Missions & Complexes

I've tried explorjing in my Heron and I have, just the twice, found something.

But most of the the time I am getting my five probes in a pattern and then at the smallest resolution find that after an hour I can't get more than 50% signal on a site.

My main problem seems to be that I can't get to grip with my probes' movement; I try to drag the thing and it goes elsewhere. Or if I do get a signal then one whole probe goes red.

I've read guides and they seem to refer to skills which I can't find and to probe types that I can't locate.

So, I assume (perhaps wrongly) that CCP have changed things. In this case can someone point me to a guide, especially for the ham-fisted, which can help me get a lock onto that signal.

I have Astrometrics to IV and Astrometric Pinpointing to III. I am in a Heron so I must have the right skills. So, what am I doing wrong?

Do I ned to get Persuit. Comb and Sift probes still? I can't find them on the market but, yet, they are referred to in the guides.

The probing link posted above is good and the scanning video link in that evelopedia page is how I do scans. Basically all of this info is on that evelopedia page.

The Video explains about holding Shift key and left click mouse on one probe to move all probes simultaneously. You can also hold shift key and left click mouse on one probes scan radius to re-size the scan radius of all probes at the same time. A new feature recently added is hold Alt key and left click mouse on one of the outer probes to move them in closer to or out further from the center probe.

Left click mouse + hold and drag in the system map to rotate the view from top to side.
Right click mouse + hold and drag in the system map to move the view anywhere on your screen.
Scroll Mouse wheel or hold both left and right mouse buttons and move mouse to zoom view in or out.

Best to train all exploration skills at least to level 4.
Archaeology
Astrometrics
Astrometric Rangefinding
Astrometric Pinpointing
Astrometric Acquisition
Survey
Salvaging
Hacking

Installing a couple of scan rigs on your ship will help a lot.
Gravity Capacitor Upgrade I

Top equipment will also help increase scan strength. Combat Probes can only be used with Expanded Probe Launcher.
Sisters Core Probe Launcher or Sisters Expanded Probe Launcher
Sisters Core Scanner Probes
Sisters Combat Scanner Probes

Lastly there are scanning implants that also increase scan strength. Slot 8 - Science Implants
Hardwiring - Poteque Pharmaceuticals 'Prospector' PPH-0, PPH-1 or PPH-2

Watch the video and practice that method. Soon you'll be locking down signatures at 100% in no time at all.

You are reading an old-OLD guide. There haven't been sift, comb or pursuit probes for a couple of years. Any that were lying around in hangers magically became the new type probes with the expansion of that year- the same with the old skills.

Check out any of the guides in the stickies above and that will set you straight.

To give a little more detail, Alt doesn't move things round a probe. It rescales the formation around the center point of the probes.

So if you have four probes, at the corners of a diamond, it will resize that diamond (not the scan range)

And you will find sites that you can't get fully probed out, without high skills and other bonuses. It's annoying, but it happens.

As for dragging things around, make sure you grab the right handle. There've been times I though I was moving something left, but actually was dragging it down. They go blue when selected. Individual handles(the arrows) are better than the faces of the cube, limiting it to one axis of movement.

I like to rotate the view so it is as close to vertical as I can (looking down at the plane of the ecliptic). Then I put one probe in the center and 4 probes equidistant at North, South, East, and West. If you click (double-click maybe, I don't remember off-hand) on the name of the center probe, it will center your view on that probe. Try to only move the probes when you are either looking down, or looking directly at one side, this helps to avoid misaligning.

I use the arrows to move the probes, as I can sometimes grab the wrong side of the cube and drag my probes way off target. If I get hold of an arrow, the probes only move along that axis, so you can put them back if your mouse freaks out and drags them way off screen, like mine sometimes does. =)

How quickly can you get into a Buzzard as that gives a bonus to scanning, can't remember the exact stats on it offhand but it will improve your abilities to get hits. also you can cloak up while scanning so that helps in low sec (if your there).

All advice above is good and I run the 5 probe layout all the time and can find most sites without too much problem.

Edit : do you have astro rangefinding? if you dont, get it and train to 3 or 4 for further improvement.

Once you figure this out, you'll hate yourself for ever training to fly a barge. Unless you mine out the grav sites you find.

There are some tough sigs out there. I had one last night ( a grav site ) that I couldn't nail down with 8 probes. All my skills are at 4 or above and I'm using sisters probes on a exploration Tengu.
Guess I'm gonna have to boost that last probe strength skill to 5.

As a side note, I also ran into a Radar site in a .6 high sec system that had 3 battleship rats in it, so be prepared.

Explore in an battlecruiser. Plenty of utility slots (if you're doing it in highsec) and you can take on anything short of the DED 4/10s without much trouble.

I fly a Legion for my exploration work these days.