the experiment was exactly because it was an experiment, which is why i KEPT DOING IT

I'm not busting balls here, just testing systems and reporting issues i find. And i've just started, so don't get bent out of shape on my behalf as you will probably see quite a few threads like this from me as i get into the game.

 

[BigBadB]

Not asking for infinite scanner range, more just a set of game systems that can find things inside a solar system (as this is the practical scale the game works at),

When you are in super cruise (the travel mode in which you actually interact with solar systems), the range of your scanner is vastly increased. In combination with the navigation and contacts panels, finding things is easy.

the problem is that you're making requests based on a very limited training mission for features that aren't needed in that mission, without apparently undestanding that those things exist in some form or another in the full game.

 

[Zak Gordon]

Ah perfect, well i did ask if that in game these issues are not the problem. And you bring up another point i was thinking about, why are the training missions not including the full in game functions to better help the player get used to them? Sure most people don't need the possibility to use their 'contact' tab in that first mission, but it would be a great learning tool if they could? As it is i have to wait until i'm in the full game to fully learn the computer systems and how best to use them, that surely should all be in the training missions?

So you can access and target 'things' outside of your short scanner ranges? That's all i needed to know

But i'd still like more range on the scanner, the first one (which might have a knock on effect on the others) is so short.

 

[GerminVermin]

Why are you even bothering to vomit out suggestions when you apparently have zero experience in-game?

 

[Malic]

why are the training missions not including the full in game functions to better help the player get used to them? Sure most people don't need the possibility to use their 'contact' tab in that first mission, but it would be a great learning tool if they could? As it is i have to wait until i'm in the full game to fully learn the computer systems and how best to use them, that surely should all be in the training missions?

The training missions are for training

They take out the unneeded items to allow the trainee the ability to focus on the one aspect of the training at a time

If a training mission is basic controls and targeting, it does not need to have access to frameshift drive

If you want to practice with everything, start the real game, and fly your free sidewinder.. blow it up as many times as you want, and keep getting the free one when you have a choice to re-spawn.

Once you feel comfortable, then flay it for real and then go from there.