"detecting" resources

[adamwong246]

This is probably not a small proposal but it's been stuck in my brain for a while now. I have explored some of it in an unpublished mod but run into the limits of the current API.

Imagine, if you will, that not all resources are directly observable. They must first be "detected" and each type of resource must be detected in a unique way. In vanilla, every resource is shown to the character, recorded in the map and highlighted in the UI but under this change, that info is withheld until that tile has been "detected" for that particular resource. Your map only shows "detected" resources and you can't mine tiles which aren't yet "detected".

Stone patches appear as the normally do, but iron and copper appear as plain earth. Only by installing a metal detector in your armor and walking your character over the hidden patch can you reveal the position of metal resource. Uranium patches are also similarly obscured but they can be detected with a Geiger counter. At night, they emit a tell-tale green glow.

Instead of a single radar, you now have many similar devices. Some variations detect enemies and some detect particular resources. For example, imagine an "oil-detecting radar" to find oil patches and a "motion detecting radar" to reveal biters.

[Silari]

You could manage it with non-selectable resources that you swap with the normal resource once it's been 'discovered' by whatever method. Just use an empty file for the pictures.

IIRC the sector scanning event tells you what radar did the scanning so you could work with that. Not sure what happens if different types of radars overlap though - might alternate who scans what sector so half wouldn't be done with the ore scanning one.

[adamwong246]

as far as I know, "non-selectable resources" still display their expected resources... see the attempt here: viewtopic.php?f=28&t=103651