Option for "Metal Salvage" disappeared from Scanner Room

[AirToob]

... even though there is plenty of metal salvage well in range

Any ideas would be welcome!

[Amanoob105]

Did you find it had disappeared from the list after you reloaded back into a save?
As if you loaded in, went to the scanner room and thought "That list is shorter than it was when I last played this game".

If so, then this is your problem (if not, then there's not a lot of reason to keep reading ). When you load into a save the game doesn't load in all the ground around you at the same time and instead waits for you to once again start moving out into the world.
Yes, the items are out there, but the game hasn't 'officially' popped them into existence yet.

Just activate one of the drones and have it do a quick round of the area. To save time for the next time find a place to keep it out there (preferably somewhere the stalkers won't run off with it) far from the base.
The simple act of waiting for the image of a drone that far from the scanner room will also load in all the ground between the two.

[AirToob]

Thanks, could well be it.

In fact my scanner room is currently in the Jellyshroom Caves and I get to it by traversing territory between my shallow base and the scanner room, traversing on the way an area populated with metal salvage and well within range of the scanner. It was after I did this (I think) that I found the metal salvage option missing. Still a bit puzzling but I will certainly try your suggestion.

[dreamrider]

In the category of "load in a save", include ANY time you leave the game and return!

There is a mod that will cause the Scanner Rooms to load all the surrounding terrain, over a small bit of time, without having to drive near all the chunks.

Other than that, circling a fully range upgraded Scanner Room (500m range) with a "camera drone patrol" at just 350m should load in all the terrain chunks that the Scanner Room can reach. However, it will still take a few minutes for the Scanner Room display to fully populate.

Also, recall that your Scanner Room is down ~200 to 250m. This will decrease the scanned radius on the surface, due to the slant range.

(Be aware that some metal salvage can, slowly, sink through the surface textures. It should still show up on the scan for a good long while, but will be largely unrecoverable, unless it happens to drop into a cave.
There is also a mod that prevents this.)

[AirToob]

Originally posted by dreamrider:

Other than that, circling a fully range upgraded Scanner Room (500m range) with a "camera drone patrol" at just 350m should load in all the terrain chunks that the Scanner Room can reach. However, it will still take a few minutes for the Scanner Room display to fully populate.[/i])

Yep, the camera patrol did the trick - thanks!

...of course, the camera is now off on its travels, thanks to those cute playful stalkers...

(Slant range wasn't the problem, 500m was well far enough. even from the Jellyshroom location, and a lot of the stuff is also at reasonable depth.)

I have noted your comments about the helpful mods, also. Thanks again.

[dreamrider]

For what it is worth, once the stalker stop playing with the camera for a few minutes, you can drive it back to base and recover it.

Drive it a full speed (it is just slightly faster than a stalker), and duck through some caves, coral tubes, indirect route, etc. Unless they lose sight of it for awhile, the stalkers will not give up chasing. Once you get it back to base with no immediately following stalker, go out and grab it. Then store it inside.

Alternatively, you can kill a stalker that is following. But there are a lot of stalkers. Eventually one will be back to grab it out of the socket again.

Oh, FWIW. You DO NOT need to do the camera patrol thing when you change the Scanner target resource. Only when you have exited the game, or otherwise caused the mid distance terrain chunks to unload. When you change scanned resource, you will still need to wait a few minutes for the Scanner display to fully populate.

[Alucard †]

One thing i don't get about the Cameras.

Do they spread pheromones or something? Even when parked all the time they attract Stalkers to my base from ridiculous ranges.

I didn't even go anywhere near their natural habbitat.

[dreamrider]

No place in the Safe Shallows is THAT far from stalker habitat.

But, yes, stalkers do seem to have a rather extended detection range for portable metal...especially if you have thinned it out in their usual range.

You can protect your cameras...a bit...by sowing a few pieces of scrap in the nearest approach areas of Kelp Forest, thereby encouraging the stalkers to play with that instead.

[Amanoob105]

Originally posted by dreamrider:

No place in the Safe Shallows is THAT far from stalker habitat.

But, yes, stalkers do seem to have a rather extended detection range for portable metal...especially if you have thinned it out in their usual range.

You can protect your cameras...a bit...by sowing a few pieces of scrap in the nearest approach areas of Kelp Forest, thereby encouraging the stalkers to play with that instead.

I generally protect them a bit more....actively.

Find a cave I can build a growbed in and fill the thing full of tigerplants. I now have a safe place to store my drones that no stalker will go into (or if they do, they won't get back out of).

When I mentioned keeping my drones out and away from the base, this is the trick I use to keep them safe and where I left them.

[dreamrider]

What an EXCELLENT idea! Bravo!

Probably even just UNDERNEATH the platform that my tiger garden is on would do the trick.
For that matter, just park them between the growbeds, even in the open.