Difference between revisions of "Long-range mineral scanner"

Latest revision as of 12:11, 27 September 2024

The long-range mineral scanner can detect mineral deposits in the nearby areas outside your colony when manned by a researcher. It can be tuned to find different minerals, such that it will only find deposits of a certain kind.

Acquisition[edit]

Long-range mineral scanners can be constructed once the long-range mineral scanner research project has been completed. Each requires 200 Steel, 6 Components, 2 Advanced components, 10,000 ticks (2.78 mins) of work modified by the construction speed of the builder, and a construction skill of 8.

Once constructed, they cannot be re-installed, they can only be deconstructed.

Summary[edit]

Long-range mineral scanners consume 700 W of power and do not function under a roof, (not even on partial coverage). Scanning falls under Intellectual work. When operated, there is a mean of 240,000 ticks (4 in-game days) of work to find a deposit of ores. Finding a deposit is guaranteed after 480,000 ticks (8 in-game days) of work. Guaranteed finds are separate from random finds; the progress towards the guaranteed scan is not "reset" after finding ore randomly. These values are then modified by the Research Speed of the users in question. Unlike the ground-penetrating scanner, the long-range scanner is tuned to a desired mineral.

When the long-range scanner completes a scan, it will trigger its respective quest on a random tile between 6 and 25 cells away. If the tile is not entered within 30 days, then it will expire. The target area can either be unguarded, surrounded by a small manhunter pack, or have an enemy waiting to ambush you. Manhunters or an enemy may approach your colonists from the edge of the map when one of your colonists gets near the mineral lump, given that there wasn't anything else waiting at the lump.

Once the area has been cleared of hostiles, you have 10 days to mine everything before another group of hostiles arrives.

Resources[edit]

Every ore in the game can be discovered with the scanner. This includes components, which cannot be found with a ground-penetrating scanner. The expected yield and mass from a lump can be found in the table below; this is useful for knowing how many pack animals to send to various discovered lumps.

Resource	No. of Tiles	Total Yield	Total Mass (kg)	Market Value
Steel	55 - 60	2200 - 2400	1100 - 1200	4180 - 4560
Plasteel	10 - 15	400 - 600	100 - 150	3600 - 5400
Components	50 - 70	100 - 140	60 - 84	3200 - 4480
Silver	60 - 80	2400 - 3200	16.8 - 22.4	2400 - 3200
Gold	8 - 12	320 - 480	2.5 - 3.8	3200 - 4800
Uranium	15 - 20	600 - 800	600 - 800	3600 - 4800
Jade	20 - 25	700 - 875	350 - 438	3500 - 4375

Analysis[edit]

Researching the long-range mineral scanner is eventually required for the ship, as it is a prerequiste to Starflight Sensors. The long-range scanner can help find the minerals required to build the ship, or materials for the rest of your endeavors. They can find an indefinte amount of ore - your world will never run out of deposits to find.

In order to use a long-range scanner, you will need to account for the following:

Travel time for the round trip. You can bring a caravan or use transport pods. Caravans can take multiple days to get to location. Transport pods are nearly instant, but cost 60 Steel, 1 Component per pod, and variable chemfuel to get to location. On the return trip, you'll need to make a pod launcher, which costs 50 Steel, 1 Component.
Weight. Unless mining for gold, silver, or components, minerals are heavy. Pack animals are often required to bring the stuff back, while you'll need multiple transport pods to bring all the stuff back.
The enemies around the scanner. You will need enough firepower to eliminate potential enemies on the map, which is firepower that is not in your colony when a raid happens to come.
Mood. Lowered expectations helps with mood, but your colonists will still be grumpy when sitting on the floor and eating without a table.

As building the scanner requires two advanced components, make sure to plan ahead. Keep some in a stockpile if you don't have the research for Advanced Fabrication yet.

You have 30 days from the ore being scanned to arriving at the destination. With a constant scanner, you can find multiple deposits, and tackle them all at once. This saves on travel time. With light materials like gold, weight isn't a problem. Otherwise, you'll need a way to hold / transport all the minerals.

Comparison to deep drills[edit]

The ground-penetrating scanner can find ores deposits in the ground, within your colony. A deep drill is needed to extract ores, but you don't need to travel anywhere, meaning you don't need any of those considerations. The Deep Drill + Ground Scanner combination costs the same amount of research as the long-range scanner, though the latter is required to research Starflight Sensors.

Ground-penetrating scanners create much more ore per deposit (9000 vs 2300 average steel, for instance), find ores roughly 60,000 ticks (24 in-game hours) faster than the long-range scanner, and you don't have to travel to it. You don't need to consider weight, travel time, or being away from a colony. And, being in-colony makes it much easier for multiple miners to operate multiple deep drills. However, it finds random ores in random locations. You may find a deposit that's too far away to reasonably drill, and it may take a while to find minerals that you need at the moment. And while long-range deposits often have ambushes, drilling can trigger the Too Deep: Infestation event.

In general, long-range scanners are better if 1. you are looking for a specific mineral like plasteel or gold, or 2. you have great scanners, but when you are lacking great miners. Ground-penetrating scanners are better when you have multiple good miners available. While drilling is slow, having multiple drills expedites the process, and each scan brings lots of material. In addition, not leaving the base means that all colonists can help defend against a raid.

Ideology[edit]

As scanning rates is dependent on research speed, the bonuses offered by both research specialists and the Research precept can make for significantly faster returns. This gives research specialists a niche even once all normal research is complete and may warrant maintaining an NPC ideoligion if it grants access to the specialist.

Version history[edit]

Beta 19 - can now find more than gold and jade, and can be tuned to the desired mineral. Now requries a colonist to operate. Lumps now expire. More than one scanner on the same map is now effective.
1.1 - power cost was increased. The time between finding ore veins is now displayed.
1.3.3200 - Work to make increased from 1000 to 10,000
1.4.3682 - Fix: Long range mineral scanner tune command has no description.

Architect

Misc: Caravan hitching spot • Egg box • Grave • Marriage spot • Party spot • Pen marker • Sarcophagus • Tool cabinet • Meditation spot • Nature shrine (Large, Small)
(research): Comms console • Cryptosleep casket • Firefoam popper • Ground-penetrating scanner • Long-range mineral scanner • Moisture pump • Multi-analyzer • Orbital trade beacon • Pod launcher • Stele (Large, Grand) • Transport pod • Vitals monitor • Ship landing beacon

@@ Line 2: / Line 2: @@
 |name = Long-range mineral scanner
 |image = LongRangeMineralScanner.png|Long-range mineral scanner
-|description =  A lateral sensor unit used by researchers to detect a specific type of mineral across the planet. The chance to find a resource depends on the operator's research ability. This sensor can be tuned to target a specific resource type. It consumes a lot of electricity. If you find a resource, you'll need to travel to collect it.
+|description = A lateral sensor unit used by researchers to detect a specific type of mineral across the planet. The chance to find a resource depends on the operator's research ability. This sensor can be tuned to target a specific resource type. It consumes a lot of electricity. If you find a resource, you'll need to travel to collect it.
-|type = Misc{{!}}Miscellaneous
+|type = Building
-|type2 = Resources
+|type2 = Misc
-|placeable = Yes
+|placeable = true
-|size = 3|3
+|path cost = 50
+|passability = pass through only
+|cover = 0.4
+|minifiable = false
+|size = 3 ˣ 3
+|flammability = 0.5
 |hp = 250
-|flammability = 0.5
-|cover = 0.4
-|path cost = 25
 |beauty = -8
-|power = - 500
+|power = -700
-|buy = {{icon|metal|200}} + {{icon|component|6}} + {{icon|advcomponent|2}}
+|terrain affordance = heavy
-|sell = {{icon|metal|150}} + {{icon|component|4.5}} + {{icon|advcomponent|1.5}}
+|research = long-range mineral scanner
+|skill 1 = Construction
+|skill 1 level = 8
+|work to make = 10000
+|resource 1 = Steel
+|resource 1 amount = 200
+|resource 2 = Component
+|resource 2 amount = 6
+|resource 3 = Advanced component
+|resource 3 amount = 2
+|destroyyield = nothing
 }}
-The '''long-range mineral scanner''' can detect mineral deposits in the nearby areas outside your colony when manned by a researcher. It can be tuned to different minerals, such that it will only find deposits of a certain kind.
+The '''long-range mineral scanner''' can detect mineral deposits in the nearby areas outside your colony when manned by a researcher. It can be tuned to find different minerals, such that it will only find deposits of a certain kind.
-The scanner spawns mineral lumps mini-maps in the world map and triggers its [[Events#Precious minerals found|respective world event]] which always has an expiry date of 30 days. They can either be unguarded (60% chance), guarded by pirates or surrounded by a manhunter pack. Once the area is clear of hostiles, you have 10 days to mine everything before the caravan leaves.
+== Acquisition ==
+{{Acquisition}}
-* Pirate defenders will surround the lump with a rudimentary base and possibly turrets.
+== Summary ==
-* Manhunter packs will charge at your colonists. Some are slow allowing evasion and kiting, while others are fast and require a defensive stance.
+Long-range mineral scanners consume 700 W of [[power]] and do not function under a roof, (not even on partial coverage). Scanning falls under Intellectual work. When operated, there is a mean of {{ticks/gametime|240000}} of work to find a deposit of ores. Finding a deposit is guaranteed after {{ticks/gametime|480000}} of work. Guaranteed finds are separate from random finds; the progress towards the guaranteed scan is not "reset" after finding ore randomly. These values are then modified by the [[Research Speed]] of the users in question. Unlike the [[ground-penetrating scanner]], the long-range scanner is tuned to a desired mineral.
-The amount of time taken is random, though better researchers increase the chances that a mineral deposit may be found. At its baseline, it finds lumps with a mean time between of 9.2 days and will guarantee a lump after 8 days of work; how this is affected by researcher skill is unclear.
+When the long-range scanner completes a scan, it will trigger its [[Quests#Ore_Lump|respective quest]] on a random tile between 6 and 25 cells away. If the tile is not entered within 30 days, then it will expire. The target area can either be unguarded, surrounded by a small [[Mental break#Manhunter|manhunter]] pack, or have an enemy waiting to ambush you. [[Mental break#Manhunter|Manhunters]] or an enemy may approach your colonists from the edge of the map when one of your colonists gets near the mineral lump, given that there wasn't anything else waiting at the lump.
-While scanning, a pawn will gain Intellectual skill, but only at about half the rate they would while working at a research bench.
+Once the area has been cleared of hostiles, you have 10 days to mine everything before another group of hostiles arrives.
-Although not explicitly mentioned in the item description, the long-range mineral scanner is not usable if there is a roof over it. (Similar to the [[ground-penetrating scanner]].)
+=== Resources ===
+Every [[ore]] in the game can be discovered with the scanner. This includes [[component]]s, which cannot be found with a [[ground-penetrating scanner]]. The expected yield and mass from a lump can be found in the table below; this is useful for knowing how many [[pack animal]]s to send to various discovered lumps.
-== Resources ==
+{| class="wikitable"
+|- <!--- IF you edit this table, please edit the one on the Quests -->
+! Resource       !! No. of Tiles !! Total Yield !! Total Mass (kg) !! Market Value
+|-
+| [[Steel]]      || 55 - 60      || 2200 - 2400 || 1100 - 1200 || 4180 - 4560
+|-
+| [[Plasteel]]   || 10 - 15      || 400 - 600   || 100 - 150 || 3600 - 5400
+|-
+| [[Component]]s || 50 - 70      || 100 - 140   || 60 - 84 || 3200 - 4480
+|-
+| [[Silver]]     || 60 - 80      || 2400 - 3200 || 16.8 - 22.4 || 2400 - 3200
+|-
+| [[Gold]]       || 8 - 12       || 320 - 480   || 2.5 - 3.8 || 3200 - 4800
+|-
+| [[Uranium]]    || 15 - 20      || 600 - 800   || 600 - 800 || 3600 - 4800
+|-
+| [[Jade]]       || 20 - 25      || 700 - 875   || 350 - 438 || 3500 - 4375
+|}
-All minerals, as well as [[component]]s, can be discovered with the scanner.
+==Analysis==
+Researching the long-range mineral scanner is eventually required for the [[ship]], as it is a prerequiste to [[Research#Starflight Sensors|Starflight Sensors]]. The long-range scanner can help find the minerals required to build the ship, or materials for the rest of your endeavors. They can find an indefinte amount of ore - your world will never run out of deposits to find.
-*Steel is found in medium-sized lumps of approximately 50 tiles; you can get at least 1000 steel from a single lump.
+In order to use a long-range scanner, you will need to account for the following:
-*Plasteel is found in small lumps of around 10 - 15 tiles, netting 300 - 500 plasteel.
+*Travel time for the round trip. You can bring a [[caravan]] or use [[transport pod]]s. Caravans can take multiple days to get to location. Transport pods are nearly instant, but cost {{Required Resources|Transport pod}} per pod, and {{icon small|chemfuel}} variable [[chemfuel]] to get to location. On the return trip, you'll need to make a [[pod launcher]], which costs {{Required Resources|Pod launcher}}.
-*Components are found in large lumps, that can amount to more than 100 components once mining is finished.
+*Weight. Unless mining for gold, silver, or components, minerals are heavy. [[Pack animal]]s are often required to bring the stuff back, while you'll need multiple [[transport pod]]s to bring all the stuff back.
-*Silver is found in massive lumps, and one can easily get upwards of 3000 silver from a single lump.
+*The enemies around the scanner. You will need enough firepower to eliminate potential enemies on the map, which is firepower that is not in your colony when a [[raid]] happens to come.
-*Gold is found in small lumps of 10 or so tiles of ore.
+*[[Mood]]. Lowered [[expectations]] helps with mood, but your colonists will still be grumpy when sitting on the floor and eating without a table.
-*Uranium is found in small lumps of 15 - 20 tiles of ore.
-*Jade is found in medium-sized lumps of around 20 - 25 tiles.
+As building the scanner requires two [[advanced component]]s, make sure to plan ahead. Keep some in a stockpile if you don't have the research for [[Research#Advanced fabrication|Advanced Fabrication]] yet.
+You have 30 days from the ore being scanned to arriving at the destination. With a constant scanner, you can find multiple deposits, and tackle them all at once. This saves on travel time. With light materials like [[gold]], weight isn't a problem. Otherwise, you'll need a way to hold / transport all the minerals.
+=== Comparison to deep drills ===
+The [[ground-penetrating scanner]] can find ores deposits in the ground, within your colony. A [[deep drill]] is needed to extract ores, but you don't need to travel anywhere, meaning you don't need any of those considerations. The Deep Drill + Ground Scanner combination costs the same amount of research as the long-range scanner, though the latter is required to research Starflight Sensors.
+Ground-penetrating scanners create much more ore per deposit (9000 vs 2300 average [[steel]], for instance), find ores roughly {{ticks/gametime|60000}} faster than the long-range scanner, and you don't have to travel to it. You don't need to consider weight, travel time, or being away from a colony. And, being in-colony makes it much easier for multiple miners to operate multiple deep drills. However, it finds random ores in random locations. You may find a deposit that's too far away to reasonably drill, and it may take a while to find minerals that you need at the moment. And while long-range deposits often have ambushes, drilling can trigger the [[Infestation|Too Deep: Infestation]] event.
+In general, long-range scanners are better if 1. you are looking for a specific mineral like plasteel or gold, or 2. you have great scanners, but when you are lacking ''great'' miners. Ground-penetrating scanners are better when you have multiple good miners available. While drilling is slow, having multiple drills expedites the process, and each scan brings lots of material. In addition, not leaving the base means that all colonists can help defend against a [[raid]].
+=== Ideology ===
+{{Ideology|section=1}} <!--- ensure rough parity with GPS page -->
+As scanning rates is dependent on [[research speed]], the bonuses offered by both [[research specialist]]s and the [[Ideoligion#Research|Research]] precept can make for significantly faster returns. This gives research specialists a niche even once all normal [[research]] is complete and may warrant maintaining an NPC ideoligion if it grants access to the specialist.
 == Version history ==
+* Beta 19 - can now find more than gold and jade, and can be tuned to the desired mineral. Now requries a colonist to operate. Lumps now expire. More than one scanner on the same map is now effective.
-It received a rework in Beta 19. Prior to that:
+* 1.1 - power cost was increased. The time between finding ore veins is now displayed.
-*It can only find gold or jade.
+* [[Version/1.3.3200|1.3.3200]] - Work to make increased from 1000 to 10,000
-*It cannot be tuned.
+* [[Version/1.4.3682|1.4.3682]] - Fix: Long range mineral scanner tune command has no description.
-*It did not require a colonist to operate.
-*The lumps did not expire.
 {{nav|misc}}
 [[Category:Miscellaneous]]