Ground-penetrating scanner

A ground-penetrating scanner detects and illuminates underground deposits of resources, which can be mined with a deep drill.

Acquisition

Ground-penetrating scanners can be constructed once the Ground-penetrating scanner research project has been completed. They require 150 Steel, 4 Components, 1 Advanced component, 12,000 ticks (3.33 mins) of work, and a Construction skill of 8.

Summary

Ground-penetrating scanners consume 700 W of power and do not function under a roof. Scanning falls under Intellectual work. When operating a ground scanner, there is a mean of 180,000 ticks (3 in-game days) of work to find a deposit of ores. Finding a deposit is guaranteed after 360,000 ticks (6 in-game days) of work. These values are then modified by the Research Speed of the users in question. These ores can be mined with a deep drill.

Scanners technically create ore deposits. You will never find ores with a deep drill without a scanner, and scanners can find an infinite amount of resources in a given map. Ores and their extraction are not affected in any way by the existence of ice.

Ores

The resources contained in a deposit correlates with the size of the deposit. Each cell of resources contains 300 units of the resource. Below is an estimate of the different deposit sizes:

Resource	Deposit Size	Deposit Mean	Commonality	Portion Size	Avg Deposit Return
Steel	20 - 40	~ 30	4	35	9000
Silver	7 - 20	~ 14	0.5	40	4200
Plasteel	2 - 10	~ 7	1	7	2100
Jade	1 - 5	~ 3	0.5	10	900
Gold	1 - 5	~ 3	0.5	10	900
Uranium	4 - 10	~ 7	1	10	2100

Alternative table:

Resource	1-5	6-10	11-15	16-20	21-30	31-40
Steel	-	-	-	-
Silver	-				-	-
Jade		-	-	-	-	-
Gold		-	-	-	-	-
Uranium			-	-	-	-
Plasteel			-	-	-	-

Analysis

Ground-penetrating scanners can provide an indefinite amount of minerals, such as steel and plasteel. These resources can bottleneck mid/late game colonies. Ores are finite, traders only carry a few hundred steel each, and smelters are limited by raiders. Each ground deposit provides an average of 9000 steel. As long as you have a decent miner, a ground scanner or two is a worthwhile investment. Even if you don't have a spare researcher to scan for ores, any idle colonist can be set to research to contribute to the scanning effort.

As you can just scan for more ore, it typically isn't worth it to travel halfway across the map for a single deposit. Other than the power consideration, your deep drillers will have to travel a long way back and forth, and will be less secure against raids. If you do need to travel, you might want to create a bedroom and dining area to reduce walking time. The drill can be put in a room with high beauty, to please the miner.

The ground-penetrating scanner itself is not usable if there is a roof over it, though they can be placed in rooms if you need to regulate the temperature. A minium of 24 tiles is required for temperature regulation; the 9 tiles of open roof will make heating inefficient, but it is possible. Having a larger room with double-thick walls allows for more efficient heating.
Scanning is considered a Research task. Using a research bench or long-range mineral scanner will always be higher priority, and will be done first whenever possible. If you want pawns to actively scan for ore, you can either turn off any of your hi-tech research benches, or set an allowed area that excludes areas with research benches.

Comparison to long-range scanners

The long-range mineral scanner can find readily mineable ores on the world map, as opposed to ores that need to be drilled. The long-ranged scanner costs the same research as Deep Drill + Ground Scanner combination, though the former is required to research Starflight Sensors.

The first comparison is of convenience; ground-penetrating scanners create much more ore per deposit (9000 vs 2300 average steel), find ores roughly 60,000 ticks (24 in-game hours) faster than the long-range, and you don't have to leave your colony to access it. Meanwhile, long-range scanners require a caravan or transport pods to travel to, and the weight of all the ore can be an issue. Pack animals are often necessary to carry all the ores back. And, because each long-range lump has a high chance of having a threat, you will need to send sufficient firepower to the location.

However, long-range scanners can be tuned to a specific material, while ground scanners will find ores randomly. In addition, drilling ores takes much longer than mining ores from a long-range scanner. Drilling also can trigger the Too Deep: Infestation event.

In terms of pure work efficiency, long-range scanners are better with great scanners, but without great miners or multiple miners. They are also better if you need a specific material, like plasteel or uranium. Ground-penetrating scanners easily allow for multiple miners to operate multiple drills. They don't force you to leave your base, meaning they can contribute towards defense.

Version history

Beta 19 - power usage was significantly reduced from 1500W to 800W. Its build cost was also changed, previously costing 400 steel and 12 components.
1.1.0 - Reworked; previously it showed all minerals on the map instantly. Now it requires work by a pawn and will periodically find new mineral patches, forever. Its power cost was also slightly lowered to 700W.
1.1.2564 - Rebalance. Random find time 4 work days->3 work days. Guaranteed find time 8 work days -> 6 work days. Now displays feedback about the current user's scanning speed, the random scan interval for this user, and the progress to a guaranteed find.

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