(Cross-posted from reddit)
The material point scanner is... ok, I guess? It has a pretty piss-poor range and I've honestly just found it easier to just fly close enough to use my u-tool or visually identify them instead of bothering with an entire scanner setup.
Therefore, here's my idea for an upgrade to the material point scanner, the Wide-Range Ore Scanner.
The wide-range ore scanner would be a rather large device, perhaps comparable to that of the warp gate core, restricting its usage to dedicated mining ships. To use the device, one would need to go through a lengthy charge-up period (maybe something along the lines of 5-10 minutes?) during which it would also generate large amounts of radiation that could give away the player's position while it is weakened by the scanner's high power consumption.
During charge-up, the device will consume large amounts of power and generate large amounts of heat, thus requiring additional engineering challenges to installing one. The amount of power and time needed to charge scales with the range of the scan, with heat generated being constant as long as the device is charging. The device can also be pre-charged to avoid having to afk in place, but the charge will only be held for half as long as the time it took to charge.
After scanning, the device will provide transponder signals similar to Space Engineers' ore detector, displaying the core material of nearby asteroids (or ore deposits on moons/titans). This applies to all asteroids/deposits in a static sphere centered on where the scanner was used, with the radius of the sphere depending on the scanner's settings.
The resulting transponder signals will be initially encrypted to prevent third parties from seeing them and can be toggled between being initially visible to only the pilot, their company, their party, or to everyone respectively through the scanner's device fields. However, it should be noted that the transponders of third parties that remain in the area of a scan for long enough will eventually be able to decrypt the scan data, allowing them to see the signals as well. This system prevents scans from being completely privatized but still allows the scanner a chance to defend their findings.
Cheers,
- Lan
The material point scanner is... ok, I guess? It has a pretty piss-poor range and I've honestly just found it easier to just fly close enough to use my u-tool or visually identify them instead of bothering with an entire scanner setup.
Therefore, here's my idea for an upgrade to the material point scanner, the Wide-Range Ore Scanner.
The wide-range ore scanner would be a rather large device, perhaps comparable to that of the warp gate core, restricting its usage to dedicated mining ships. To use the device, one would need to go through a lengthy charge-up period (maybe something along the lines of 5-10 minutes?) during which it would also generate large amounts of radiation that could give away the player's position while it is weakened by the scanner's high power consumption.
During charge-up, the device will consume large amounts of power and generate large amounts of heat, thus requiring additional engineering challenges to installing one. The amount of power and time needed to charge scales with the range of the scan, with heat generated being constant as long as the device is charging. The device can also be pre-charged to avoid having to afk in place, but the charge will only be held for half as long as the time it took to charge.
After scanning, the device will provide transponder signals similar to Space Engineers' ore detector, displaying the core material of nearby asteroids (or ore deposits on moons/titans). This applies to all asteroids/deposits in a static sphere centered on where the scanner was used, with the radius of the sphere depending on the scanner's settings.
The resulting transponder signals will be initially encrypted to prevent third parties from seeing them and can be toggled between being initially visible to only the pilot, their company, their party, or to everyone respectively through the scanner's device fields. However, it should be noted that the transponders of third parties that remain in the area of a scan for long enough will eventually be able to decrypt the scan data, allowing them to see the signals as well. This system prevents scans from being completely privatized but still allows the scanner a chance to defend their findings.
- Such a device would provide a good upgrade to the current mining experience as it would give a clear benefit and drawback, while not providing much more usage beyond just saving time spent flying around to each individual asteroid manually. Less tedium in exchange for higher demand in resources and potentially drawing in an opportunistic third party.
- The device's large size and power/heat requirements meant that more specialized mining vessels would need to be designed in order to take advantage of the scanner's power. If powering both a laser setup and a wide-range scanner would be too power-intensive on a single ship, dedicated scouting ships could also be an option.
- As this suggestion assumes radiation has already been implemented, it will also provide more nuance to the pve and pvp experience. Not only would the scanner be a balance of risk/reward for miners, but it could also be used by pvp players to quickly generate large amounts of radiation to bait enemies. Since scans have a chance to become public, it's also possible for hotspots of activity to emerge should a particularly profitable pocket of ore be discovered.
Cheers,
- Lan
