Hidden Cache rework.

[Dirmagnos]

Current system does not feel particularly well thought thru and can be a pain to complete. Last time it took almost an hour to find this crate, just to get a stack of rocks out it. One stack. Not even coal, so that i could blame Krampus.
First merge both scanners into one device, that can have additional modules installed into it, expanding it functionality. Switching would be done same way as player switches construction pieces(vertical to diagonal beam). Ideally it would also have small screen deployed(like sliding from the side of the device), when switching into this mode, but can do without it just fine.
Once quest is taken, player is provided with radio frequency for a beacon hidden inside cache. If screen is added, this is where it is shown, allowing player to tune to right frequency using LMB/RMB. Or it could just be set automatically and screen showing nothing or zeroes, if there is no beacon to find.
Yellow circle on the map remains, but now searching would be easier, as player would have general direction. When scanner is equipped, for as long as player is far away, it is fully filled, with only small empty sliver on opposite side of where cache is located. Close he gets, circle starts to retract.
With Basic scanner it can retract to only to 180 degree arc and player needs to be fairly close to the cache for this to happen. With Advanced it can retract to 60 degrees arc and starts narrowing from further away.
There could even be a few perks or upgrades for it.
Now for the cache itself. Drop whole nonsense with wolves guarding it. What are they doing there?!?!? Why do they care about this box. Why is it a box in the middle of the forest to begin with. Instead i would make hidden cache actually hidden.
Version one - bring a shovel. Once player more or less narrowed it down, get shovel out and start digging. If you dig close enough, a box pops.
Version two, my favorite - taking burned tree stump as visual basis, cache would be an small mound or ditch in the ground, player would walk pass and would not even notice otherwise. Just like hidden caches are suppsoed to be. There could be a ton of variations, to prevent ease of spotting, as players get used to them. Once found they are effectively just another loot container. And need for frequency is to explain why player did not stumble on them earlier.

While writing this another idea came to my head - metal detector. Fire it up and wander around searching for stuff like ores(fishing, but on land). Maybe find some junk left from other prospectors or maybe even an entire metal vein. This could be a middle ground between Deep Ore vein and Thumper. There is no limit how many deposits player can find(as they generate at random as player wanders around with detector) and they give decent amount of random ore at once, but they would be fairly rare. Ore vein would look like a rock of appropriate color on the ground, that player then just have mine to zero(underground part is implied).
Just a bit of variety in terms of things to do and obtain materials.