The beginning would be set up as a line of towers in space past that line you would use D scan to see mines that are cloaked, detect a pathway using D scan to get past the area if you get too close the mine appears and explodes.
I was thinking of this as a countermeasure for protecting bases or areas in High traffic space.
D-scan doesnt show you the location or exact distance of objects. The only way you would use D-scan for sigs is to scout if there is someone that could possibly be there before you. And even then, its not absolute. You would not use D-scan to search for sigs. Infact, I dont even know if thats possible.
The only way this mine placing and mine-searching method would work with D-scan, is if you set it at a small angle and short range. And yes, almost no one uses this in a 3-dimensional method. You would literally have to set D-scan as a small cone in front of your ship, and slowly maneuver forward. I dont even know if its plausible to do so.
oh i dont know about mines or that i just know i use dscan a lot, even as far as searching for wrecks before; it can be done, bit of a ballache but if its between two points etc etc blah blah…
not sure why mines were removed, probably poor implementation and spamming around gates or something it was a long long time ago.
I feel a lot of people in this thread have gotten hung up on terminology rather than looking at the idea of space terrain and a scanner to highlight said terrain.