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[Candesce]

I've found that setting my fleet to move on a bearing, zooming in all the way, centering the screen on my fleet, and mousing over the spike I care about is a very quick way to spot false positives. Even at extreme distances, they'll move a little bit - and zoomed in with the cursor as a point of comparison, "a little bit" is plenty.

Certainly wouldn't object to an upgrade, though.

[TheCaptain]

I basically never do any kind of search, unless its really clear where the target is. Bounty near a gas giant? Ok no problem they are always there. Checking planets or starts if there is a station, a labyrinth around them? also ok, thats few clearly defined points per system.

But just flying aimlessly around in a starsystem, or spending lots of time trying to figure out which of the neutrino detector readings are false or not, is just not worth it.
On the one hand its  waste of ressources (unless safescumming as described here, but I play iron man) because whatever can be found is usually no that valueable, and more importantly, its just not fun. Its boring.

My suggestion would be to replace that with some other kind of minigame where the investment is not time, but some other kind of ressource.

[intrinsic_parity]

In practice, I just turn it on while flying between planets to survey/loot. Usually that is enough varied movement to check all the readings, and if you get nothing, then you know there is nothing in the system and can just get out of there (no false negatives). I do use context pretty heavily to rule things out quickly. It's not hard to reason if a direction is plausible or if it just points off into the middle of nowhere when you know the locations where things can spawn. It's a nice way to check if something spawned near a distant asteroid field/gate/jump point without flying all the way across the system.

I have definitely found things I would not have otherwise found by doing that. I find abandoned stations in big asteroid belts or the outer reach that way, although sometimes it's just a domain probe, cache or derelict that is pretty disappointing. Domain era motherships and survey ships do seem to spawn in the outer reaches frequently.

In busy systems with lots of stuff, it does become much harder to use because every debris field and derelict from salvagers fighting will show up and clutter everything.

That being said, I would not mind some improvements/ a rework.

[Arghy]

That neutrino detector mkII mod is actually amazing and honestly how the skill should be. I can expend some resources to get a fairly good idea if anything is out there. The false positives and the current UI for it makes the skill far to finicky to use on a regular basis.

[Sly]

The only time I use the Neutrino Detector is when I'm hunting for slipstreams in hyperspace, and only then if I'm not carrying enough material to build a sensor array and scan for one.

I've tried to make it work well for me, but it's faster to just do search patterns and pop active scans. Like intrinsic, I've rarely discovered things I otherwise wouldn't have,  It can technically work "reliably" if you divine the fake signals and use it in tandem with active scans while conducting search patterns, but at that point why even bother? It's just a slightly longer range sensor sweep by then.

If it functioned more like an active directional sonar or radar, providing static returns, at regular intervals, and at longer ranges - while gradually 'burning away' false signals - I think it'd be more satisfying to use. There would still be some skill to it (i.e. painting a correct direction while moving your fleet), and might even be fun, in its own way. By being directional, you wouldn't be able to burn away all the false signals in one swoop, keeping up a bit of mystery.

Seems a lot more interesting than cluttering the sensor with unavoidable false signals or just blatantly ignoring the false reading mechanic altogether. More of an 'emitter' or 'sensor' than a 'detector' though, I guess. Semantics.

[Sandor057]

In larger systems (blue supergiants, possibly binary or trinary) I use it almost non-stop when exploring. I find that after a certain moment in game the volatiles cost is negligible. As I move around enough to identify the false-positive readings it does help pinpointing the locations of stuff, however I already have a pattern I use in just about every system (except neutron stars), so it just makes me find stuff a bit sooner and maybe find the occasional habitat or mining station orbiting really far from the system center.

My most frequent use-case for neutrino detector is when I'm looking for a bounty fleet in a system with a lot of nebula or other detection decreasing properties. Then I turn on my transponder, sustained burn and neutrino detector for the increased detectability, so my target comes to me. Not the intended use-case.

That said, I think the skill is OK as is if you only have it from the Galatia Academy or the Sensors skill. If you have both (done the relevant mission and have the skill you should get an improved version. Maybe no false-positives, better accuracy, make it able to detect small stuff better at long ranges, merge it with remote survey or just give it a different color, something.
The same should be applicable for Transverse Jump, but apart from removing the cost of jumping to hyperspace or making it a quicker I don't see many options there.

[Princess_of_Evil]

Transverse Jump 2 could show you the name of the planets behind shallow points.

[Candesce]

That said, I think the skill is OK as is if you only have it from the Galatia Academy or the Sensors skill. If you have both (done the relevant mission and have the skill you should get an improved version.

Eeeeh, I'd be real hesitant to do that explicitly; a large part of granting Neutrino Detector as a quest reward is making sure players can go with either Navigation or Sensors and not worry about missing out on capabilities. (Or skip the Technology tree entirely.)

What I think would serve much better would be to give Neutrino Detector bonuses based on your fleet's Sensor Strength - which gives the player more reason to care about the various sensor boosting hullmods, and gives investing in the Sensors skill an implicit advantage when using Neutrino Detector.

[Sandor057]

a large part of granting Neutrino Detector as a quest reward is making sure players can go with either Navigation or Sensors and not worry about missing out on capabilities. (Or skip the Technology tree entirely.)

Welp, where's my Academy-provided Remote Survey ability then? It's a toolbar ability just like the previous two, but you need to get quite deep in Industry before you have it unlike the others for which you basically just have to start a new game to get immediately (and then get a single level to get the other, but you get my point). And I'd say it brings less value than Transverse Jump, but is arguably on a somewhat similar footing as Neutrino Detector, so I find there are no strong reasons why that ability does not have a skilless version unlike the other two. But I'm starting to go on a tangent here. Basically I'd like both the Navigation and Sensors skills' Transverse Jump and Neutrino Detector components to, well, have a reason to exist and actually add something even after having completed the Academy questline.

give Neutrino Detector bonuses based on your fleet's Sensor Strength

All of the above aside this could be a really good bonus. I'd be content with that.

[Brainwright]

Here's an idea : have building a sensor array in the system increase the magnitude of blips created by spacecraft.

[Demetrious]

Like intrinsic, I've rarely discovered things I otherwise wouldn't have,

So you're saying if exploration rewards (derelict hulls or weapons caches hidden in nebulas well distant from the primary) were significantly shinier, the return on investment would be more attractive? Hmm.

[Princess_of_Evil]

Oh, absolutely. If there were a chance for serious loot that you need to find somewhere on the outskirts of the system (as in, the outer 50% of the grid), people would at least attempt.
They would also use mk2, though. Standard ND is just too annoying to use. It's really telling that Alex himself didn't even attempt to use ND when he had probe troubles and went straight for dev mode.

[Arghy]

I'd dig a triangulation system where you had to do pulses at 3 points that create a 'blob of interest' overlay so you could then explore said blob with sensor bursts to see what's there. That MK II mod is absolutely amazing and does what ND should have already been doing. I can effectively swing across a system knowing that there's a very good chance nothings there without needing to stare at it to figure out what's real and what's a fake.

[Megas]

Oh, absolutely. If there were a chance for serious loot that you need to find somewhere on the outskirts of the system (as in, the outer 50% of the grid), people would at least attempt.
They would also use mk2, though. Standard ND is just too annoying to use. It's really telling that Alex himself didn't even attempt to use ND when he had probe troubles and went straight for dev mode.

I can think of two times Neutrino Detector was a help:

* Pirate base in Penelope's Star.  It was in the outermost part of the system and nowhere near landmarks, and none of the usual methods or tricks to find pirate bases worked.  (This is back before Academy missions where added, so no free detector and must spend skill point for it; and it in release when pirates were full-on zombie apocalypse and non-stop raiders.)

* Alpha Site.  Found the crate that way.  Later, I found out that the crate is always northeast, so no longer need detector after finding it the first time.

Rewards need to be very good, like on par with the crate in Alpha Site, for me to consider delving into out-of-way places with neutrino detector.  It needs to have blueprints, Remnant fighters, colony items, alpha cores, and/or Omega weapons for me to be interested in such loot.  If it is commodities or renewable human tech that I can produce or buy/steal from the core worlds, then I am not very interested (because there will be more later).  Unfortunately, most salvage that is not from a research station or similarly high-value object is just junk that is worth cash at best.

[Supraluminal]

I'll echo the general sentiment. It's possible to get useful information out of the neutrino detector in most cases, but doing so is time-consuming and un-fun in. It could definitely stand a rework, or more likely straight-up replacement with a better-designed long-range scanning system. (Or just remove it and eliminate missions that require this kind of tool, I'd be pretty OK with that too.)

I have half a mind to start a whole separate thread about Starsector's handling of sensors, stealth, and generally finding things. I know this game operates with like Saturday morning cartoon space opera levels of realism, making this probably a spurious objection, but from everything I've ever read on the subject it seems that hiding anything interesting (i.e., energetic) in space would be very difficult, bordering on impossible. In Starsector, though, finding stuff is pretty hard!