Show Engineering Status Of Scanned Ships

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

Suggested by myself, and others a few times.

It would be quite handy if, when doing a passive scan on ships, we can check their modules tab, in the left panel, for engineered modules.
Doesn't have to be detailed, just the hex icon next to any module that is modified.
Or maybe an icon and number to represent the engineering rank.

This primarily helps us do a threat assessment on targets, both NPC's and players, allowing us to pick our engagements and not be totally surprised.
And also police events which may have limited or no engineering rules, such as races or PvP events.

 

[dm06]

I see anaconda.
Scan started.
It is elite.
Wanted.
Switch to contacts - 200KCr, ok
KWS - 500KCr, come here, baby!
What module scan?.. It won't stop me anyway.

Also we need to admit that npc rank already means ship internals, have never met elite npcs in paper sidewinders, nor novice in hull tank anaconda...

 

[Para Handy]

Yet another tool to aid PKers?

 

[Sylow]

Also we need to admit that npc rank already means ship internals, have never met elite npcs in paper sidewinders, nor novice in hull tank anaconda...

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Absolutely true for NPCs. Their rank very much also indicates the grade of engineering the ship has.
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Things look different among players. A veteran player might still be in a fresh ship, which he just started engineering. And somebody with mostly harmless combat rank can still have several engineers unlocked and actually fly a well engineered ship.
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The question is: what good would it do, to have such information at hand? I personally see little good to come from that. The "most positive" is that somebody could boast that his ship is fully engineered and can have that checked. But there's really little merit in that for me. At the same time, this scan would be just one more tool for gankers, to determine if they really can dare to attack a target with their FDL, or if that T7 is too highly engineered and too much of a threat to be attacked.
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I see no real gain in this information. It can be abused, but doesn't contribute much to normal play. I prefer not to have this.
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[Ian Doncaster]

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The question is: what good would it do, to have such information at hand? I personally see little good to come from that. The "most positive" is that somebody could boast that his ship is fully engineered and can have that checked. But there's really little merit in that for me. At the same time, this scan would be just one more tool for gankers, to determine if they really can dare to attack a target with their FDL, or if that T7 is too highly engineered and too much of a threat to be attacked.

I think versus NPCs - especially if it allowed digging down into the details of what the modification was - it might help people get hints about what engineering is useful for and what's possible without it: did that NPC FAS take ages to kill because it was engineered, or did it just have a lot of HRPs? what weapon special is causing that Anaconda to fire green lasers?

Versus players it of course works both ways - being able to tell how highly engineered a combat ship is can be valuable information for the defender too.

 

[Sylow]

Versus players it of course works both ways - being able to tell how highly engineered a combat ship is can be valuable information for the defender too.

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I don't think so. I consider it very unlikely that somebody would attack me in a fresh ship. And even if i'd have the option to look at the attackers modules and see what he has, unless he attacks me in a non-engineered hauler, it'd be a really bad idea to stop and check his modules instead of high waking out.
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[Greasetrap42]

In the interest of realism how could a scanner determine engineering modifications were made?

I guess maybe engine output signatures or something. But modified weapons etc. I'm not sure how a scan could determine that. Especially if the item is just sitting there passively.

I am assuming that scanning gives us basic info (commander name etc.) because we have some kind of built-in ID that tells space stations who we are and what kind of ship for docking purposes. And for the Cops.


Edit: I know there are lots of things that might not be realistic. But that doesn't mean we should make the list bigger. If an in-game explanation can be given then I'm happy.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

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I don't think so. I consider it very unlikely that somebody would attack me in a fresh ship. And even if i'd have the option to look at the attackers modules and see what he has, unless he attacks me in a non-engineered hauler, it'd be a really bad idea to stop and check his modules instead of high waking out.
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I meant scanning them from supercruise beforehand, same way that you can check for interdictors.

 

[vllama87]

In the interest of realism how could a scanner determine engineering modifications were made?

In the interest of realism as well: how could a scanner determine the type and remaining integrity of any module on a ship to begin with? And if it can determine the remaining integrity of a module to an accuracy of 1%, how would it not be able to determine if the module wasn't standard? Obviously the scanner has a database of all existing ship components, and compares the state of any given component in the ship against a schematic of that component to provide an analysis of it's current integrity.

I think it's safe to say that engineered modules would not match up with the database, and that would be picked up by the scanner as well.

Or you know, magic.

 

[Denneb]

When you are about to attack a player you should be already prepared for the worst (scanner or no scanner), and be man enough to take the risk of biting more than you can chew. This tool's only place is in the hands of badass wannabes to give them even easier pickings.

 

[Greasetrap42]

vllama87, ha ha! good points!

In the interest of realism if a scanner could somehow "see" everything inside my ship that would be an amazing scanner to get through all the hull shielding that protects me from all that radiation etc. And I would counter this amazing scanner with better shielding mods to prevent this from happening. I don't want other players using their scanner like X-Ray goggles to spy on me. I don't like wearing a flight suit... it gets uncomfortable on long trips.



 

[dm06]

When you are about to attack a player...

This ^^
Honestly the feature should answer two questions:
- how fast my ship is able to destroy that ship
- how fast that ship is able to destroy my ship
So basically seems it is more presentable to have these two timers on the selected target. Somewhere near cursor. The same way we have distance and time to arrival.

 

[Para Handy]

This ^^
Honestly the feature should answer two questions:
- how fast my ship is able to destroy that ship
- how fast that ship is able to destroy my ship
So basically seems it is more presentable to have these two timers on the selected target. Somewhere near cursor. The same way we have distance and time to arrival.

I refer the member to my previous reply.