Just got my 8th or 9th Genosynth this morning but something different happened.

When I pressed the Genoscan ability, it reset the timer to about 2 minutes or thereabout, I wasn't really paying attention. I then went to scan planets to get the debuff. I have done this before and it has always taken from 5-20 planets to get the debuff. I have scanned 100 planets. No debuff. When I try to us the Genoscan ability again, it tells me that it is already active on my ship.

What the snafu is going on?

Just got one here, timer is at 1 minute. Found the effect within 10 planets(bit more than usual).
Most likely changed it so each player can lock it rather than "soloing" it

just bad luck with the RNG.

An unfortunate legionmate didn't find one for 150 or so planets the other day.

I've been 37, and 50-something before, though usually it takes 10-20.

Post-timer change, several have been alerted and people have been able to find their scan thingie. It just sounds like the RNG was being a jerk to you

im wtih pongo...most of mine are 15-30 or so scans, and ive scanned for about 10...i found one first try

I have had two more since then 6 and 9 planets. I guess the RNG just hated me this morning, or I got caught in the middle of code change.

Problem appears to have been solved. If there ever was one.

as far as I can tell, Dan reduced the timer to 1 min or so, so more ships can use it and get the geoscan data needed to hit the ship - so the NPC no longer need to be soloed by 1 player
but even if the timer is only 1 min, the effect on your ship last longer then that, not sure if it 10 min, 20 min or 30 min, but should be plenty of time to scan a few planets and get the effect

as for the number of planets, it usealy takes me 10 to 30 planets to get it
but have had sme extreame cases in GP where it to as few as 2 planets or even 100+ planets to get it
my bedst guess atm is that it's 5% chance pr planet you scan, so 80% of the times it will proberly take 10 to 30 planets, but you can be lucky/unlucke and fall outside that range.