Alasiya EvEmu

Results, and what they mean

• Sphere: The result is somewhere in the sphere. One probe only has a hit and approximate range. You can get multiple probes with independent hits, it can be messy. This is the least accurate hit.
• Circle: Two probes have approximate distances. More accurate, and likely to yield better hits with more probes. Target anomaly is located near the circle.
• Two Dots: Three probes have distances, which narrows it down to between two possible locations. Likely to be more or less accurate, but beware of deviation. Target anomaly has been narrowed down to being near one of the dots.
• One Dot: Four or more probes can see the result. Once scan strength reaches 100%, the result will be warpable.

Probe attributes

The attributes tab of a Core Scanner Probe I.
Probes have three attributes that affect scan results: sensor strength (higher is better), maximum deviation (lower is better) and base scan range.

Base Scan Range
Base scan range dictates what scan ranges the probe can use. For core probes this is always 0.25 AU while combat probes have a base scan range of 0.5 AU. The sensor strength and maximum deviation are both given at the base scan range. This can make combat probes seem much worse than core probes. But to get comparable stats you need to multiply the combat probe stats by two so that you are comparing sensor strength and scan deviation at same scan range and see that the combat probes are actually equal to core probes.

Smaller scan range gives better results but scans a smaller volume. This makes core probes better at scanning hard to scan signatures where the smallest scan range needs to be used. On the other hand combat probes can be used to cover a larger 64 AU scan area for a very rough system scan. When scanning with ranges larger than 0.25 AU but smaller than 64 AU it will not matter which probes are used.

Maximum Flight Time
Maximum Flight Time limits for how long probes can be kept in space. For Republic Security Services ("RSS") probes this is 16 minuts and 40 seconds, while all other probes have 1 hour, 6 minutes and 40 seconds. If probes are left in space for more than this duration they will automatically return to the cargo bay as long as there is sufficient space for them, if not they will be lost.

Maximum Deviation
The deviation is the distance between the scan result shown on the map and the actual location of your target.

The actual deviation cannot be calculated at this time because it is unknown how CCP has factored signal strength into the equation. However, the maximum deviation, the worst case scenario, can be calculated. The stronger your signal strength, the less actual deviation you will have - therefore the deviation of your scan will always be less than the distance shown below. (Knowing your relative signal strength will help you get an idea of how far way that dot might actually be from your target.)

In order to calculate the maximum possible deviation you use the constants provided for the type of probe, the scan size your probes are set to, and your skill levels of Astrometrics and Astrometric Pinpointing.

Here is the formula:



The use of probes requires at least Astrometrics I and Astrometric Pinpointing requires Astrometrics IV.

Below is a table that shows how your Astrometrics skill affects the maximum possible deviation of scanner probes. Keep in mind that while Sisters probes and/or launchers have no effect on maximum deviation, they do have an effect on signal strength that will affect the deviation that you see in your scans.

Note that as your Astrometrics skill increases, the maximum deviation at each increment of the probes' scan range decreases. Referring to the table for an example: if you have Astrometrics I, with your probes set to a 4 AU scan range your maximum deviation is as much as 1.9 AU. Increasing your Astrometrics skill to level IV reduces the maximum scan deviation at that scan range to 1.6 AU.

Another thing to note is that both combat and core scanner probes experience the same maximum deviations at the same scan ranges. The reason is that although the core scanner probe has a base maximum deviation of 0.125 AU and the combat scanner probe has a base maximum deviation of 0.25 AU (implying the core probe is more accurate), the two types of probes have base scan ranges of 0.25 AU and 0.5 AU, respectively. Plugging those numbers into the equation above yields the same maximum deviations at each scan range for both kinds of probe.


^ Combat Scanner Probes have a minimum scan range of 0.5 AU.
^ Core Scanner Probes haves a maximum scan range of 32 AU.
Scan results
Scan results are divided into cosmic signatures and cosmic anomalies depending on how they are located. They are also split into wormholes, combat, ore, gas, data and relic sites based on their contents.

Cosmic anomalies
Cosmic anomalies are PvE sites that can be found throughout EVE. They are found using the system scanner, and require no skills or equipment to locate. To locate cosmic anomalies, simply open the probe scanner window where they are visible as warpable sites.

Combat sites are ungated pockets with multiple waves of rats to kill. They can drop faction items or escalate to new sites.
Besieged Covert Research Facilities are special combat sites which are found only in low-sec. They containing multiple cruiser- and battleship-class NPC rats to be killed with a combat ship. In addition, they may contain destructible structures with loot.
Ore sites contain asteroids to be mined for minerals or ice products; the ore often includes types not normally found in systems of that security rating, i.e. anomalies in high sec may contain low sec ore, etc.
Cosmic signatures
Cosmic signatures are scannable locations in space. To locate a cosmic signature it must be scanned with scan probes. You can see in the scan window whether a system contains cosmic signatures, but identifying them and pinpointing them requires scan probes. The type is identified at 25% scan, the name is revealed at 75% scan and the site is warpable at 100% scan.

Combat sites are gated deadspace complexes with rats to kill. They can drop valuable faction modules and deadspace modules, and can escalate into expeditions.
Gas sites contain gas clouds that can be harvested. For more details see Gas cloud harvesting.
Relic sites contain containers that need to be hacked with a relic analyzer. In normal space they do not contain any dangerous elements. For more details see relic and data sites.
Data sites contain containers that need to be hacked with a data analyzer. They range from completely safe to deadly dangerous. For more details see relic and data sites.
Wormholes are temporary unstable connections between two systems.
Site respawn mechanics
Much of the information surrounding the respawn mechanics of cosmic signatures is based on theory, with little hard data offered by CCP. Nevertheless, the sites will respawn immediately after being fully cleared by a player. It is unknown what range the new site will spawn in (if it's in the same region or not) or whether it will be of the same or similar type as the one cleared. Note that, based on this information, we know that sites will not respawn after daily downtime. They will only spawn when sites are cleared somewhere else within the game world.