I just re-read the rules for my Navigators Power "Void Watcher" (RT, core, pag 181) and am quite confused about/disappointed with the ranges as written down. So I understand the RAW, but they don't make much sense to me, I'll share my thoughts and would like to know what you guys think:
The ranges for this Power are always factors of the Navigators Perception bonus, and scale as follows: Novice: 1VU in combat, 1.000km out of combat ; Adept : 2VU in combat, 10.000km out of combat; Master: 5VU in combat, 100.000km out of combat (I hope I'm not giving too much info on the power, don't want to break any copyright rules).
My problems:
1) there's no logical relation between in combat and out of combat ranges: at novice you see 10x less far out of combat then in combat (the combat stress hones your skill?!) ; at adept both ranges are on par, and then as a Master you suddenly see 10x further out of combat. (This is all assuming the rule of thumb that one combat VU is roughly 10.000 km)
2) At novice this skill is completely useless: even if you manage to get a Perception bonus of 10, your spotting range would be 10.000km, or roughly one VU, meaning anything you spot will already be in boarding and ramming range, or simply put well within the range they would spring a trap on you anyway.
3) The ranges out of combat don't make any sense in the context of the vast distances in space. I understand you want to use simple VU measures and limits in combat (which is also pretty plausible to me: with the actual close-up threat of other combatants you're not going to try and focus on the next starsystem). But out of combat it's silly: Assuming a insanely high Perception bonus of 10, the ranges are 10.000km, 100.000km and 1.000.000km. This means a really perceptive novice on earth wouldn't be able to spot satelites in a geo-sync orbit (they're roughly 35.000 km out), let alone stuff a little further out. An adept standing in the same location could spot those satelites but couldn't even make out stuff on the moon ( 385.000 km out) Only a Master would be able to spot stuff around the moon and a little further out, but still could not make out anything near Mars (55.000.000 km out on its closest point), our neighbour.
My idea was to make two suggestions to my GM:
a) Increase all out of combat ranges by a factor 10. I don't think this would make it an overpowered skill, just slightly more realistic in terms of distances in space
b) Use the same range rules as for shooting, so at the distances given it's normal range = a Perception test at normal difficulty (+0). If you limit yourself to scanning up to half range you gain a +10, if you try to scan out to twice the range you get a -10 penalty.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.