• IRS
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Topic: Area Scanner % results

I discussed this with a GM at lenth to better understand how Scanners represent a % in a grey square on the map and what the results mean.

However, I think it's somewhat bugged as follows:

I was roaming around using my area scanner and occassionally would stumble on a 1% area scan result.  I would then travel to each corner of that 1% scan result area and perform another area scan.  Each resulting area scan returned a box with a result of 0%. 

More likely, the actual scan result of each quadrant was probably more like 0.25% or close to it, but it rounds down to 0%.  So, it's completely possible (even though you could mine for hours a 0.25% mineral area) that your area scans routinely show a 0% result even though you could spend hours mining there.

I see this as a bug because 0.25% is not 0%.  0% is nothing, none, nada, those minerals do not exist here.  This wouldn't mean much to someone in a big Mech who could mine that 0.25% area in one fell swoop, but to a beginner like me I was really irritated.  I drove all over the place, routinely getting 0% results, when I probably could have mined much closer to home perfectly happy with my 0.25% area scan.

I'm not sure what a fix would be, I like an integer % instead of a double, but I also see the 0% as misleading if it's really 0.45%.  So, I dunno.  Just wanted to mention it.  It affects newbies more than others I would think since we don't have a lot of mining capacity per haul.

  • TM-UAS
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Re: Area Scanner % results

I'm missing one important information there:

Your Geoscanner accuracy. I was told that it also affects Area scans.

If its a syntech or standard scanner equipped on an arkhe, then i dont see a serious bug there.
If you get those wrong results with 100% or more accuracy, then can understend your feelings.

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  • IRS
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Re: Area Scanner % results

In this case with my discussion with the GM I had a 65% Geo accuracy.

The emphasis is on the rounding algorithm.  If you scan, he said for each land tile there was a 255 possible mineral stack which could have 0-255 amount of minerals.  So, it reports the true % based on a mathematical average.

However, when the # is below 0.5% it rounds down to 0%.  But to a new miner, 0.5% regions could be mineable for hours and could be very close to town.  However, on an area scan resulting in a mathematical result of 0.45%, it will display 0% on the Upload/Map.

  • -CS-
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Re: Area Scanner % results

I'm not sure that's true.

Area scan size is also effected by extension, but as we are talking about new players, lets assume its just 100x100m. if each sq meter can have up to 255 units, thats 255x10,000 units at 100%, 255 x 100 at 1%, and 255x50 at .5% (roughly 13,000 units). Now if  that .5% was all in one tile, that wouldn't be too bad, but its spread across the whole area, technically if it was evenly divided that would be 13 units per. In tile scan parlance, that's a lot of small green circles. If you had 100% accuracy, you would still have to move tiles every few minutes, losing a charge each time a spot ran out; but assuming your a new player again, your not going to have 100% so your also going to attempt to mine 'empty' spots by mistake.

The rounding error is not an issue, if the area truely has less than 1%, even arkhe mining is going to waste charges and time.

the question is, does the universal charge trigger if the amount is less than 1%. In any case, using that charge is much more effective, as the area you are in may not have the ore your scanner is loaded to check for. You may be getting 0% titan because its 99% HDT!

  • IRS
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Re: Area Scanner % results

Just add a decimal place to Area scan results.  It's not like we've run out of room on the Area scan results on the little grey box on the upload results.  That way beginner miners who are out searching for mineable areas don't drive over viable mining spots that have been mined out by people with big mining rigs.

  • DEV
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Re: Area Scanner % results

noted
(#3165)