Missions & Complexes

Greetings,

I'm trying to figure out the scanning/probing portion of this game and it's coming with some difficulty and frustration and I was hoping I may get some advice here.

I'll first start with my skills and what ship/module I'm using. I'm a new player, so I understand my skills are a little low (maybe that's my issue?)

Astrometric Acquisition: 3
Astrometric Pinpointing: 3
Astrometric Rangefinding: 3 (currently training to 4)
Astrometrics: 4

Im using a Sisters of Eve Expanded Probe Launcher, though, I'm only using Core Probe I's because I dont have the ISK to spend on Sisters Probes since I spent all my ISK on the launcher.

I'm using an Imicus (Gallente Frigate: 4)

I'm only 13 days old but I definitely plan on taking the Astrometric skills to 5, along with my Gallente Frigate skill.

I understand these low skills may be the cause of my lack of results, but I didn't have any issues at all probing down the training mission cosmic signatures and I'm curious if I'm doing something wrong or perhaps there's a different way for me to go about things to get better results.

I started off by following the probing instructions here: http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Probing



What I do is:

- I picked a system (currently in Nausschie, which is very small, ~ 15AU wide).
- I fly to the sun in the center, and I dropped a probe and expanded it to 16AU which covers the entire system, and I scan
- I came up with only 2 results, so in my scanner, I told it to ignore one of them and proceeded to follow the remaining one
- The result showed a red sphere so I dropped another probe and created an overlap (ven diagram-like) over the red sphere and scanned again, which resulted in another result of a 2 dimensional red outline in the overlap.
- So, again, I dropped another probe and made another intersect (3 set ven diagram-like) which incased the outline in the overlap and scanned again.
- This result gave me a single red dot, and this is where I start having issues

When I get this red dot, and a single result on my scanner showing it's got around a 3% strength, I scan again just to be sure. Oddly though, the red dot shows up in the same area, but slightly off. I scan a few more times without moving anything just to see if I can get a consistant result. Once it's in the same place for a few scans I continue:

- I shrink my probes from 16AU to 8AU and I create the same overlap over the area, and scan again, getting the red dot again, but at around 7% strength
- I drop another probe at the same 8AU strength, add it to the overlap (4 set ven diagram), and scan again, getting similar results, with slightly higher strength

At this point I think I'm doing something wrong, but I continue:

- I drop 2 more probes, making the total 6, I leave the original 4 set alone, but I shrink the 2 probes down to 4AU and make an overlap inside the 4 set and scan again. This comes with a similar result again of a red dot with a slightly higher signal strength, which leads me to believe i'm on the right path, so I continue
- I drop another probe, which is my max with Astrometric 4 and I add it to the 4AU set, making another 3 set ven diagram and scan again, giving me similar results again.

So I'm thinking at this point it's because I need to shrink the probe distance to increase their strength, so I continue:

- I shrink the 8AU 4-set down to 4AU and I shrink the 4AU 3-set down to 2AU and scan again. Results are similar with just slightly higher signal strength
- I shrink the sets again 4AU to 2AU and 2AU set to 1AU and scan again, and this is where I get screwed


Once I hit around 1AU size on my probes, the red dot result disappears.

The entire time I'm shrinking and moving the probes, I'm making sure I'm keeping the result encased in the probe intersections in 3 dimensions.


The highest result I've ever been able to get is only 12% strength on a scan result. I've tried multiple different systems with the same technique and I've read and re-read the probing instructions on that site I posted, but my results are always the same.

Like I had mentioned, this technique worked perfectly for the training missions, but at this point I'm assuming that's because they make it easier for those specific missions to get your head wrapped around it.


What I'm wonder, if anyone understood all my ramblings, is, am I doing something wrong? Is there something I could be doing differently? Is this just the way it goes and requires higher skills before you can really get into this part of the game? I'm just at a loss at this point.

I of course, plan on getting my probing skills up, and once I have some ISK, I definitely plan on getting better probes, and even implants/hardwires that'll help me out, and I'm also planning on getting into a covert ops frigate, but at 13 days, I'm just getting started. Was hoping this part of the game was still possible with the skills I have.

Anyway, any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance - sorry for the long post :)

Check your filters on the scan settings. This will tell you how.

I'll keep all that in mind. Thanks. I've been using 7 total, but i'm still having the same issue. I'll watch that vid when I get home tonight.



Yeah, my filter settings are set correctly, and that's the same link I posted in my post :) Thanks though.



I have a code breaker. My problem is finding any site at all. :)

You were right and I also apologize to Cage Man. You were right too

I had nothing selected except for the 4 (Gravimetric, Radar, Ladar, and Magnetometric) options, because that's all I wanted to probe for, but I went back to scan the site I was having issues with and I selected the 'unknown' option below and I was able to scan down the site with minimal effort - turned out to be an unstable wormhole.


Good to know I'm not doing everything too terribly wrong, and thank you all for your advice. :)

Exploration is a race. As Daniel said use all your probes at once and shift+drag and alt+drag to move and resize your deployment pattern.