So, I finally got a Combat Scanner and used it yesterday. Truly, I say I was blind and now I see.
Question: Do Combat Scanners pick up NPC vessels? I ask because I don’t think I have ever seen D-Scan pick them up.
Yes, your directional scanner can pick up NPCs too.
Your directional scanner only scans what you have chosen to scan. Usually people use their dscan with a filter, because the list is too big to quickly show threats otherwise.
But if you want you can add more entities to your dscan to easily find them.
Green: Open your overview filter list to make a new one.
Blue: Create a new filter that you intend to use for dscan. I usually begin mine with 'dscan: ’ to distinguish them from overview filters, but you could use it for your overview as well. Add the NPCs you wish to find on the list.
Red: Change your dscan to filter using the new filter you just made.
I’ve used this in the past to hunt certain types of NPCs in Pochven. Pretty useful when you can make them show up on dscan!
I have always felt like the directional scanner is a broken version of a submarine’s ping. Ping gives you the distances to tagets, dscan does not. Dscan is limited to 14.3 AU, if your ship is located beyond that mark, you cannot sense them, and they cannot see you on dscan.
Gankers use dscan in to find victims in belts. The method works like this;
- Enter a system and get in range of the belts.
- Ping for ventures and other unarmed mining vessels.
- Narrow the angle to 30 degrees or less.
- Look at ( camera ) the first belt and dscan.
- Repeat the last step until the target returns to the scan.
When I first started, I was told to tap the dscan every 5 seconds while mining to detect combat probes. However the above method clearly shows no combat probes are needed or used. The question is how can a miner defend against a tool built in favor of a ganker?
The answer is, first I don’t over use it. Tapping the dscan is a distraction I don’t need. If or when I belt mine, I try to find a low populated system with a friendly dock. I start mining and watch the local chat number to increase, Then I might use dscan to see, a new ship on the listing. When no new ship appears, they can’t see me or might be a stealth ship.
Stay alert and fly safe o7
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This only shows certain NPCs FYI. Trigs/EDENCOM show up but stuff like belt rats don’t.
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Yeah, that was what I was primarily interested in.
Thanks for this.
No problem. Just to show you what I mean by stealth ship, Skylar was ganked twice by a loki. I never would have used the second ship myself. However we do have some rather good financial backers who take a personal interest in protecting their investments. All I can do is pity the ganker, for I know what will become of them.
Stay alert and fly safe o7
Not sitting at the warp in point of the belt or anomaly you’re at is a good start.
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Then always align to warpable points you reach with one click while mining. Some players even fit a Higgs Anchor rig to be deliberately slower - and this way stay in range of the asteroid longer while it doesn’t affect the time you need to reach the 75% speed threshold for warping.
I don’t know any miner who would sit on the warp beacon. Obviously you want to move to the ore/gas you plan to mine. If the gas clouds are over 35k away, I bookmark the clouds, then I warp back out to my safe point and warp back in directly on top of the cloud. If or when I come under attack, I warp to safe and logout in space. I find something else to do for an hour or more. then I return, I look for the attacker, if they are not in local, I return to mining. One thing you can count on is a ganker’s short attention span.
I pointed it out to Skylar that she didn’t wait, she just ran and hopped in the next ship. While they are cheap, you don’t want to lose them before you get 12 million or more in gas back to dock.
Stay alert and fly safe o7