How do you turn your Scanner on

[Casca Smith]

Hey guys. Next stupid question, how do you turn your scanners on?

[CMDR Sweeper]

4 to get to the right screen.
Modules and then down to sensors.
If it is on, well you do not have sufficiently big reactor to run it all (YES the game will let you do that.) and you will have to turn off other things.

[Dolphin Bottlenose]

Originally posted by Casca Smith:

Hey guys. Next stupid question, how do you turn your scanners on?

Which one? The game has many scanners. They work differently. What do you try to scan?

[blasty]

i'm new to the game, and this question of "how to scan a system" also infuriated me for several play sessions until i muddled through to the answer.

- firstly you need to be in space in supercruise [J] and be moving at the lowest speed possible by pressing [X] or throttling all the way down.
- then you need to activate the full spectrum system scanner (all ships already have scanners built in) by pressing the apostrophe key [']
- then you need to do a d-scan thingy [mouse 3] to show up the orbital plane of the system (or you may have already done a d-scan previously)
- then you point your ship at the light patches and icons that show up, and move the radio tuner thingy left [A] and right [D] until you zero in on the signal, then you can zoom in [mouse 1] and out [mouse 2] to "discover" whatever you have detected

edit: btw if you figure out how to scan for what ores are inside a regular asteroid, please tell me how!

[Dolphin Bottlenose]

Originally posted by blasty:

edit: btw if you figure out how to scan for what ores are inside a regular asteroid, please tell me how!

Either by launching a prospector limpet at the asteroid, or by shooting a chunk out of it, and targeting it.

[blasty]

thanks Dolphin, currently i'm using the shoot+target method (limpets seem to be single use only, so they run out very fast) but this is basically pot-luck and i've had nearly zero success finding the ore i needed for a noob contract.

i was hoping that there would be something like the survey scanner from eve-online so that i could quickly see what was available in a belt and only mine the rocks i actually need

[Instant_Soldier]

Originally posted by Dolphin Bottlenose:

Originally posted by blasty:

edit: btw if you figure out how to scan for what ores are inside a regular asteroid, please tell me how!

Either by launching a prospector limpet at the asteroid, or by shooting a chunk out of it, and targeting it.

What's your favorite ship, Dolphin?

[Dolphin Bottlenose]

I like to fly the Orca - a good jump range, a good cockpit view, fast, maneuverable, fits enough of stuff. But the favourite one is still its little cousin - can I go against the nature? :)

[CMDR Sweeper]

Originally posted by blasty:

thanks Dolphin, currently i'm using the shoot+target method (limpets seem to be single use only, so they run out very fast) but this is basically pot-luck and i've had nearly zero success finding the ore i needed for a noob contract.

i was hoping that there would be something like the survey scanner from eve-online so that i could quickly see what was available in a belt and only mine the rocks i actually need

Well single use limpets would be really really bad.
So I recommend you try a different strategy, have nothing targetted when you launch your limpet and you will see it do something completly different and possibly help you make up the costs for those limpets in no time.

[Dolphin Bottlenose]

Originally posted by CMDR Sweeper:

Well single use limpets would be really really bad.

We are talking about prospector limpets here. They are single use only, target or not.

[CMDR Sweeper]

Oh yeah, those are single use, but unless you are in a LTD area mining.
Otherwise my method have been picking at it with the mining lasers and see what pops out, and then move on if it isn't anything I like.