Probing down those hidden things
Disclaimer: CCP seems to update the scan probe system a lot. So you may see different icons in game than shown here. This is one of the parts of the game that they seem to be experimenting with. One of these days they'll have it the way they want it, but for now, we adjust to the changes.
One venture many people attempt is scanning with probes. At first this looks easy, then it reveals itself to be very hard, but once you get the hang of it, is very easy. The tutorial will teach you a lot, so if you haven't done it, go back and do it. If you did it a long time ago, or simply can't do it again on your character, start a new character and do it. I recommend using one of the empty slots on your current account. You will need to pause the training with your main for about a day or so, but it will be very worth the effort.
Step one, get the skills needed. You can't use probe launchers, or scan probes until you have high enough skills. You also probably can't use more than about three probes. So having higher skills is important.Remember, EVE is a skill based nightmare.
The skills you will need:
Astrometrics 2 (level 1 for the probes, but lvl 2 for the expanded launcher)
The skills you will want:
Astrometric Acquisition
Astrometric Pinpointing
Astrometric Rangefinding
Jury Rigging
Astrometrics is required to use the probes and launchers. So you'll need to get Science to level three and train Astrometrics to at least level 2, but I'd recommend level four at the minimum. Now the wanted skills. Astrometric Acquisition 10% reduction in scan probe scan time per level. That 50% scan time reduction can save you a lot of valuable time on those tough to scan down sites. Astrometric Pinpointing reduces scan deviation by 10% per level. This means more reliable scan results, which means faster location of the site. I'll talk later about sites moving around as you continue to scan them down, this will reduce that movement. Astrometric Rangefinding 10% increase to scan probe strength per level. Stronger probes means better scan results. Jury Rigging is required for rigs, and you may want to use Gravity Capacitor Upgrade, which grants a 10% increase to scan probe strength.
So with skills you can cut the scan time by 50%, decrease the scan deviation by 50%, and increase the probe strength by 50%. With rigs you can add an additional 20% scan strength for a total of a 70% strength increase. This will make a huge difference in your scanning abilities. Those sites that give you so much trouble will soon be in your grasp.
Ships: Each race has a ship that has a scan probe bonus. That ship has a T2 version called a Covert Ops ship. It also has a bonus. You can also set up a T3 Cruiser to have a bonus, but I don't recommend that. T3 ships are very expensive. So focus on the T1 ship, and if you one day have the skills to fly a Covert Ops ship, then maybe you'll want to upgrade your "little prober".
Okay. Now that we know what skills to train, we need to overcome what in my opinion is the hardest part of scanning. You have a mental block that prevents you from scanning effectively. I can probably hide from some pretty good players simply by flying up or down. Space is three dimensional, we know this, but we have trouble interacting with it. It might help to think of your space ship as a submarine under water. You can go front, back, left, right, up, and down. When new players begin scanning, they nearly always try to work on a flat plane. This is why they keep losing those signals. As you adjust your probes to a smaller scan radius, the entire sphere gets smaller. If the object you wish to scan is above or below your scan radius, it won't matter if you are spot-on in the other four directions. You know how graphs have an X angle and a Y angle? Well, three dimensional objects also have a Z angle. This Z angle is the problem. To fix this, always drag your map so you look down at the system. Once the probes are lined up, drag the map so you are looking at it sideways. It doesn't matter which side. Then drag your probes either up or down until the specified signal is once again in the middle of your probes. Due to the graphics engine in EVE, you now have to go back and check the top-down angle again. You'll notice what I'm talking about after a few tries at probing. Doing this will allow you to scan down the sites with relative ease.
One venture many people attempt is scanning with probes. At first this looks easy, then it reveals itself to be very hard, but once you get the hang of it, is very easy. The tutorial will teach you a lot, so if you haven't done it, go back and do it. If you did it a long time ago, or simply can't do it again on your character, start a new character and do it. I recommend using one of the empty slots on your current account. You will need to pause the training with your main for about a day or so, but it will be very worth the effort.
Step one, get the skills needed. You can't use probe launchers, or scan probes until you have high enough skills. You also probably can't use more than about three probes. So having higher skills is important.Remember, EVE is a skill based nightmare.
The skills you will need:
Astrometrics 2 (level 1 for the probes, but lvl 2 for the expanded launcher)
The skills you will want:
Astrometric Acquisition
Astrometric Pinpointing
Astrometric Rangefinding
Jury Rigging
Astrometrics is required to use the probes and launchers. So you'll need to get Science to level three and train Astrometrics to at least level 2, but I'd recommend level four at the minimum. Now the wanted skills. Astrometric Acquisition 10% reduction in scan probe scan time per level. That 50% scan time reduction can save you a lot of valuable time on those tough to scan down sites. Astrometric Pinpointing reduces scan deviation by 10% per level. This means more reliable scan results, which means faster location of the site. I'll talk later about sites moving around as you continue to scan them down, this will reduce that movement. Astrometric Rangefinding 10% increase to scan probe strength per level. Stronger probes means better scan results. Jury Rigging is required for rigs, and you may want to use Gravity Capacitor Upgrade, which grants a 10% increase to scan probe strength.
So with skills you can cut the scan time by 50%, decrease the scan deviation by 50%, and increase the probe strength by 50%. With rigs you can add an additional 20% scan strength for a total of a 70% strength increase. This will make a huge difference in your scanning abilities. Those sites that give you so much trouble will soon be in your grasp.
Ships: Each race has a ship that has a scan probe bonus. That ship has a T2 version called a Covert Ops ship. It also has a bonus. You can also set up a T3 Cruiser to have a bonus, but I don't recommend that. T3 ships are very expensive. So focus on the T1 ship, and if you one day have the skills to fly a Covert Ops ship, then maybe you'll want to upgrade your "little prober".
Okay. Now that we know what skills to train, we need to overcome what in my opinion is the hardest part of scanning. You have a mental block that prevents you from scanning effectively. I can probably hide from some pretty good players simply by flying up or down. Space is three dimensional, we know this, but we have trouble interacting with it. It might help to think of your space ship as a submarine under water. You can go front, back, left, right, up, and down. When new players begin scanning, they nearly always try to work on a flat plane. This is why they keep losing those signals. As you adjust your probes to a smaller scan radius, the entire sphere gets smaller. If the object you wish to scan is above or below your scan radius, it won't matter if you are spot-on in the other four directions. You know how graphs have an X angle and a Y angle? Well, three dimensional objects also have a Z angle. This Z angle is the problem. To fix this, always drag your map so you look down at the system. Once the probes are lined up, drag the map so you are looking at it sideways. It doesn't matter which side. Then drag your probes either up or down until the specified signal is once again in the middle of your probes. Due to the graphics engine in EVE, you now have to go back and check the top-down angle again. You'll notice what I'm talking about after a few tries at probing. Doing this will allow you to scan down the sites with relative ease.
The picture below shows the icons you'll see and the color they are depending on the strength of the signal your probes are reporting. If you have a huge red sphere, then only 1 probe is reading that signature and you need to get at least 1 more probe to catch that signal. Now, if you have a big red circle, then 2 probes are scanning the site, but you'll need a third probe at least before it will turn into the red dot shown below. It usually isn't hard at all to get the red dot shown below, but it can be a real pain in the neck to get the yellow arrow. I should note that once a site is scanned to 100% your scans will continue to show it even if no probes are in range. This is misleading because it makes you think your computer will hold that data. It won't. If you leave the system, or change ships, you will lose that site data and you'll have to scan it down again. Bookmarks are the only answer. Once you bookmark a site, your People and Places window will hold it until you manually delete the bookmark.
The picture below shows the difference of a site inside a scan probe, and one outside a scan probe. the bright one is inside, and the next scan will have a result for it. The dark one is outside the scan probes, and if you scan now, you will lose that site and have to start over. It is not hard to realize that the signal is outside your new scan probe radius. Just change the view so you know if you need to move the probes up or down.
This is that Z angle I was talking about earlier. Because new players get used to looking at their probes from a top down view, they forget about the third dimension. Eve makes very good use of the third dimension, so get used to it. Learn to use this upward and downward direction to your advantage. But remember, everyone has their overview, and the overview shows things they can't see. Your not hiding just because nobody can see you. I have seen people sit in asteroid fields and wait for someone to do something stupid, but to my knowledge nobody did anything because the person was on the overview. We don't use our eyes to look around space, we rely on our overview to do that for us.
Some sites are very hard to scan down, and even with rigs attached it will take you a number of tries to get a lock on them. Before you can bookmark, or warp to a site, you need to have a 100% scan result. This is automatic with anomalies, but with something like a Gravimetric site, it can seem impossible. Sometimes the answer is more probes for a better scan result. Sometimes you don't need more probes. I find that if I use the rings around the scan probes to position my probes, I get to 100% much quicker. Each scan probe scan range setting has five rings. The first one is the outer edge of the scan radius, I don't use this ring. The others appear inside the scan radius sphere. Any of them will do. The mechanics of the game seem to dictate that if a signal is on or very near one of those lines, that the probe gets a better reading. Also, if you start at 32 AU, don't jump to 8 AU. Go down only one setting at a time. 32, 16, 8, 4, 2, 1, .5, .25. This way you are limiting the error report from the probes. You should notice that after each scan the signature has moved. This is because you are getting a better fix on the signature. If you jump too small too quickly, this can cause you to think you have a good fix on the signature, but you may be way off. If you lose a signature, simply reset your probes to the previous scan radius. This will usually locate the signature again. If the signature is still lost, one of two things has happened. Someone else cleared the site, or your probes failed to see it. Recall your probes. Reload your probe launcher. Relaunch the probes. This resets the probe countdown timer and allows you the one hour and five to fifteen minutes. You don't want to get a signature to 99.99% only to have probes start dieing on you. Yes, I have had signatures at 99.99% many times. But I have yet to have a probe die on me. I may have left some probes behind when I jumped out of a system, or I may have docked and changed ships forgetting about my probes, but they haven't died on me yet.
The movement of probes can be done two different ways that I know of and be effective. The first and easiest way is to only move one probe at a time. This way it is much harder to lose the signature, but it is a bit (not much, but a tiny bit) slower. The second way is to change the scan radius and move them all at once. This is slightly faster, but can make you restart from scratch if you screw up. Once a site turns yellow, it is fixed to a very small location. It can still move, but not much. Here is where you can start being a bit hasty. Since you know the site won't move much if any, you could start skipping a scan radius or two. Once the site turns green, you are at 100%.There are a lot of probes out there, they do different things. Just because the Sisters of Eve have a storyline probe and launcher doesn't mean you need to spend crazy amounts of ISK to get them. Odds are they won't help you anyway. Stick with the cheap and the easy. Get an Expanded Probe Launcher. This will hold the most probes. Then start with Scanner Probes, they may not look like much, but they will work every time. Combat Scanner Probes are for scanning down ships, POSs, and the like. Scanner Probes and Deep Space Scanner Probes are for the good stuff. Some people swear by the Deep Space Probes because they can scan 64 AU. Even though the Scanner Probe only scans at 32 AU at the largest, the regular Scanner Probe is the one that can scan the smallest, so you will need them. And Expanded Probe Launcher can hold 100 Scanner Probes. Since you will only ever be able to launch about 10 probes, if you get chased out of a system and lose the probes, you can keep scanning. Also, Scanner Probes cost like 1,500 ISK. They are cheaper than dirt. Why use something expensive when something very cheap does just as good or better?Once you have a site scanned to 100%, MAKE SURE TO BOOKMARK IT. If you leave the ship, or leave the system, your onboard scanner will dump it's scan findings. You'll be back to square one. Also, if you do find a wormhole and you decide to enter it, remember BOOKMARK BOTH SIDES OF WORMHOLES. If you enter a wormhole and warp away, the only way back is by scanning the wormhole out again. And if you have to scan your way out, I hope very much for your sake that you have a probe launcher and probes fitted on the ship you entered the wormhole with. Many capsuleers have had to blow themselves up in W-Space to get back. Just imagine setting Self Destruct on your Battleship just because you forgot to bookmark the wormhole. It has happened more times than anyone wants to admit. The wormhole may be on your overview, depending on your settings, but I promise you, if you warp away, it will disappear.
Once you find a site, if nobody has been there yet, it hasn't started it's decay timer. Once you or anyone else pops in to see what is there, the timer starts. If you are working in W-Space, by all means scan down the sites, but don't go to them until you are ready to harvest or destroy what is there.
One last thing to remember: Most of scanning is your (the player's) skill at placing the probes properly. No matter how you place them, or how many times you click the scan button, if the probes haven't moved, the scan result will be the same. This means that the scan results are directly based on your skills, modules, and placement. The skills and modules have set returns, so the only variable is your placement. Learn this, and keep in mind that only 2 points increase in scan strength itself i.e. Sister's of Eve scan probes, won't help you out the slightest little bit. The Sister's Expanded Launcher only gives a 5% bonus to scan strength. This bonus may be worth the ISK to you, or it may not be. I bought some sister's probes and used them. I cannot see a difference. But with regular Scan Probes I can usually locate sites faster than everyone I know. I believe this to be solely based on my placement of the probes.
-Jesse Collie
Once you find a site, if nobody has been there yet, it hasn't started it's decay timer. Once you or anyone else pops in to see what is there, the timer starts. If you are working in W-Space, by all means scan down the sites, but don't go to them until you are ready to harvest or destroy what is there.
One last thing to remember: Most of scanning is your (the player's) skill at placing the probes properly. No matter how you place them, or how many times you click the scan button, if the probes haven't moved, the scan result will be the same. This means that the scan results are directly based on your skills, modules, and placement. The skills and modules have set returns, so the only variable is your placement. Learn this, and keep in mind that only 2 points increase in scan strength itself i.e. Sister's of Eve scan probes, won't help you out the slightest little bit. The Sister's Expanded Launcher only gives a 5% bonus to scan strength. This bonus may be worth the ISK to you, or it may not be. I bought some sister's probes and used them. I cannot see a difference. But with regular Scan Probes I can usually locate sites faster than everyone I know. I believe this to be solely based on my placement of the probes.
-Jesse Collie
Tricks of the Trade
There are always tricks to getting things done. Sometimes it's a new approach, and sometimes it's just doing what you normally do a little different.
1) If someone is already at the site, using Combat Scanner Probes can allow you to scan down the person there instead of the site, and get you there faster. This probably works best for those tough sites like Gravimetric. Someone is already there in a Hulk, scanning down the Hulk isn't that hard. Once you get a lock on the
Hulk, warp to zero, then bookmark an asteroid, get your miner and join the fun.
1) If someone is already at the site, using Combat Scanner Probes can allow you to scan down the person there instead of the site, and get you there faster. This probably works best for those tough sites like Gravimetric. Someone is already there in a Hulk, scanning down the Hulk isn't that hard. Once you get a lock on the
Hulk, warp to zero, then bookmark an asteroid, get your miner and join the fun.