System scan complete... wait, what?!

Juniper

Juniper
So, E: D has a mechanism whereby you have passive scanners on your ship - i.e. when you jump into a system, surrounding astronomical objects (like the star, nearby planets, etc) are "discovered". You have to "honk" to discover the rest of the system. It makes sense... given that companion stars may be half a light year away.

WHY then, does it say "System scan complete" before I've even had a chance to 'honk'?

It should never do this. Even on systems that are just one star and nothing else - the ship doesn't know there's nothing else out there, until it actively looks.

Every time this happens, I die a little inside. It winds me up.

Please fix it so that it's consistent - that you cannot get "System scan complete" until after you honk. Every. Single. Time. :(
 

IndigoWyrd

IndigoWyrd
Never noticed. Though I do tend to come into a system with my honk button down and ready to steer left or right to avoid hitting the star....
 

Factabulous

Factabulous
Ans:Because there's only things in the passive scan range of the ship. Like you can fly near planets and they will resolve with no FSS.

You can also get it after the initial 'honk' if there are only stars in the system.

Makes sense with a little thought.
 

dm06

dm06
What do you think about this scenario:
  • jump to system
  • do no honk
  • open system map - all planets are there.
?
 

Glacieredapollo

Glacieredapollo
So, the FSD drive in elite is based on a system that requires a known coordinate destination to jump to. Which means there's already knowledge of what stars are in vicinity to the main star. So, if you take the knowledge that 1. The stars are already known 2. Your passive system scan will pick up if there's bodies orbiting the main star. 3. There are known limits as to how far an object can be at the apoapsis before it's large enough to modify the parent star's own trajectory.

You can check your system map and you'll find that some bodies are present before honking but often not all of them. As far as bodies orbiting stars that are outside of your passive range, they won't show up but are known to your FSD computer
 

BinakAlgo

BinakAlgo
As the others have said, those are the passive sensors. In theory, you can bypass the whole FSS and scan each planet, one by one, and scan them. Of course, that's very time consuming but it can be fun for some people... as long as the other bodies are not 300k ls away...

If you drop out in a system with only one star or very close stars the "passive" sensor will record all the stars and asteroids belts due to their proximity so the honk is not necessary, but you can still do it to look out for USS if you want to.
 

Factabulous

Factabulous
Rustnsawdust said:
I think some are missing the OPs point. Theres nothing wrong with passive scanning nearby bodies but it can't know that there's nothing else to discover without the honk. It's the "System scan complete" announcement that breaks the realism.
Click to expand...
It detects no perturbance in space-time from the passive scan, so can say the system scan is complete. That's the advantage of a handwavium powered passive scanner ;)
 

[Diplomacy] Carnegie

[Diplomacy] Carnegie
BinakAlgo said:
As the others have said, those are the passive sensors. In theory, you can bypass the whole FSS and scan each planet, one by one, and scan them. Of course, that's very time consuming but it can be fun for some people... as long as the other bodies are not 300k ls away...
Click to expand...

It's fun no matter how far away the bodies are. It beats playing with the magic telescope.
 

Sysmon

Sysmon
When entering a new star system the onboard computers knows the basic mass composition of that system - we can see that in the Galaxy Map even if we can't really look it up for otherwise unknown system. The "system scan complete" message is activated when the scanners have realised the same mass composition as was observed from outside the system. If there are only one or a few closely spaced stars and planets in a system, the passive scanner will manage to do so. If the mass is more widely distributed, the active scanner (if there are widely spaced stars only) and also the FSS (if there are distant planets too) need to be run to completion first.

It's ok to feel frustrated with internal inconsistencies in the game, but maybe focus on actual nonsensical things? I'd grumble about overuse of "telepresence" and "holographic cosmetics" instead.

:D S
 

Juniper

Juniper
Rustnsawdust said:
I think some are missing the OPs point. Theres nothing wrong with passive scanning nearby bodies but it can't know that there's nothing else to discover without the honk. It's the "System scan complete" announcement that breaks the realism.
Click to expand...

Precisely, thank you.

M0rty said:
can't scan whats not there
Click to expand...

But that's the point - you don't "know" it's not there until you scan for it. The absence of something doesn't mean the scan was a waste of time. It just means it yielded no new results - but the system is now fully scanned.

Sysmon said:
When entering a new star system the onboard computers knows the basic mass composition of that system - we can see that in the Galaxy Map even if we can't really look it up for otherwise unknown system. The "system scan complete" message is activated when the scanners have realised the same mass composition as was observed from outside the system. If there are only one or a few closely spaced stars and planets in a system, the passive scanner will manage to do so. If the mass is more widely distributed, the active scanner (if there are widely spaced stars only) and also the FSS (if there are distant planets too) need to be run to completion first.
Click to expand...

OK, that kind of makes sense, but there's no in-game explanation for that. It's not how the DS is advertised to work. So, if that's what it's doing (and I'll choose to believe it is now, since the whole thing winds me up far more than is healthy) then OK... but it's very ropey, don't you think?

Sysmon said:
It's ok to feel frustrated with internal inconsistencies in the game, but maybe focus on actual nonsensical things? I'd grumble about overuse of "telepresence" and "holographic cosmetics" instead.
Click to expand...

They're whole other threads. ;)

This just bugs me. And I want FD to "fix" it as it's a fairly innocuous and simple change I'd have thought.
 

Sysmon

Sysmon
Juniper said:
OK, that kind of makes sense, but there's no in-game explanation for that. It's not how the DS is advertised to work. So, if that's what it's doing (and I'll choose to believe it is now, since the whole thing winds me up far more than is healthy) then OK... but it's very ropey, don't you think?
Click to expand...

The ropey bit is that we can see multiple stars in a system in the Galaxy Map (using the "Realistic" setting) but not do anything with the information. I would like to see an explanation why we don't get a list of all stars in a system when jumping to a new system, or the ability to see the other stars using the other star filters in the Galaxy Map itself.

Good choice about the belief! It is good to have peace of mind.

:D S
 

ElectricFactory

ElectricFactory
Am sure this is a stupid question - how do you 'honk', exactly ? Is there a car horn sound in the game when I 'honk' ? Am playing via Xbox, someone please explain 'honking' as if you were speaking to an eager but slow nine year old..


Juniper said:
So, E: D has a mechanism whereby you have passive scanners on your ship - i.e. when you jump into a system, surrounding astronomical objects (like the star, nearby planets, etc) are "discovered". You have to "honk" to discover the rest of the system.
Click to expand...
 
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M0rty

M
Juniper said:
But that's the point - you don't "know" it's not there until you scan for it. The absence of something doesn't mean the scan was a waste of time. It just means it yielded no new results - but the system is now fully scanned.
Click to expand...

The absence of evidence is the evidence of absence. Just because you don't know something doesn't mean that you don't know. it just means that you know that you don't know.

Why not just honk the system regardless if it has one sun and no moons or 10 suns and 100 moons? Maybe i'm missing the point of the thread. I honk a system even if it says "scan complete"

I accept the fact that out of the 400+ billion stars in the galaxy, a few might...just might....have no moons or planets. statisticall it's actually a bigger set of odds than finding a benevolent, hyperintelligent machine race
 

Sysmon

Sysmon
ElectricFactory said:
Am sure this is a stupid question - how do you 'honk', exactly ? Is there a car horn sound in the game when I 'honk' ? Am playing via Xbox, someone please explain 'honking' as if you were speaking to an eager but slow nine year old..
Click to expand...

You must have a button bound to activate the Discovery Scanner. Holding it down for 3 seconds or so (there will be a bar filling up to completion for this) will produce a "BONGGG" sound that for some reason has become known as the Honk. It will prompt a message telling you that n objects have been discovered. Opening the FSS interface can then be used to scan these objects in more detail to fill your System Map and Navigation Panel with info on planets, stars and other objects of interest found.

Or you can rock up to a Nav Beacon if the system has one, and get the information that way.

:D S
 

Rustnsawdust

R
ElectricFactory said:
Am sure this is a stupid question - how do you 'honk', exactly ?
Click to expand...

No stupid questions! Your ship should be equipped with several scanners, but the two in question are the discovery scanner and the FSS. The first needs to be bound to a fire button; the second needs a keybind to 'enter' FSS mode. In either case, firing the scanner will emit a loud 'honk' - not really like a car horn but no mistaking the sound.
 
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