After playing my old game of G-Police on my old Playstation, it got me thinking. Why are the scanners in the game instant? Surely it would take time to scan, and identify what is in a ship's cargo bay?
With this in mind, there could be a nerf to all 'standard' scanners where their range is not touched, but scanning cargo bays or any details of the ship, takes a few seconds or more, depending on the ship and size.
However, the police forces and perhaps the navy would also get a boost because they'll gain new scanners that cut down on this delay, but due to the sensitive nature of the scanners, lose a lot of range. Meaning they've got to close the distance to check for smugglers. Making it a slightly tougher task, while giving smugglers an opportunity to make haste without being on the KoS lists.
Draft Specifications
All normal scanners lose up to 2000m of 'ship item' scan range, normal 'detection' scan range untouched.
Police/Forensic Scanners detection range of 8000m, ship item scan range is at 2000m.
Smugglers get new 'counter scanner' scanners, replacing the normal scanners for jammers. Reduced scanner range on both counts, but adds ten seconds until police can scan cargo bay.
This is a draft, as per usual, don't know if this is possible, or even wanted.
Already playing as a cop helps i have to say.
You forgot about tagsnet and what Casero already said: If you RP a cargo scan the vessel will be ordered to cut the engines. If the pilot decides to run it doesn't matter what cargo it is shipping he has already broken the law.
I mean, the whole thing's not a bad idea, but I think in all the work would outweigh the benefits. On top of the cargo scanning range, all players are seen at 10k+ regardless of the scanner's displayed range.
I do not think this is really possible... as far as I know cargo scans always show what is on an enemy ship, and they cannot be 'fooled' by showing false information. Scan a ship, you get it's exact stuff, no tinkering, just shows exactly what they would see in their own inventory.
I do not know if it is possible to delay the scan window appearing with FLhook though. That seems like something that would need the source code or something to work, as it is a game engine thing and not a statistic one.