Apocrypha Exploration

This page is where Joe (Mara Saotome) 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.

Notes

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

Firstly: 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 is performed by deep space probes instead.

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

The top menu has a few buttons 'analyze' 'recover' and 'destroy'.

   * 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.
   * 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 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 (you'll have to disable your other probe for a moment to get rid of it's cube) and set it's radius to max. Then reactivate your probes and press 'Analyze', wait for your probes to warp into position, then press 'analyze' again to scan. 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, that still isn't enough to be able to warp to a site. The result is a red dot, not a green one. You must have a green dot to warp to it.

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

Depending on the size of your ring with 2 probes, you can jump straight to this bit or drop another deep space probe or 2. The deep space probes do not have sufficient accuracy to get you to the site so it's time to switch to 'Core Scanner Probes'

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) Move these guys around the ring(or point), and scan to find a point. Then adjust your scan radius, warp the probes closer 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!