EVE New Citizens Q&A

couple of questions please re directional scanner.

a. best angle default or 360 degree's?
b. range default or user defined? currently i have set mine to 100km

and the last bit should i tick the active overview box? and if i use this setting then what is the best overview setting to use to avoid loads of junk in the scan window?

apologies if this seems noobish, my real life job limits the amount of game time i get which is not alot at the moment.

thanks

ah ok .
basically just keeping an eye open for incoming rats etc when am mining or scanning

NPC rats are not traveling the solar system. They just spawn in a warp. Directional scanner will show you rats that are already on a belt or chillin' somewhere (anomaly, signature etc.) where a player is.
If you are mining, any threat from NPC rats can be seen immediately in your overview. If you see them, prepare for defence/attack. You can't scan them beforehand.

You can scan out pirates (players). There is no general, best setting for D-scan. You just start with 360 degrees, full range and decrease those parameters to pinpoint direction and where (more or less) they can be or where are they heading. If you can see them in d-scan, they can see you too.

EDIT: Smart pirates are hard to scan out on lower angles. You will know they are somewhere in range of your scanner but it will be hard to tell where they are exactly as warping between safe spots is a common practice. Your best option is to scan 360 degrees and warp out if any suspicious ship show up on the list. Note: unless it's a W-space or hostile territory, not all ships will be hostile towards you. You can't tell for sure who is a pirate and who is not, just by analyzing d-scan result. You can combine it with local (except w-space) and combat probes (if you have them) to increase the chance of correct FoF classification, but it still won't give you a definitive answer are you in danger or not.

I've seen rats jumping around a solar system. Not saying they don't spawn in warp. But they do jump around occasionally.

Just set to 360 degrees and max range. Have a tab on your overview selected with a filter that only shows potential hostiles.
Then check the use active overview settings thingie. Sort by range. This way you will have minimal clutter.
This is just for defense of course. Be aligned at all times. Aligning a Hulk takes just enough time to get killed.

THAT is a very instructive reading... for a newb like me that is...
However, there's one thing that ticked about the inner workings you explained, if you don't mind explaining:
You say the DScan operates along the camera position. If I'm scanning a place, with my probes out of my own DScan range, on the map, my camera is focused on the probes, thus not covering the area where my ship is.
Shall I understand that the DScan becomes useless to keep me informed of my surroundings then? yeh see wut I mean?

OK, just got a bit confused with the camera part, since I've been sneaked upon by a ship last night while I didn't see it nor any probe in DScan.

Answer E: it was a cov-op frigate (that's for sure, I looked it up while calling back my probes) and he was quick enough to probe me down between two DScan refresh.

The exact amount of time the probe needs for scan depends on "Skillz n' Toyz". You can lower it to some really short burst,

Thanks for the positive responses!

There are a huge number of ways in which you can be sneaked up upon. However, it really comes down to where you are in space that makes the difference as to how someone can locate and get to you. The trick to making sure that people dont sneak up on you is to be aware of where you are, how people can find you and then be constantly aware of your surroundings.

Let me try break it down:

If you are at a celestial object (Sun, Planet, Moon, Asteroid Belt, Station or Gate) I can find you by using the directional scanner to narrow down and pinpoint your location. This manner of finding you applies to all objects that I can warp to and see on my overview.

If you are at a site that can be found by just using the onboard scanner (the same button you press when you are scanning with probes, just without any probes out), I can find you by finding the site itself in the same manner OR by using combat probes to scan down your ship.

If you are at a probe required site (for example, a radar site which I can only find by scanning down the signature for the radar site) then I can find you by either scanning down the site using normal probes or by scanning down your ship using combat probes.

If you are at a mission site I can only find you by using combat probes to scan down your ship.

One of the best things you can do in order to survive in lowsec or other so called dangerous space is to ensure that your overview is set up correctly to show both combat and non-combat probes and then basically spam d-scan pretty much constantly. When I operated in wormhole space I used to hit dscan about every 3-4 seconds. I'm slightly more relaxed now and usually hit dscan about every 5-8 seconds.

If you are in non high security space and are not looking for a fight, the moment you see probes on scan that could potentially result in you being found you should either move your ship between safespots or at the very least - put your "high alert" hat on. There are a good number of scanning tricks that can result in you being found extremely quickly without you realising that there might be probes in space.

Once again, thanks for the positive responses guys.