Scanner Room Cameras

Coranth

Scanner Room Cameras we make in the Scanner Room now will use batteries for power--another exploit possibly closed.

https://trello.com/c/hqqTnc88/288-33056-map-room-cameras-spawn-without-power

Enderguy059

What was the exploit? They could just charge over time i.e. don't use it immediately.

NamelessChaos

Not using the scanner room at all xD
Build it with all upgrades and came to the conclusion for what it costs and what it does I`m simply faster by goofing around with the seamoth gathering stuff.

Duff_McDuggin

It seems that by the time you find, and build it, you are already equipped to find supplies quickly. Also, do I have to build these things in every biome for different supplies due to the limited range? I know there will be range mods, but if this is the case, being able to find it early would be more beneficial.

DrownedOut

The exploit is that you can pick up the cameras and then deconstruct the room. You get all the material invested in the room back and you get to keep the cameras. Or otherwise when stalkers steal the cameras, you can get them back for free by deconstructing and constructing the scanner room.

Personally, now that batteries and power cells will be rechargeable, I'd like to see several recipes incorporate them as building requirement. Camera drones, Seamoth, Cyclops (not all six, but at minimum two), etc. So the current scanner room solution isn't to my taste, but it is a fine temporary solution. I want the new energy system first to be tested before further refinements will be made.

A possible future solution is to make camera drones their own thing, just like the seamoth modification station. Like, they won't come free with the scanner room anymore and need to be constructed separately as they already can. To make it more intuitive, perhaps drones could become potential part of more structures, like the Cyclops. Depends on what uses they'll get in the future.

NamelessChaos

Another thing with the cams; wouldn`t it be way more interesting if they were drones with their current capabilities and in addition you might be able to (auto-)send them out to search for stuff you need? Of course they can get lost/destroyed by stalkers etc... .

(Gathering the stuff might be to powerfull, that`s why I didn`t mentioned that)

DrownedOut

NamelessChaos wrote: »

Another thing with the cams; wouldn`t it be way more interesting if they were drones with their current capabilities and in addition you might be able to (auto-)send them out to search for stuff you need? Of course they can get lost/destroyed by stalkers etc... .

(Gathering the stuff might be to powerfull, that`s why I didn`t mentioned that)

I don't think drones being able to gather stuff is too powerful. There's so many ways that can be tweaked to be an option while still being not a no-brainer.

• Small storage space. Like, just a 2x2. You can barely fetch anything that way and will be more inclined to use a drone for a quick resupply.
• Manual collection of loot. Either by having the drone drop it on the ground nearby, forcing you to go outside still, or have it deposit in a storage space you first have to empty before more can be added a la the filtration machine. This adds time and boosts the "quick resupply" use.
• Inability to collect anything that can't readily picked up or the need to bump into those things to get to loot. With the drone's overdramatic (I love it!) reaction to even the slightest bump, that would not make people inclined to use it by default.
• Danger from predators, obviously. There's some interesting balancing to be gotten there.
• Being able to name drones. This is more psychological, but I think that being able to give drones names would make people value them more. Especially if anything that can employ them always can accommodate two so people will be inclined to go for set names (Romeo and Julliet, Castor and Pollux, Jeckyll and Hyde, etc.) And if then they get in trouble with doing anything, it'll have more of a punch. Less, "poop, there goes another drone" and more "they killed Spock!"

And this is still assuming that 500 meter range from the control source that starts getting wonky at 300 meters.

All in all, I think drones are a great idea with a good foundation to grow from would the devs choose to pursue such.

AceDynamo

If the drones could scan the area around their current location for materials, (instead of just around the base) they would be more useful.

DrownedOut

AceDynamo wrote: »

If the drones could scan the area around their current location for materials, (instead of just around the base) they would be more useful.

Keep the source range thing in mind. You could make scanning a function of the drones instead of the room, but if the drones can't move more than 300-500 meter from the room, depending on their own range, it doesn't matter all that much from if the room itself has that range (don't know if it currently does. I'm waiting with further experimentation with the scanner room until the update which hopefully works out some of its bugs.) Drones do not have infinite freedom of movement.