I'd guess it's just a matter of practice since your skills and gear are just fine. You'll get faster with moving the probes and "reading" the sig indicators.

I use 2-4 scans to get most signatures, taking a few minutes if I'm not in a hurry, same skills and gear as you. On my prober alt I resolve more sigs with just two passes (8AU>2/1AU, depending on sig strength), but occasionally still need 3 or 4 (8AU>2AU>1/0.5AU) if I blunder with probe placement or the sig is really weak.

Also: How did you get rid of all those little boxes with other stuff in the system? (Like nearby stations/gates and such) I find they frequently interfere with me trying to re-position my probes while scanning.

4 Probes, cross formation, make sure to use ctrl/alt when rearranging probes.

5th probe at the center if you are bad and need a safety net.

The fifth probe in the center is NOT a safety net, you can use this probe at a lower scan range to help scan sigs quicker.

Also: How did you get rid of all those little boxes with other stuff in the system? (Like nearby stations/gates and such) I find they frequently interfere with me trying to re-position my probes while scanning.

Yup, press shift to move or resize the probes all together. I only recently found this out.

Alt+click to resize the pattern. Unless you meant shift+clicking to shrink/expand the probe's bubbles in unison.

The fifth probe in the center is NOT a safety net, you can use this probe at a lower scan range to help scan sigs quicker.

You'll have to excuse Salazar. He's better than all of us, so sometimes it's painful for him to stoop to our level. He means well.

For me, the single mos UGE time safer was hen i figured out how to move the probe cluster at once (press shift and move one with a mouse) and diminish distance to the center equally (press alt and move one probe with the mouse).

The Video tutorials might have shown that, but didnt mention it. I fond this information distributed in some old threads.

Second - which comes with experience - its important to zoom and swipe the camera so you always have a good picture of the situation

Yes, he obviously thinks that just because you only 4 probes for quadrilateration that the extra probe is superfluous and adds nothing.

It does however improve the original sig hit if used at one scan size down.

Try it and see is all I can say.

you should be able to skip at least 1 range interval when down-shifting.. so from 8 au go to 2, from t to 0.5

if you get the skills all to 5, esp deviation you should be able to skip 2 range steps per range decrement.

I'll reiterate. Yes, more than 4 probes will add to your strength. However, with sufficient skills (character and player) it is simply added effort and thus time.

I prefer being able to scan down carriers with 16AU bubbles and frigates at 4AU. Not sure if four probes can accomplish that.

I use 7, my alt 8.

7 in the normal formation of "star" with one above and one below. Balls are not only touching, they lovingly embrace each others.

I took a screenshot as I couldn't explain the amount of overlap, http://i.imgur.com/2ElKt.jpg

If its speed and efficiency you are after, grab yourself a DSP and learn St Mio's guide. You can thank him later.

If its speed and efficiency you are after, grab yourself a DSP and learn St Mio's guide. You can thank him later.

It's moot at this point, but I've been scanning for years and the two things that save the most time by far are holding shift to move the group and holding alt to expand and contract the group. It makes using 8 probes extremely easy and quick.

Or you could just figure it out using Sisters Core Probes instead of using the DSP method... I did.

the point of using DSP's is to quickly identify what specific types of sigs are in the system. That can't be done with the core probes. If you're out there for everything, they aren't necessary. If you're looking for something specific, the DSP method is very helpful and time saving. Regardless, if you spend any sort of consistent time exploring, you should know all of these techniques.

If you read what I posted, I was supporting what you were saying.

But the fact is, DSP make it easier and less prone to error. Simple as that.

And thats you know, not even taking into account the whole 32 AU limitation.

But you obviously have a very efficient way to account for that without using deep space probes.

Then I must be doing something differently. 2 billion in deadspace modules yesterday can't be wrong.

And by experienced. We're talking 3+ years right?

I second (or third or fourth or whatever) this too. Huge difference for eliminating the sigs you don't want. Especially useful in WH's.

I've looked at the list, and it seems to me that the DSP scan strength elimination thing isn't worthwhile if I'm hunting grav sites, because grav sites occur in almost all the bands.

Have I misunderstood something?

It can be done with core probes, but the deviation is much higher and prone to errors, even when done by more experienced explorers.

I've looked at the list, and it seems to me that the DSP scan strength elimination thing isn't worthwhile if I'm hunting grav sites, because grav sites occur in almost all the bands.

Have I misunderstood something?

I don't think the error factor is much higher, rather you are looking at different numbers. I don't have much experiece with deep space probes, mind you, but i am telling signature bands all the time with normal probes.

The only things that i can think of that make people not want to use normal probes are system coverage and the fact that returned scan results are a bit more influenced by distance when you use core probes (people seem to want definate answers and the deep space probe 'charts' provide those, with variances that are very low in pure digits). But you can control that by launching more probes (if need be) to cover the system and by looking at the red sphere diameters on initial scan - if the sphere is large, reported strength will be a bit lower (in fact you mostly don't even need to look at this, because the bands are separated enough).

Anyway, the general tone in exploration ("all hail DSPs" and so on) seems to suggest that people like this whole thing, even tho most of them are just blindly using the mechanics without actually having an understanding why it works - and this is not because of deep space probes, but because of the underlying game mechanic of signature strengths.

Maybe some more randomness is in order for our beloved activity again? Mio will spank me for saying this random thing out aloud, but in a way i think 'exploration' should somehow be more nudged towards stray encounters and all the like again.

(...) Maybe some more randomness is in order for our beloved activity again? Mio will spank me for saying this random thing out aloud, but in a way i think 'exploration' should somehow be more nudged towards stray encounters and all the like again.

They should make it random

The DSP allows you to take advantage of using a single probe and a single scan to do all the work and give you data with a deviation of +/- .01.

You guys are all nubs!

I only use one probe.

Sheesh.

In Low and beyond you get DED sites in three bands and unless you want just 6/10 there is no point.

DSP are the tool to (and here I quote a certain someone) "farm 4/10s like a ******** bot"

In Low and beyond you get DED sites in three bands and unless you want just 6/10 there is no point.

When I was scanning fountain with my fellow Test jews as competition, I only went after 10/10s and staging points (.03 band).

DSP still valuable. There are a lot of jews in Fountain.