Portable Contraband Scanner
Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2020 12:34 am
Device as I picture it:
Handheld device, same size as any kind of analyzer, comes out of Security Lockers/Protolathes/Vendors
Walk up to a person, use scanner on them, and after, say, three seconds of both parties holding still, you get a window showing their entire inventory contents - Clothing, pockets, bags, boxes, containers within containers and their contents, etc - a full tree.
Why:
Random searches are supposed to be a thing, but they're currently a miserable experience for all parties involved - It's a slow and tedious process, you can't do it in a public area without risk of theft, and it's so disruptive to the recipient that if you do it with any kind of frequency you're likely to earn the ire of the crew. To this end, provide security with an actual tool to do it quick and dirty on the field.
Additional thoughts:
What happens when a player messes with their inventory mid-scan? Maybe you could have the scan happen at the last moment and if the player just drops a box at the last second and immediately picks it up hopefully that'll be seen as suspicious enough? Can random bags be scanned? Upgraded versions with longer range and shorter scan time? Do chameleon clothes fool the scanner? Some kind of item that you can buy that disguises the contents of a bag? Maybe some easily-built civilian device that prevents the scanner from reading the contents of a bag, enough to be suspicious but not enough to clearly mark you as a perpetrator? Interaction with storage implants?
Handheld device, same size as any kind of analyzer, comes out of Security Lockers/Protolathes/Vendors
Walk up to a person, use scanner on them, and after, say, three seconds of both parties holding still, you get a window showing their entire inventory contents - Clothing, pockets, bags, boxes, containers within containers and their contents, etc - a full tree.
Why:
Random searches are supposed to be a thing, but they're currently a miserable experience for all parties involved - It's a slow and tedious process, you can't do it in a public area without risk of theft, and it's so disruptive to the recipient that if you do it with any kind of frequency you're likely to earn the ire of the crew. To this end, provide security with an actual tool to do it quick and dirty on the field.
Additional thoughts:
What happens when a player messes with their inventory mid-scan? Maybe you could have the scan happen at the last moment and if the player just drops a box at the last second and immediately picks it up hopefully that'll be seen as suspicious enough? Can random bags be scanned? Upgraded versions with longer range and shorter scan time? Do chameleon clothes fool the scanner? Some kind of item that you can buy that disguises the contents of a bag? Maybe some easily-built civilian device that prevents the scanner from reading the contents of a bag, enough to be suspicious but not enough to clearly mark you as a perpetrator? Interaction with storage implants?