Silly question about Kethane satalites

[Procyon]

So I have a satellite in orbit around minmus. scanning is going nicely. The question is, how long exactly does it take to get a decent map of deposits? the sats don't work when you are not piloting., unfortunately, and they miss information if you warp. so is the only option letting the thin scan in real time for days?

Thanks in advance

[Majiir]

Time warp requires a bit more battery capacity to keep running at full speed. Try adding a battery or two to your probe and you should find time warp gives better results. There will still be gaps, but a gap of 1-2 pixels between dots is fine. Finding a deposit usually takes on the order of 10-15 seconds, and a "full" map might take 5-20 minutes. It all depends on what you consider enough for your purposes.

[Pulstar]

If you want a full, mostly-complete scan at warp with minimal gaps then a polar orbit scanner takes about 30 minutes in my experience, usually though it's usable with far less than that. Depends on the planetary body though. Overall if you just want a refuel base and care less about location I recommend putting it in a low inclination orbit so it only scans a small belt around the equator, since it's fairly easy to land and get back from there. That should take a fraction of the time needed for a full map and you should have fully scanned deposits there anyway without major gaps in scanning area in the band.

Likewise if you want to go for the poles (because drilling ice on Duna is cool, *badum tish*) a polar orbit satellite will always scan the poles in the most detail first.

[TMS]

Altitude of the scanner also affects the granularity of the map at time warp. Low altitude is better resolution, but limits the speed you can warp.

[Bessy]

also there is a physical time warp mod/plugin u can use called "DynamicWarp" to increase the speed i normally make the game time warp at 50x then take the mods 1 up to 4x makes it go pretty quickly

[7499275]

For the Kethane scanner I put my game up to 50x let it run for about 30 minutes, while I was watching Scott Manley lol. Once I came back to it almost the whole surface was scanned, enough data to locate every deposit. Hope that helps

[Procyon]

thanks guys

I have discovered something odd about myself. I seem to look at time warp as somehow wasting gametime, that something else can be getting done. the satellite should be able to complete its job once its set up in orbit and going. Silly I know..

[GavinZac]

thanks guys

I have discovered something odd about myself. I seem to look at time warp as somehow wasting gametime, that something else can be getting done. the satellite should be able to complete its job once its set up in orbit and going. Silly I know..

It should, but its a limitation of the Game Engine. Everything is set up around active vessels and active bodies.

[Blackbird]

so, is there any way to increase the range of the scaners so that the "dots" they scan get bigger? Like editing something in the .part or other obvious stuff i might miss? i got a little probe around laythe at a 150km orbit and it takes forever to get some good scans since those dots are only about 50m² on the surface or something like that ;D

[Procyon]

I know things only "work" if you are actually within a 2Km range, but I still think they should