View source for IFF System

[[Image:oolite-iffscanner.png|right|420px]]
== Overview ==

The IFF (Identification, friend or foe) system, a flight grid scanner, comes fitted with every craft deemed space-worthy as it is integral to both navigation and combat.  It is a sophisticated instrument that displays a 3D view of space in the immediate vicinity of your ship as seen from a point above it, and all other objects within.

== Features ==

=== Facing Quadrant Lines ===
These change depending on the view (F1/F2/F3/F4) and help indicate which way direction the viewscreen is showing.

=== Distance Lines ===
The distance lines change as you zoom in and out (see Zoom mode below).

=== Communications Display ===

If a ship within the scan range should broadcast a message, the IFF system will translate this as a ripple effect that will surround the flag of the communicating ship.

=== Cascade Explosion Display ===

The [[Q bomb]]'s detonation (and cascade explosions) are also shown as translucent blue spheres with a magenta edge where they intersect the horizontal plane.

=== Zoom mode and Range Display ===

The IFF scanner can be zoomed up to 5x to allow precise navigation for intercepting smaller items (use of <font color="Red">'''z'''</font> & <font color="Red">'''Z'''</font> buttons). At each magnification (x1/x2/x3/x4/x5) the markings (distance lines) on the scanner automatically adjust to give a representation of target ranges.

== Legend ==

* [[Image:iffns-w.gif|20px|]] Unpowered objects unable to mass-lock the in-system jump drive.
* [[Image:iffns-y.gif|20px|]] Powered craft.
* [[Image:iffns-r.gif|20px|]] Powered craft identified as hostile.
* [[Image:iffns-p.gif|20px|]] Police.
* [[Image:iffns-g.gif|20px|]] Space stations.
* [[Image:iffns-c.gif|20px|]] Missile.
* [[Image:iffns-pm.gif|20px|]] Police on intercept.
* [[Image:iffns-gy.gif|20px|]] Navigation buoys.
* [[Image:iffns-rg.gif|20px|]] Thargoids.
* [[Image:iffns-ry.gif|20px|]] Active Q bomb (about to detonate).
* [[Image:iffns-bc.gif|20px|]] Wormhole.

== Modifications ==
* Tired of being jumped by pirates because your scanner was zoomed in and you didn't see them? Want to zoom in on a close adversary in a dogfight without losing track of more distant ships? Then you need the new ''nonlinear'' scanner!
:Based on captured Thargon technology, and extensively re-engineered by Faulcon de Lacy [http://www.aegidian.org/bb/viewtopic.php?p=216248#p216248 skunkworks division] so you don't need compound eyes to use it, the nonlinear scanner is the answer to every pilot's scanning problems.
* Need closer zooming? Then you need ultra-zoom scanning (x1, x2, x4, x8, x16 instead of x1, x2, x3, x4, x5)
* Need a larger scanner? Then you need a new [[HUD]].

All available through use of .oxp HUDs - read [[HUDSelector]] (downloadable through the in-game [[Expansions Manager]]) - and look at [[HUD images here]].

== History ==
Famously, back in 1983/4, [[Ian Bell]] & [[David Braben]] had just a smidgen of memory left when they were writing the code for [[Classic Elite]] - and invented the scanner and bunged it into the game at the last minute! The IFF was first introduced in Elite A in 1997.

== Availability ==
All ships deemed space-worthy must have the IFF system installed

== OXPs ==
* [[Scanner Alerting Enhancement]]: alerts you to what is waiting on the other side of the witchspace tunnel you are in

* [[Mining IFF Scanner Upgrade]]: distinguishes between asteroids, boulders & splinters
* [[Police IFF Scanner Upgrade]]: distinguishes between the "innocent", offenders & fugitives

* [[Breakable 'Standard' Equipment OXPs|Breakable HUD/IFF Scanner]] allows your Scanner to be disabled by a direct hit in combat

* [[Telescope]]: enhances the scanner (and the [[View Screen]]), displaying the star, distant beacons ''etc''

== Discussions ==
* [http://bb.aegidian.org/viewtopic.php?t=13274 more "realistic" Long Range Scanner] (2013)
* [http://bb.aegidian.org/viewtopic.php?t=13877 Ident system, how does it work?] (2013)
* [http://aegidian.org/bb/viewtopic.php?p=134737#p134737 Why are escape pods and rock hermits white? Both are manned] (2011)
* [http://aegidian.org/bb/viewtopic.php?p=269711#p269711 Changing the scanner range] (2020) - part of Redspear's [Rescaling experiment] for Windows computers
{{NavBox - Oolite Equipment}}[[Category:Equipment]]