So the mineral scanner sucks, right?

[Duskmare]

Am I just using it wrong or does it actually really suck? The scanner room was so easy to use in subnautica. Not sure if it's in this one or not but I really hope so because the mineral detector isn't worth the scrap it's made from.

1) It seems to only detect things when you're already like 10 meters away.
2) It's only got a tiny screen that shows you any kind of directions.
3) The directions are left to right only. In a game where up and down would be greatly helpful.
4) Only points at one mineral at a time. Might be that there's some deposit on the other side of a wall that you can't access without going a very long way round, but it won't show you anything else because technically that deposit is closer!
4) I'm pretty sure some minerals spawn inside walls and it'll point at them if they're closest.
5) You're genuinely just better using your eyes. Playing hot/cold for minerals just takes longer than searching.

My recommendation: Change the mineral scanner to act like the scanner room but miniature.
Give it a map like the seaglide (heck, just integrate it into the seaglide as a modification station upgrade...) and allow it to highlight items on that mini map.

Second recommendation: Have it highlight the nearest material through the hud, like the scanner room hud upgrade used to. The reason this would be balanced compared to the scanner room is that it would only show you one resource at a time and have a much shorter range. (A shorter range of about 20-30 meters instead of the 10 it seems to currently have.)

[mknelson]

Funny, I usually find the scans for the mineral scanner well after building my first scanner room.

But, yes. The mineral scanner is a bit meh. It can imagine it being useful in a blizzard but otherwise not so much.

[Duskmare]

Originally posted by mknelson:

Funny, I usually find the scans for the mineral scanner well after building my first scanner room.

But, yes. The mineral scanner is a bit meh. It can imagine it being useful in a blizzard but otherwise not so much.

Ah, well I'm glad to hear the scanner room is available. I think I'll build a trash can just for the mineral scanner as soon as I find the scanner room blueprints.

[Coops]

Mineral scanner is good for finding nickel later in the game.

[duckduckgoosed]

and the power usage is way too high, if you have it in use and swim to a location 200-300m away, chances are, you'll only scan a few items close before its out of power.
Switching back and forth en route to save power , is a solution but not really immersive, plus that whole "im running out of power" feeling is closer to the the "i'm running out of air" feeling when you just start out and haven't crafted the first air tank yet, rather than the "i'm running out of air cuz I pushed 500m(with rebreather and high cap tank) for too long, oops"

[Duskmare]

Originally posted by duckduckgoosed:

and the power usage is way too high, if you have it in use and swim to a location 200-300m away, chances are, you'll only scan a few items close before its out of power.
Switching back and forth en route to save power , is a solution but not really immersive, plus that whole "im running out of power" feeling is closer to the the "i'm running out of air" feeling when you just start out and haven't crafted the first air tank yet, rather than the "i'm running out of air cuz I pushed 500m(with rebreather and high cap tank) for too long, oops"

Yeah, forgot to mention the power usage. It drains it ridiculously quickly.

[dragonbornzyra]

Not to mention it still picks up and detects items and resources you already gathered. So if you're looking for something in an area you have been picking, and just want to find 1 type of thing, it'll show you all the spots you previously gathered that item sending you on a goose chase after empty and blank locations.

[Freedom Manager]

I'm not one for complaining about mistakes in BZ, but this is one of those things I complain about.