Probing
Guide To Probing in Eve.
Probing has changed in eve in Acroypho release, gone are the fixed range probes of many types, and replaced with just two types (and faction versions). Skills were changed from an emphasis on speed to now an emphasis on strength. Probing takes 10 seconds unmodified and can be reduced to 5 seconds with skills. Strength however is more critical for rare sites.
Skills
Skills requirements needed for basic scanning for effective probing, the longest is really rangefinding IV which takes 5-7 days depending on Int/Mem skills. However even with rangefinding III you can be reasonably good if you have faction launchers and probes and can be up and running in only a couple of days. Strongly recommended to use covert ops for their 10% per level bonus, 40% at level IV covops. However the t1 frigate versions offer 20% bonus with one day of frig IV training and 25% for 5 days. For covert ops the longest skill is Electronic Upgrades V which is about 8 days with great int/mem skills.
Science III(1x) (needed for astrometrics and range finding)
Astrometrics IV(3x) (basic requirement for probing)
Astrometric Acquisition III(5x) (needs astrometrics III)
Astrometric Pinpointing III (5x) (needs astrometrics IV)
Astrometric Rangefinding IV (8x) (strength 40% to probes)
Recommended for covert ops ships
Electronic upgrades V
Frigate V(in racial frigate)
Spaceship Command III
Covops IV
Ships with probe bonuses
covert op ships. 10% strength per level ships
Anathema(amarr frigate V)
Buzzard (caldari frigate V)
Helios (galentte frigate V)
Cheetah (minmatar frigate V)
T1 Frigates. 5% strength per level ships
Magnate (amarr frigate II)
Heron (caldari frigate II)
Imicus (galentte frigate II)
Probe (minmatar frigate II)
Ship Modifications
Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I (adds 10% strength to probes)
Gravity Capacitor Upgrade II (adds 15% strength to probes)
Probe Types
Core Scanner Probes Combat Scanner Probes Deepspace Scanner Probes
Core Probes are smaller and have a maximum range of 32au and can only probe Cosmic Signatures and Anomalies.
Combat Probes have the same functionality as Core Probes but can also scan ships and drones and POS structures. They can also scan out to 64au.
Deepspace probes can instantly tell you everything in a system.
The Sisters variants of these probes add 10% additional strength.
Launcher Types
Core Probe Launcher Expanded Probe Launcher
Core Probe Launcher will launch only Core Scanner Probes. Expanded Probe Launcher will launch all flavours and can hold many more probes than the core launcher. The Core Launcher has very low CPU needs however and can be fit on ships that might like to find anomalies or plex's without the need for covert ops.
Sisters variants of these launchers adds an additional 5% strength to scanning.
How to Probe a Wormhole out
If you have astrometrics V you have the advantage of being able to check if there are any cosmic signatures in a system. If you haven't, then you'll have to do it the longer way, I'll assume astrometrics IV.
First we are going to create a custom filter, this is useful for removing clutter. Bring up the Scanner Select System Scanner Right Click the > arrow that initial says Show All. Select Create New Filter, a new dialog will appear. Add a name for the filter, for this we add Cosmic Signatures In the dialog select "cosmic signatures" and leave the rest blank.(for reference you can for example a battleships only if you wish)
Now select Cosmic Signatures from the filter list.
Launch a Core Probe. You'll see your probe appear in the "Probes in Space" window on the system scanner. Click the Map Icon or press F10 and make sure your in Solar System View Right Click the probe and change the range to 32au. (can also click the 'edge' of the bubble and drag it big in the map, or can right click the probe box on the map and select a new range ) Now Click Scan system.
If any successful hits occur then you'll see a list of signatures. If there are planets not under the 'blue ball' of the probe, on the map you can move the probe using the interface. So the ball covers the planets not yet scanned. Deepscanner will tell you the number of sigs in system, however without them you'll have to move the probe. This is better than putting many probes down as you can get overlapped hits and those would give confusion over number of unique signatures.
Interpreting the Results
On successfully finding a signature it will show in the lower window. Left Click the signature. It will show a red ball (you should have only one probe out). The red ball indicates distance from you, therefore only the surface NOT the volume of the ball matters. The signature will be somewhere on the surface.
multiple signals
if you have multiple signals and you want to figure out what is likely to be the worm hole, chose the faintest signal.. it will be the last in the list.. faintest tends to be Wormholes, but can also be very rare plex's or rare sites.
Deviation
Deviation, there appears to be upto 20% deviation maybe more depending on skills. this means on a 32au you can be 6-8 au off .. this makes for an awfully large error.
if the initial scan radius (last column) is off by 2au etc, and you're using 32au you should drop to an 8au probe size and rescan. If you drop to a 4au and miss scan this is why. Deviation was too large. Factor 20% of size into the new scan range.
How to Move Probes
There are some tricks to note on moving probes. The probes can be moved using the arrows which moves them in that direction. You can also click each of the 3 faces of the cube facing the camera. Top face moves the object in the horizontal plane, and the two sides move the probe in the vertical planes.
The camera is crucial to positioning, you need to rotate around the object.
TIP: Clicking the name of the probe on the map will focus it on the centre of the screen. So always select the name of the probe that is closes to the Red ball. This allows the camera to rotate around this ball.
TIP: Also keep zooming in once you start narrowing probes, try to keep the signature in the middle and large as possible for precision.
4 probes
Once you've scanned down to the closest size. Drop 3 more probes.
now we no longer need the centre of the volume, so we move that to one edge of the bubble, and place the other 3 at compass points around it. depending on the size of the bubble if the next size down is >1/2 then use this.. if its <1/2 stay with current size.
Run Scan.
you should get a new bubble, or you might get a ring or yellow dots, or green dots. If you get nothing, increase all probes to next size up and rescan.
Red Ring
The red ring is the distance from two probes intersecting. If probe A = 100 and Probe B = 200, where those distances intersect you'll proscribe an arc or a circle, this represents every point that the signature can be at. This means that the signature lies at a point on that circle (not in it.. very important that).
Also note if you have two probes on it, you'll double the signal strength.. so if you were looking for a 3% signal strength then get a ring, it should be 6-7% now. This is useful for keeping track of faint signals like Wormholes.
Take the four probes and put one probe on 'compass' points to the circle, 90degrees apart, and select a radius so that they cover enough of the circles perimeter. This means normally 1 or even 2 sizes smaller probes.
Rescan.
You may get 1 hit again, is so go back to the 4 probes section and repeat. You may get 2 hits again, if so go to Red Ring and repeat 3 or more hits should now give you red, yellow or green dots.
Multiple Dots
if you have only 3 probes on a hit, there can be 2 possible locations that the signature can exist at. If so the signal strength halves and is split between two identical signal strengths and two red dots. This is how more signatures can suddenly be on scan than initially was there.
Red and Yellow Dots
Red dots mean faint signatures, so ensure using larger bubbles to locate. Yellow dots are stronger signals with minimal deviations.
you need to add a 5th probe and ensure you have 3 overlapping and then take 2 probes smaller radius and plant one on each of the red dots. You can also put 6 probes out, and place 3 of the over the top of each red dot. One will be a correct hit, the other will vanish on the next scan.
Single Red, Yellow and Green Dots
single red, yellow, green dot hits, means you've got 4 or more probes on the location, but you don't have enough strength to get a hit. You need to get down to 0.25 au. Remember deviation, you can use 4 x 8au probes and get a red dot, but still be 2 au out so don't drop from 8au to 0.25 and wonder that you cannot find it.. go to 2aus, or 1 au's.. and surround the dot.
The Green Dot
You win.
Green single dot is a 100% hit... You will get a "warp to option" when right clicking it on the menu.
Warped but nothing here
Sometimes however you can warp to a green dot and miss, this is due to small errors in deviation still. smaller probes again and rescan, or add another probe, you're normally around 1000km away at this point and its pretty rare to occur but can happen on superfaint objects.
Probing Math
Link to eve math thread for probing. Eve Probe Math Thread
Filtering Results
1.1 of Acrophya introduced Filtering to scanning. A new column was added called 'ID' each scan now has a unique identifier associated with it. The can be used to help probe down specific scans and can also be used to add to an ignore list. For instance if you're only interested in finding Ladar sites and find and confirm a gravimetric site. Right clicking the signature will let you remove it from consideration in subsequent scans.
This makes probing in wormhole space much more manageable when getting 30 hits and you're looking for an exit wormhole.
NOTE: ID's change every downtime.
These ID's are not consistent, so finding a gravimetric site with an ID one day will hange the following day, this goes for wormholes too. You cannot use the ID's to keep track of signals day to day, you'll have to revisit or set a probe at 0.25au over the old bookmarks.. this will identify the signal, however it is worth updating the Bookmark with the new ID will help for new signals appearing during the day (like Wormholes etc)
Filtering options.
Two options are available
- Ignore Result. (Adds the signature to the ignore list)
- Ignore All other results. (adds all signatures to the ignore list except for this one)
How to clear ignore list
- Right Click the White Arrow.
- Select Clear Ignore List.
- Select Item from the ignore list or clear them all.
todo: change links to new wiki skills and probes when eve updates their wiki
Credits
Viceroy Bolloxim (needed to write this down as it was getting far to repetitive educating players)