Another way to add extra depth to a variety of the current gameplay mechanics is with the introduction of electromagnetic data capture drones (or EM drones for short).
An EM drone's rating would indicated the available bandwidth and power level. These stats would determine the overall max range/duration of capture.
EM drones could be tuned to a frequency window, i.e. part or all of the total spectrum (e.g. gamma rays, x-rays, infra-red, ROYGBIV, UV, etc). The window size would have a direct bearing upon the range/resolution of data capturable due to the bandwidth limit mentioned earlier. Opening the EM window wider would decrease the max available range/resolution. Narrowing it would increase them.
The spatial volume being scanned could also affect resolution - you could capture a full sphere in low res (only suitable for basic spectral analysis)...or you could restrict the scan angle to a smaller volume and get higher res results for accuracy (suitable for slow-scan exploration).
With this mechanic you could tune a capture drone to scanner range, set it to follow your ship at a safe distance, and capture all the useful volumetric EM data within that sphere for later retrieval and upload to your HUD/HDD/etc. (Think external view recording/playback for both espionage gameplay, and user-made video purposes.)
The same drone, retuned, could scan a set of asteroids for a given EM signature (say, palladium).
After it had found a few good candidates for mining, you could retune it again for infra-red and and set it to patrol randomly around a set radius for any activity, effectively increasing your scanner range and alerting you when a new signature enters the EM drone's scanner sphere.
This would add to exploration, make mining a bit less hit-and-miss, and make external views a useful gameplay addition (as well as a way to take space selfies and put up flashy videos on Youtube if that's your bag).
An EM drone's rating would indicated the available bandwidth and power level. These stats would determine the overall max range/duration of capture.
EM drones could be tuned to a frequency window, i.e. part or all of the total spectrum (e.g. gamma rays, x-rays, infra-red, ROYGBIV, UV, etc). The window size would have a direct bearing upon the range/resolution of data capturable due to the bandwidth limit mentioned earlier. Opening the EM window wider would decrease the max available range/resolution. Narrowing it would increase them.
The spatial volume being scanned could also affect resolution - you could capture a full sphere in low res (only suitable for basic spectral analysis)...or you could restrict the scan angle to a smaller volume and get higher res results for accuracy (suitable for slow-scan exploration).
With this mechanic you could tune a capture drone to scanner range, set it to follow your ship at a safe distance, and capture all the useful volumetric EM data within that sphere for later retrieval and upload to your HUD/HDD/etc. (Think external view recording/playback for both espionage gameplay, and user-made video purposes.)
The same drone, retuned, could scan a set of asteroids for a given EM signature (say, palladium).
After it had found a few good candidates for mining, you could retune it again for infra-red and and set it to patrol randomly around a set radius for any activity, effectively increasing your scanner range and alerting you when a new signature enters the EM drone's scanner sphere.
This would add to exploration, make mining a bit less hit-and-miss, and make external views a useful gameplay addition (as well as a way to take space selfies and put up flashy videos on Youtube if that's your bag).