Trying to scan a tourist beacon. How?

[Feudal]

I've been at this for an hour. I am outside the planet, I landed on the planet, I smashed into the tourist beacon, I put the scanning into the tourist beacon, I flew back outside the planet, I tried to scan the beacon. I'm getting nowhere. The Composite scanner just says it can't find anything. The tourist isn't saying anything, just told me to fly to this planet and nothing else. I'm at a loss. I want to throw the tourist out the cargo hatch.

I tried looking for other answers on google. I don't understand it. Tell me to scan the tourist beacon. I cannot scan the tourist beacon.

[Sheethead]

And data link scanner? I'd think this should behave same as beacons so just getting the white bracket reticule instead of the nav one somehow, then it would auto scan, but with nothing in contacts and nothing on the radar that will be a problem.

[Brew]

Originally posted by Feudal Wulf:

The Composite scanner just says it can't find anything.

I have done passenger missions quite a lot lately, so I have scanned many tourist POIs. The quoted part above seems wrong: you don't use the composition scanner on POIs. In fact, you don't use anything on a hard/utility point, or either the composition or datalink scanners, so there is nothing to bind to a fire group, and no need to deploy hardpoints. Afaik, you essentially use the ship's standard "sensors" module, same as with scanning ships. IIRC sensors have 8km range, so just target the object, get within 8km, put your ship's reticle on the POI, and wait for the scan to complete. You should see a scanning message in the lower left of your cockpit, where target info is normally displayed. When scan is complete, the POI info shows in your message list ('2' display, front-left, that has communications). There's always some bit of story, lore, or misc info from the POI.

When you get to a system, the passenger will tell you which orbital body to fly to; that directs you to the general vicinity but not the specific POI. The left-side navigation list will highlight one of the orbital bodies in blue; that's the same body and easier for me to check at a glance. The actual POI I typically get from the left side "transactions" pane. You can see the details of the mission(s) there, including actual POI names, and whether a "demanding" passenger has asked you to buy something extra. Handy place to look to keep track of the mission.

Is your sensor module turned on? Have you tried scanning a ship, as a sanity check? E.g. when you drop into a POI area in space, there's typically a few belugas/orcas/haulers flying around you can try a scan on. Or maybe try it at a space station where ships are coming and going. If that doesn't work, I don't think POI scanning will work either. You need to figure out how to do that basic type of scanning. For ships, scanning them gives some info about the ship, e.g. pilot name and whether the ship is "wanted" or not, so it's important for the combat types. The rest of us mainly just use it on nav beacons and POIs.

For planetary surface POIs, you don't have to land. In fact, the approach to the surface is pretty dumbed down as compared to "normal" approaches: just get the distance/speed tick marks both in blue and drop out of supercruise, as if you were approaching a space station. You won't be at the surface at that point, but it magically teleports you there. The POI will be right in front of you, though maybe a bit outside 8km. Might have to fly forward a bit to get into range. But the whole "glide" mechanic is skipped. It does streamline the visitation process though. Soon as it's within 8km, you can scan it and jump back out of there to go to the next one.

[Feudal]

Originally posted by Captain Spank:

And data link scanner? I'd think this should behave same as beacons so just getting the white bracket reticule instead of the nav one somehow, then it would auto scan, but with nothing in contacts and nothing on the radar that will be a problem.

I have tried literally everything. I have data scanned more than a dozen times. I have tried composite scanning more than a dozen times. I have tried data scanning more than a dozen times. I have crashed into the planets surface twice, I have smashed into the tourist beacon once. I have been in orbit around the planet, I have landed on the planet. I have landed facing the beacon. I have done literally everything besides taking my two multi cannon turrets and unloading them into the beacon.

[ShelLuser]

Originally posted by Feudal Wulf:

Originally posted by Elitewrecker PT:

You have to target it in normal flight (outside supercruise), like how you target a nav beacon to acquire all of a system's info.

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1764815757270901866/8560ECC67C7C958596F5517499EF08E91F1728AE/

That doesn't look like you're targeting the beacon, if you target the beacon it'll have a white selector around it. I'll hop into the game and check this myself.

[Planewalker]

As stated in my first post, all you need to do is target the beacon and keep your ship pointed at it till it says "Scan finished". -the rest was only for completion of other situations.

[Brew]

It's true that should it also have the white angle bracket indicator in the HUD. The circle is more like a navigational lock, not a target lock. Hit 'T' to target what's ahead of you... well, I see you might be using a controller. For me on kb/m, it's T.

[ShelLuser]

For demonstrating purposes this is what it should look like:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2362073993

So... while I approached the beacon it looked like what you had in your screenshot. But as Planewalker (and others) also mentioned: you also need to actually select a.k.a. target it. This can be done by either pressing 'T' or by selecting it in your contacts list. After you did that it'll have broken brackets around it on both places. So: in your contacts list as well as in your HUD (as shown in my screenshot).

Now wait for a few seconds (assuming you're in range, this is usually the case when you're within a few kilometers away) and then the mission will complete.

I recognized the issue quickly because of the way I normally end these missions. See, I seldomly stay in the air but instead land my ship, take out my SRV and then I scan the beacon. IMO that's a lot more realistic. I mean... if I were a tourist I wouldn't want to sit in the spaceship all the time ;)

Anyway, hope this helped!

[Agony_Aunt]

Yeah, checked the screenshot. You haven't targetted the beacon. You don't need analysis mode, you don't need most of the things people are suggesting. Just do like SheLuser said and target the beacon from close up.

You have targetted a fumarole, that isn't what you need to scan ;)

[Brew]

It's called "fumarole", but check the icon, it's a suitcase. Suitcases are tourist POIs.

[Agony_Aunt]

Originally posted by Brew:

It's called "fumarole", but check the icon, it's a suitcase. Suitcases are tourist POIs.

Yup, but he doesn't have it targetted. Actually looking at it, he doesn't have anything targetted i don't think.

If he had the tourist beacon targetted it would show the beacon on the mid-left instead of the exclamation mark. It would also say tourist beacon where in his screenshot it says 61 cygni commodities.

[Nando Swarfunk]

Most times it’s not in the actual hud target, it’s the wee white target on the radar, so you might have to maneuver around a wee bit, and then hit T....

[Witcher]

Originally posted by Agony_Aunt:

Yeah, checked the screenshot. You haven't targetted the beacon. You don't need analysis mode, you don't need most of the things people are suggesting. Just do like SheLuser said and target the beacon from close up.

You have targetted a fumarole, that isn't what you need to scan ;)

Was about to reply but Agony has answered OP.

[Planewalker]

For future reference:
https://www.elitedangerous.com/help/manual/

[Agony_Aunt]

Originally posted by Planewalker:

For future reference:
https://www.elitedangerous.com/help/manual/

Its quite out of date now, especially in relation to things like bounties, but still a must read for all new commanders in my opinion.

[luntacarsus]

Try selecting it from the Nav Panel to make sure you're targeting the correct thing.

EDIT: Or is it Contacts Panel? I can't remember now. Both are on the Left panel though.