Don't ditch the scanner; make it better! It could solve a lot of the issues the game has

I hope, given the way it has been criticised, BW do not just ditch the scanner in any sequel. If it was really developed it could actually solve their open-world and quest tracking issues.

Without a scanner, Ryder can only talk and shoot things. This was fine for Shepard, who was basically James-Bond-in-space, but Ryder is more James Kirk. Without a nod to science, and a mechanic to back it up, we’re missing Ryder’s third dimension.

The scanner in ME:A is a good idea badly implemented. There’s a lot of cool flavour text inside it but the player is often bombarded with information in this game and it can be hard to take in. (Some of the time spent writing all these entries might have been better utilised doing a second or third draft of some of the early dialogue). The scanner also gets in the way of both narrative flow and the physical movement through the spaces. Instead of taking in your often gorgeous surroundings you’re running around all the corners clicking everything. The scanner actively works against other parts of the experience. The only nice part of the implementation is the fact you can interact with objects while the scanner is engaged.

However, if you take the scanner out, there’s no mechanic through which you can pretend to do science. It’d be just shoot stuff, ask questions, and be told the answers by SAM (which is much the same as we have got, it’s just we get to click on stuff to make it seem like we’re involved).

So how to fix/develop the scanner, is the question of this thread?

Some suggestions:

1. Give the scanner a gameplay loop. There is precedence for this: the avoid-the-reaper mini-game in ME3. There was quite a compelling gameplay loop in that, it’s just that the gameplay itself was utterly trivial. So over-use of the scanner ends up being ’noisy’, and attracts bad guys (Kett, raiders, robots, EM sensitive critters). This would also mean the open-world could do away with re-spawning enemy roadblocks; the scanner also becomes a random-encounter generator. So out of this is a rudimentary stealth system and a method for setting up ambushes for loot grabbing (stake out a location, turn on the scanner, wait for the kett drop ships…)

2. The scanner should have active and passive mode. In passive mode, it auto-gathers mundane data within its radius (lets say 10m, extendable with mods), with SAM highlighting interesting findings (fewer, but more interesting text boxes), and specific objects that warrant/require a deep-scan in active mode. Let’s say it takes a certain amount of time to do a deep-scan (make it faster with upgrades), which adds to your ‘noise’.
You should also be able to ping active scan while on foot or in the nomad. This would drastically add to ‘noise’, but would gather readings from much further away (hundreds of metres) at lower detail. So the rough locations of bad-guy concentrations, power readings, mineral resources, etc.

3. Tie the scanner into the journal/quest tracking system. Scanner shows waypoints; also acts as a personal assistant, omni-tool style. Access the scanner interface to track quests, view the map. The scanner also accesses the Codex. This is not only general lore, but should contain a log of all your scanner entries. Further scans of similar creatures or gear could reveal more information. Lore-wise the scanner is an addendum to the omni-tool, which is a smart-phone on steroids. Therefore all info -tracking, and most especially comms (emails!) should go through this.

What other ways can you think of to turn the scanner into a compelling gameplay mechanism?

TL; DR

Don’t ditch the scanner, fix it! By treating it as a full game mechanic, the scanner could be fun and dynamic, improve quest-tracking and open-world exploration, and increase immersion.