Right now, remote sensing allows you to view a planets resource heat map from various ranges depending on the skill level.
1ly at level 1
3lys at level 2
5lys at level 3
7lys at level 4
9lys at level 5
I would like to propose 2 changes to this skill. 1st instead of using light-years, measure the distance in jumps. The skill “Supply Chain Management” uses 5 jump intervals for starting jobs. So for example, instead of being able to view a planet from 7lys away at level 4, you could view the planets heat map from 7 jumps away. Using jumps is a more intuitive way to measure the distance than light-years and would be easier for new players to understand.
My second proposal is that the skill also allows you to view the tax rate on POCO’s from the same range away. So for example, a character with Remote Sensing 4 could view the heat map on a planet from 7 jumps away and view the POCO tax rate from 7 jumps away. One of the most annoying thing about setting up PI is finding planets with good tax rates. Currently the only way to check the tax rate is to fly to the system and open up the POCO to find out. This change would reduce some unnecessary tedium in this process while still requiring you to move around a bit to check all the systems you want to, depending on how high you train the skill.
In addition, the skill is not very useful as it is right now. Knowing the mineral content of a planet is useless if it has an oppressive tax rate, which you would have to fly to the system to find out about, which means you can just scan the planet when you get there. Making the whole skill effectively worthless.