Which upgrades would you prefer for the 4 new scanner room slots?

zetachron · April 2016

If you're on experimental, then you've seen 2 upgrades at the fabricator for the scanner upgrade slots. One for the range and the other for the speed. I'd like to ask you which slot combination you would favor. I'll also add options for some other possible upgrades that aren't in the game, but could make sense and hope you tell me what you'd favor in case of these potential upgrades:
A seperate cam range upgrade that only works on cam range and a potential bio scan upgrade, that allows to scan swimming creatures to help detect creature attacks. Maybe you have your own ideas so there is an option for it too.

And maybe you can express how you think range upgrades work (do they stack, only for cam range or map range or both) and speed upgrades work (do they stack, what is speed difference, is speed a placeholder for real time scans that allow scanning moving targets).

zetachron · April 2016

Oh, and thanks for voting and any answers, as well as new suggestions.

Constantly Updated Section: [last experimental 31604]

The scan range is 100m, the lossless cam signal range 300m, the signal border 500m

A small picture gallery of how it looks like:
<img width="320" height="180" src="http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/272841093784678695/1672C062B0A17DDA9A624DB70B5A4940526A38D8/"></img><img width="320" height="180" src="http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/272841093784681859/70E73583A42AAA82FC85B446D7D6165564FDB331/"></img><img width="320" height="180" src="http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/272841093784685798/4974F323967A5BCC9E7569482D0F15B98860DD96/"><img width="320" height="180" src="http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/272841093788388617/AF5709249F96BC87E17230DAB37C986672C211A5/"></img>Sources like Uranium and Mercury now seem to be sub-surface placed

other wishes so far:

cam bombs for system defense
alert tracker for dangerous creatures nearing the base or the player
cam defenses against creatures
auto return/recall for cams to bases

favorite wishes so far:
using scanning for tracking creatures in real time or giving creature alerts

a new suggestion from me - resource type scanning upgrades:

EM scan module (needed to find uranium, magnetite or anything that is radioactive or magnetic)
sonar scan module (find underwater motion or sound sources, including creatures, currents or seismic activity)
bio scan module (find immobile biostructures like plants)
thermal scan module (find all heat sources)

Calarand77 · April 2016

Variety is the spice of life, as they say, hence my vote.

4 times the range is very tempting, but it would mean hardly moving my lazy butt out of the base, so I decided against that. Speed is nice, too, but add too much of it and all you see is the "connecting" screen while the new areas load. No fun.

As for ideas... auto-return to "base" function (if it's not there already, haven't checked in a while), and maybe some way of marking a spot with something like a beacon, just in case I find an interesting area I want to explore in person.

eastofdeath · April 2016

Others = Crash Powder packed in side making a exploding camera bomb. For that picture perfect moment.

Halios · April 2016

Not on experimental so I'm just going from your description - I don't think I would have a preference. I'd use different upgrades depending on the situation.

I do like the sound of the bio scanner. Taking that in a slightly different direction, a tracking module could be handy. If your base is in a region with reapers or other large predators, you could task individual drones to track them and alert you if they come with x metres of you and / or the base. To prevent nasty surprises like reapers sneaking up on you from behind.

Rainstorm · April 2016

Ive seen stalkers picking up my cameras when i did not want them to. Id love some kind of way to make the stalkers drop your cameras instead of having to wait till its done dragging it around. some kind of small shock like the perimeter defense on the seamoth but of course to a smaller degree, just strong enough to jolt it so it drops the camera

zetachron · April 2016

I've updated my comment below the poll.

It seems the scanner room could play a role in helping to defend a base against creature attacks if the devs support this idea. The scanner could be set to track a reaper and alert the base if he gets into range. A 3d map could display all stalkers around a base in real time. Cameras could be equipped with defense mechanisms.

DefectiveDelfin · April 2016

Because i can scan hostile entities,then speed away.You could go pretty far away,then scan..say a crabsquid (HYPE) then speed away,ensuring that you are safe.Or maybe it could be used to scan dangerous creatures like the Reaper Leviathans because they are either too fast or too dangerous.

Either way,Mechanical update HYPE

Carica · April 2016

1. scanning feature that pins what ever it was you scanned to your pda showing distance to target... great for hunting wrecks!!
2. tagging feature.... tag creatures that you most likely would want to avoid (ie reaper leviathan)... new device that the signal is sent to letting you know the distance and direction of creature is.
3. auto recall.

TotallyLemon · April 2016

Standoff is paramount. Ask Sun Tzu.

zetachron · April 2016

A small update, as the interface has changed:
The Scanner Room Interior<img width="320" height="180" src="http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/272841093784678695/1672C062B0A17DDA9A624DB70B5A4940526A38D8/"></img>
The changed and better looking Interface<img width="320" height="180" src="http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/272841093784681859/70E73583A42AAA82FC85B446D7D6165564FDB331/"></img>
A look inside from the outside<img width="320" height="180" src="http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/272841093784685798/4974F323967A5BCC9E7569482D0F15B98860DD96/">

Bobythebee · April 2016

I haven't tried the last scanner room updates(15 days), so my opinion is certainly outdated but I think this is the best option, I don't want to use my cameras as a defense system, seems OP for my point, what's the need to go outside if you can attack with drones, collect ressources etc.

I agree scanning upgrade could be nice, I suppose cameras will have limited autonomy so scanning could use the battery.

Also I like the idea to place a beacon but I think this would be better to have a tracking upgrade, acting just like a beacon but for your cameras.

zetachron · April 2016

Next update:

Recently I set the scanner to Uranium in the Deep Reef and he located Uranium hidden all over the place. It doesn't shine if it lies around, so I was never aware of it. Anyone believing it's hard to get Uranium - that was before the Scanner Room got into the game.

Yet, I still have the small problem with the scanner function of locating things, that shouldn't be recognizable through the system, because it's unknown. A full functional and proper scanner should only be able to scan things that he knows from the PDA database. If unknown at that time all objects should either be non-locatable or locate as unknown. I'd prefer being unable to locate unknown things that are not as massive as wrecks. So the Scanner Room should only be able to focus on things that the hand scanner has scanned and put into the PDA. Unless you don't find a single bit of Uranium, you couldn't get any science data into your database on that metal and you shouldn't be able to mass scan for it.

And maybe that's the reason we wait for more updates taking time. Because the scanner has to react to the loot types in the world. He still doesn't find everything that's near now and certainly no plants, corals or stones holding ore.

starkaos · April 2016

zetachron wrote: »

Next update:

Recently I set the scanner to Uranium in the Deep Reef and he located Uranium hidden all over the place. It doesn't shine if it lies around, so I was never aware of it. Anyone believing it's hard to get Uranium - that was before the Scanner Room got into the game.

Yet, I still have the small problem with the scanner function of locating things, that shouldn't be recognizable through the system, because it's unknown. A full functional and proper scanner should only be able to scan things that he knows from the PDA database. If unknown at that time all objects should either be non-locatable or locate as unknown. I'd prefer being unable to locate unknown things that are not as massive as wrecks. So the Scanner Room should only be able to focus on things that the hand scanner has scanned and put into the PDA. Unless you don't find a single bit of Uranium, you couldn't get any science data into your database on that metal and you shouldn't be able to mass scan for it.

And maybe that's the reason we wait for more updates taking time. Because the scanner has to react to the loot types in the world. He still doesn't find everything that's near now and certainly no plants, corals or stones holding ore.

Try to find Mercury Ore without using the Scanner Room. Mercury Ore doesn't show up on the ground so if you don't keep digging for it, then you will never find it. A better solution would be that undiscovered materials will be labelled as ??? or Unknown until it is found. A Scanner would be able to distinguish a useful piece of material from sand and rock, but not know what it is. So we can look for ???, but won't know if it is Magnetite, Uranium, or Diamond until we find it.

zetachron · April 2016

starkaos wrote: »

Try to find Mercury Ore without using the Scanner Room. Mercury Ore doesn't show up on the ground so if you don't keep digging for it, then you will never find it. A better solution would be that undiscovered materials will be labelled as ??? or Unknown until it is found. A Scanner would be able to distinguish a useful piece of material from sand and rock, but not know what it is. So we can look for ???, but won't know if it is Magnetite, Uranium, or Diamond until we find it.

You mean this?<img width="320" height="180" src="http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/272841093788388617/AF5709249F96BC87E17230DAB37C986672C211A5/"></img>
Thanks for the info. It seems they are changing resource placement for the scanner room. Now uranium seems to have gone invisible even for digging. So maybe we get a special extraction tool (or the terraformer) for certain resource types that are placed beneath the surface. Just as I suggested sometime earlier. That would be great.

Scanning for unknown materials could be done. But from a gameplay aspect the whole reason for scanning is locating, so you'd never need identifying and just dig out the unknown until you know what you've found. Better would be to first need a resource analysis through the hand scanner, who automatically takes that info to adapt the scanner to adjust its frequencies to match the material. Better from gameplay perspective (makes the hand scanner use even more important and you don't want to find everything on your first day) and even logical.

I mean resources aren't just objects that swim around clear water, so any reflection could get them. Resources are embedded in a world full of other material that reflects scanning impulses, creating a chaos of signals where the target resource would get lost. Generally detecting unknown objects is only possible for masses that greatly distinguish themselves from the rest of the world. Like a massive metallic structure embedded in non-metallic surface. Ore on the other side would be more or less densely distributed inside stone structures that already scatter signals. Good luck for finding densities of unknown under the earth. That's not like finding unknown airplanes in the sky.

So finding rare materials like uranium might work like this:

Find a place where uranium was already extracted (inside a wreck in a destroyed lab or reactor).
Scan the unknown with your hand scanner and the info automatically is transferred to your PDA.
The scanner room takes your PDA info to now scan for uranium.
HUD trace down to the location and extract the uranium with a tool from under the surface.

or like this:

upgrade the scanner with new scanning modules: radiation, sonar, organics, magnetics, ...
Set the scanner to radiation sources to find uranium or a sunken relict with a running nuclear device.
Locate and extract the uranium with your tools.

or let the scanner only find resource class types (still upgrades needed for enhanced types):

radition sources (uranium, active nuclear devices)
sonar (moving objects, creatures making sounds, volcanic or seismic activity)
organics (complex immobile biostructures like all kind of flora)
magnetics (magnetite, running magnetic systems)
geologic (quartzes, diamond, ...)
...

EDIT: again I put more info on the Constantly Updated Section right below the poll.

Which upgrades would you prefer for the 4 new scanner room slots?

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