Eram Fidard
Republic Military School Minmatar Republic
470
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Posted - 2013.11.23 00:43:00 -
[4] - Quote
D-scan has a variety of not-so-obvious uses. Here's some less common ones:
Taking range readings on incoming ships - with experience, and much button spam you can tell when to decloak or activate smartbombs, or warp out, as the situation demands. Mind you this is much more difficult now that ships have different acceleration profiles.
Taking range/direction readings on ships you are hunting - this is good when working together with a prober. The person in the probing ship can keep their probes out of scan range while they (or someone else, depending on time constraints) acquire an approximate location. Get good enough at both taking the readings, and communicating that info, and the person with the probes will be able to position them such that only a single scan is required. This takes away from the effectiveness of defensive d-scanning of the prey by ensuring the probes only show up on the prey's scanner for a window of a few seconds at most.
Going further on the hunting note, say you are entering a 'ratting system' where there are many anomalies (pve dungeons) on your on-board scanner. You also see a pve ship on your d-scan, so you can safely eliminate all anomalies that appear outside of your own scan range (~14.4 AU) from the list of possible locations for that ship.
Defensively, range readings can assist you in determining whether to warp out or just align, if (for instance) ratting while a hostile enters system. Obviously cloaked ships will not appear on your close-range scan (that's lingo for setting your scan to ~1,000,000 km) as they warp to you, but this will give you at least some warning that a hostile is about to appear on grid. Most covert ships will have a delay while they de-cloak, so a little attentiveness can go a long way. I find that most of the time, aligning out and switching to short-range scan readings is a 'safe enough' measure that means I don't have to dock up every single time a hostile enters system.
Now keep in mind, all this advice is intended for a null-sec player, but the knowledge acquired through learning the intricacies of your scanner will prove invaluable in nearly any combat situation. Poster is not to be held responsible for damages to keyboards and/or noses caused by hot beverages. |