I've heard that a scanner is useful. How does it work?

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Wonks
Quiet One
Posts: 51
Joined: Mon Apr 29, 2002 9:06 pm

I've heard that a scanner is useful. How does it work?

Post by Wonks »

Scanners are VERY useful for many things, such as avoiding mines and scout drones, and cloaked hunters. First you have to have to buy a scanner. Most ships will support a scanner but they aren't included when you buy a ship. You can buy a scanner at any racial hardware shop (in the same place as the HQ and racial ship shop) or at the location called "Advanced Communications".

Once you get one you'll see the "scan" link under each sector movement link. Click it and you'll see a scan result screen. On this screen you will see an enemy vessels box and an enemy forces box. The 2 numbers here are a total of all the non-allied forces in the sector you are scanning.

For enemy ships, it will tell you a total of the defense of all enemy ships in the sector divided by 10 (or the defense rating times 10). So one of the abandoned NMVs that are often lying around would scan as a 20. An IST would scan as a 60 (or 70 if it has CDs). A PSF would be 150 (but so is a Death Cruiser). Most racial hunters will scan as about 120 or 130. A big racial warbird will scan about 180 to 210. Remember that a result is a TOTAL of all the ships in a sector. So a large scan doesnt always mean there is large ship in the sector. It could just be a lot of small ships.

Forces also show up as a total. Each mine in the sector counts as 3 scan. Combat drones scan as 2 each but they are rarely left in a sector except to lengthen the refresh time, protect scout drones, and around Ikthorne HQ to lower a ships attack rating so they qualify for fed protection. Scouts scan as 1 each.

Friendly scans work the same way as enemy scans, except that a friendly ship scan will show you the total attack rating of all allied ships. Using local map with a scanner allows you to see forces or ships in all surrounding sectors at once, but won't tell you whether they are friendly or enemy, or how large the scans are.
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