Difference between revisions of "Apocrypha Exploration"

Revision as of 01:31, 22 February 2009

This page is where Joe (Mara Saotome/Nerad Tendo) has learned about the new probing system. I'll try to be complete and include photos. Be patient because most of this stuff will be changing over the next few weeks up to March 10.

Bugs

2-19-09: The latest SISI updates have rendered the map inoperable.

2-20-09: We have discovered that the map can be entered if you press 'esc' while the map is loading if the 'initializing map' progress bar goes crazy. However even if you can get to the map, you cannot do exploration as pressing 'analyze' will not cause the probes to warp to their designated positions.

2-22-09: Map still buggy. Probes can be warped into position as long as you do it one at a time. No results are shown at all though. (no red dots or rings, nothing). The filter also seems to be broken (see image).

Changelog

• 2-19-09 New button added to Scanning UI: "Re-connect to active probes."
• 2-20-09 Pressing analyze now warps the probes to their spots and THEN performs a scan. (make sure you set the radius first). Scanning UI buttons sexified. Link to map on scanning UI added (super nice). Reconnect button works correctly even though it is not highlighted as being clickable. Solar system map is centered on the sun instead of your ship (also very cool).

Equipment changes.

Scan Probes:

  1.  All 4 probe types (gravimetric, radar, ladar, magnetometric) in all 4 ranges (quest, pursuit, comb, sift) all become the : core scanner probe.
  2.  All recon probe types (snoop, spook, fathom, ferret) all become the : core recon probe.
  3.  All Sisters Scan Probe Launchers or Sisters Recon Probe Launchers become: Sisters Expanded Probe Launcher.
  4.  Multispectral probes become core scanner probes but their functionality may be performed by deep space scanner probes instead.  If you don't have the skills for deep space scanner probes you can use core scanner probes instead but not as efficiently (max: 32 AU vs dssp's 1024 AU).

Skill Changes

• Everything which used to give a scan duration bonus now gives a scan strength bonus.
• Everything which used to give a scan strength bonus now gives a scan duration bonus EXCEPT the Virtue set.
• Everything which used to give a deviation reduction still does.

Changes to the map UI

The zoom in and zoom out buttons have been removed from the ship dashboard (a mistake IMHO) and instead you must click on the map button on the neocom. Once inside the map screen, the buttons for switching to solar system view in the top right have also been removed. Instead, the main map menu has a button non-intuitively named: 'Toggle Map' which switches between star-map mode and solar system view.

When a probe is present and active in the map, you will see a sphere around it representing it's scan radius and a cube with arrows coming out of it. Clicking the arrows and dragging allows you to move the probe along the chosen axis. Alternatively, if you click a face of the cube, you can adjust the probe along that plane. Scan results that fall within the cube are obscured so sometimes if you get a result, you must deactivate the probe to get rid of the cube to see where the result is. Clicking and dragging the outer visible 'edge' of the sphere will allow you to adjust the probe scanning radius.

Changes to the scanning interface

File:Scanning 1 02-22-09.jpg

The top menu has a few buttons 'analyze', 'recover','reconnect' and 'destroy'. A very useful button has been added top right which toggles your solar system/ ship view.

• Analyze: This button performs an analysis. By default it includes all active probes in the system (no more highlighting them all). An oddity is that if you have moved your probes around, pressing analyze will commit the new positions and cause the probes to warp to their new happy spot. Once they've arrived, you must press 'Analyze' again to begin scanning.
• Recover: This button (when finished) causes the probes to deactivate and return to your ship's cargohold. Currently the probes merely warp to your ship, then sit there. It can be fun to have a fast ship and fly around with probes chasing you. WARNING! THIS WILL DE-CLOAK YOUR SHIP.
• Reconnect to active probes: I have no idea but my initial guess is that since (now) probes stay in space when you leave system or dock, this button let's you re-establish communication with them when you return.
• Destroy: Destroys the active probes.

The next section below the main buttons is your list of probes. By default (currently) this is just smaller than the number of probes you have active so you must always expand it. Each probe is listed with it's name, lifetime, scan radius, activity status, and on the right, two buttons to individually recover or destroy that probe. By default a launched probe is active but you can deactivate it here (only useful if the adjustment cube is covering your scan results. Otherwise, more probes = better).

At the bottom, you can see your scan analysis results. A filtering function allows you to filter those results to only see what you want (e.g. ships, anomalies, deadspace signatures, etc. or any combination thereof) I've found that this feature works correctly.

Basic Triangulation Theory Walk-Through using Deep Space Probes.

First, you enter a new system and you want to know if there is a site to be found. You load up a deep space probe, deploy it (then hide if in low-sec or 0.0). Open your scanner menu (if not already open) and right click the probe radius and set it to it's maximum size (1024 AU) and scan. Depending on your filter, you will see a scrollable list of results for that system or nothing.

Let me take a second to answer a question: What if my probes don't find it the first time? Should I scan again? How many times should I scan before I'm sure there's nothing there? The answer is: The new system is NOT NOT NOT chance based anymore! If it's there, you'll find it on your first scan guaranteed (provided the target is within the scan radius of the probe).

Let's assume you found something: say, a wormhole. Time to switch to solar system view. The deep space probe will tell you how far away from it the signal was found. This translates graphically to a silvery bubble on your map representing the sphere of all points that are that distance away from your probe. There are lots of places on that sphere so let's see if we can eliminate some possibilities.

Now that we know something is there, launch another probe. (When you're comfortable with the system, you'll likely launch 3 more probes at this point but for theory's sake, we'll take the slow route). Use the new probe's cube to drag it to another spot in the solar system and set it's radius to max. Then reactivate your probes and press 'Analyze', wait for your probes to warp into position, then they will perform a scan automatically. Now you have 2 probes that are both reporting their distance from the location. This translates graphically into a red ring which represents all the locations that are x distance from probe one and y distance from probe 2. It helps to imagine two spheres overlapping each other and where they touch creates a ring. Rings are great but that's still a lot of space to cover.

We have two options at this point but for theory's sake I'll go the long way again.

Now let's launch a third probe. The new sphere will touch the ring in 2 places. You will get 2 dots as your result.

Launch a 4th probe to nail that sucker!

A word of caution. If your probes are too close together, the readings will get confused and your probes will both report the same result effectively reducing your ability to triangulate by one probe. Make sure you keep them far enough apart that this doesn't occur.

That's the basics of triangulation theory. Unfortunately, deep space probes cannot get a sufficiently strong signal from the site for your warp engines to lock onto. The result is a red dot, not a green one. You must have a green dot to warp to it.

Now you must switch to core scanner probes. The bonus here is that you can generally set your core scanner probes to their minimum scan radius around this point. Drop a 4 pack of these guys. Depending on your skills, you may have to recall your deep space probes first. (currently you can have 3 + astrometrics level active probes).

What if I can't use Deep Space Probes?

Then you'll have to do things slightly different. The core scanner probes can go to a maximum of 32 AU so even if you have astrometrics 1 and can only deploy 4 probes, you can still canvas a system pretty well.

Deploy as many core scanner probes as you wish/can, adjust their positions in the system, set their radii to maximum, and scan. If you don't find a site, move them around a bit and scan again.

Since the new system is NOT chance based, you can guarantee that if the site falls inside the scan radius of your probe, you will get the hit on your first scan every time.

Once one of your probes has found something interesting, deploy more probes (or warp the others) around the first probe and scan again. If enough probes (3 or 4) can see the site and they are not too close together, you will get a ring, red dots or red dot.

OK, now I know about where it is, how do I get to it?

Deep Space Probe Users: Depending on the size of your ring with 2 probes, you can jump straight to this bit or drop another probe or 2.

Everyone: You will want to have all 4 core scanner probes out and active.

The red ring, dots or dot mean that you do not have a sufficiently strong signal from the site for your warp engines to lock onto so we'll need to get a better signal.

Move your core scanner probes around the ring(or point), and scan using triangulation to find a point. Then adjust your probe scan radius, warp the probes closer so that the point is inside the new radii and scan again. As your probes get nearer and the scan radius decreases, you will notice that the 'signal strength' of the site increases. Keep adjusting your probes closer and shrinking the radius until you get a 'signal strength' of 100%. At that point you can finally warp to the site!

Congratulations! You can now explore in the new system!

A note about the sites: In the old system you had a good idea what you were going to find (e.g. if you used radar probes, you will usually find hacking sites or unknowns). In the new system, there is currently no way to know anything about what you find until you warp to it so be ready for anything. However, some players have suggested that the 'base signal strength' (the signal strength read by a deep space probe at maximum radius) can give you a clue what you will find.

Advanced Techniques with Deep Space Probes

Get a decent fix using 3 probes: Once you have 3 probes in space, you will have 2 dots as your result. If you then move one of the 3 probes and scan again, you will get 2 dots again but one of the dots will have shifted. The dot that didn't shift is where the site is.

Get a decent fix using 2 probes: Once you have 2 probes in space, you will have a ring as your result. If you then move one of the 2 probes and scan again, you will get another ring but shifted. The site has to be on both rings so remember where the first ring was and look for the spot where the second ring goes through the same spot. The site will be there.

Get a decent fix using 1 probe: Theoretically possible but what a headache. You'd have to remember where the first sphere was, move the probe, scan again, and look for where the spheres touched. Good luck with that though.