Ground-penetrating scanner
Ground-penetrating scanner
A sensor unit used by researchers to search for buried resources. The chance to find a resource depends on the operator's research ability. It consumes a lot of electricity. If you find a buried resource, you'll need to use deep drills to extract it. It doesn't work under a roof.
Base Stats
Building
- Size
- 3 × 3
- Minifiable
- False
- Placeable
- True
- Passability
- pass through only
- Cover Effectiveness
- 40%
- Terrain Affordance
- Heavy
- Power
- -700 W
Creation
- Required Research
- Ground-penetrating scanner
- Skill Required
- Construction 8
- Work To Make
- 12,000 ticks (3.33 mins)
- Resources to make
150 + 
4 + 
1- Deconstruct yield
- 75 + 2 + 0 - 1
- Destroy yield
- nothing
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. When operating a 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 a massive amount of resources. Trade is finite, ore deposits are finite, but a scanner + deep drill can find massive quantities of drillable steel, plasteel, and other useful metals without ever leaving the map. These metals can bottleneck a colony's progress. As long as you have a decent miner, a ground scanner or two is a worthwhile investment.
The ground-penetrating scanner is not usable if there is a roof over it. Scanners can be placed in rooms if you need to regulate the temperature; the open roof will make heating inefficient, but it is possible. Having a larger room with double-thick walls allows for more efficient heating.
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 convienence; 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, 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.
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, though a caravan can be ambushed.
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.
- 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