Missions & Complexes

I don't think there's an option to turn the highlight, circles and dots on or off. I think they are always on by default.

However, I have noticed that sometimes if the camera view is zoomed out to encompass the whole system, those graphics won't show. Usually zooming the camera view in will show them.

I just spent 3 hours zeroing in on a signal. I got the probe size down to 2.0 AU. Then I moved the probes around so that I could pick up the signal with any selected probe. Then I overlapped two probes and the signal strength went up. BUT - no red circle.

In the very nice video I clearly see the rings develop and help to find the signature. I NEVER get the slightest red anywhere.

I had some of my corp mates helping me to no avail.

Something could be wrong with my display setup although EVERYTHING else works fine. For example red X marks show up on the last icon of each probe in the '"probes in space" list.

I hate being that guy, but that video really shows how to be INEFFICIENT at probing. Personally I only use 4 probes because I know I can pin down any cosmic signature with it, while having my screen less clustered thus easier to read. Some people like to use a 5th as a center anchor point, but since the implementation of the Alt-drag function I personally feel like 4 is the way to go.

Let me give you a few pointers on how I do it:

1 (optional) : Figure out where in the system the signatures are located. Do this by making sure every cluser of planets are covered by probes. If the system is HUGE this might mean that you need to drop more than 4 probes.

If you can cover the system with 4x 32 AU probes put them in formation and perform a scan. How to align the probes can be seen in this screenshot:

http://i.imgur.com/tBXAb.jpg

The 5th probe on the side is there to show how I align them. Notice the outer circle in the probes scan area? I Place that circle directly on top of the place I use as center while probing to align the probes.

Down to the results:

As you can see I have 3 signatures in the wormhole I'm currently probing. One of them are located to the most "northern" planet, while the other two are red spheres. Since all my probes cover the center I would have gotten hits like the one in the "north" if the two remaining signatures were in the middle, this tells me that both of them have to be in the "south".

2 : Now to narrowing down the signatures, I decide to take the two in the "south" first. I hold shift and drag one of the probes to keep the alignment and place the center over the "south" planet.

I then resize all my probes to 8AU (since no signature can spawn far away enough from a planet to not be covered by 4x 8AU probes. This will leave your probes far apart, so hold down your left Alt-key and drag one of the probes towards the center until you have the same alignment as earierl. Perform a scan.

http://i.imgur.com/TKsyx.jpg

As you can see both signatures were indeed arround this planet. Now go down to 4 AU probes and realign them again into formation. This time you have to make sure that they are also aligned correctly on the Z-axis, do this by holding your left mouse button and flip the camera. After that shift drag all your probes to the correct height, flip back the camera and move the probes once again to make sure you are centered on the signature.

http://i.imgur.com/KISUC.jpg

Scan again.


Keep doing these steps, one probe size at a time untill you successfully lock down the signature.

http://i.imgur.com/KmLun.jpg

Now once this is done, remember where the other two signatures were located? Swap your probes back to 8 AU and center them over the south planet again to get the second one.



After probing alot you will notice that there are alot of shortcuts you can take while probing that speeds up the process considerably, but keep doing this until you feel comfortable.

Didn't the last change to probing (where "unscannable ships" are no longer impossible to scan) change the mechanics so that the 5th center probe no longer gives you additional information, which means no stronger hits?

Your point about having an easier time aligning probes arround a 5th might be true. Personally I have the pattern created by overlapsed probes inprinted on the back of my eyelids so I preffer to use 4, especially since the Alt-drag feature were implemented that allows you to move all probes towards/away from the center symetrically.

Something to be said if you have trouble locking down a signature even at 0.25 au with 4 probes is to add 2 more and place 1 above and 1 below the center, since this do infact add additional scan-information. If you do this it's indeed alot easier to align them if you use the previously mentioned 5th center probe.

It adds the result of multiple probes yes, but a center probe will not give any information the other 4 already give you since it's in the middle of things. Basically for an additional probe to be useful it needs to cover an angle the other don't. As I said earlier, adding 1 above and 1 below center will however be very helpful without having to create a weird pattern that take loads of time to make properly. Pretty sure Veritas was the one that coded it and commented on it. Wonder if it was on the new or old forum...

Edit: Found the thread http://eve-search.com/thread/1533605/page/5#142

Thank you for the pictures Comy1. You see those red circles in your pictures? Those NEVER show up on my screen. That is what I am referring to.

Substantia - OK - what I do. This was also checked by one of my corp mates. So:
1. 32 AU single probe to see if anything is present
2. cover major planet groups with smaller probes and scan
3. If I get one signature, usually at 0.5% strength, then I click on that signature to see which probe found it.
4. NO probe is highlighted in red. Here is the problem. So I punt.
5. Move probes around and scan until the signal disappears - now I know which probe found it. Call it probe 1.
6. Move probe 1 around a little and scan so I know which direction to go.
7. Move other probes around probe 1 and shift and scan until I see more signal.
8. reduce sizes of all probes and carefully move to the signal by watching for increasing signal strength.

I have gotten up to 50% signal strength this way. It takes a while.

I have no way of knowing which probes detect the signal as I get no red circles of intersection or fuzzy red spheres as shown in Comy 1's JGP picture. As I mentioned in my earlier response, red does show up elsewhere on my screen. But I may have turned off a display option that is keeping the red signature indications from showing up.

BTW - I really liked your discussion of being killed in NULL by a bubble at the exit gate. Well told story.

Ops never mind I didn't read all of it...

eve mail reply, with some suggestions to try.

Good luck, I hope you are suddenly struck with an "Ahaaaaa!" and it all falls into place after that.

The option Tau speaks of can be seen here if you are unfamiliar with the setting:

http://i.imgur.com/FSswO.png

Make sure the left one of the options is not crossed over. If you have it turned off it will look like this:

http://i.imgur.com/ZCDHz.png

If it does, just click the eye icon and the results should show.