EVE Evolved: A guide to probing in Apocrypha, part 2

Probing methods: Quadlateration
Don't let the complicated-sounding name fool you, this method is actually quite simple. Simply surround the location you want to find with four probes, one on each side. Give a large overlap area, as this overlap of all four probes is where you're aiming to scan. The reason for using four probes is that the new scanning system uses something called quadlateration (or quadrilateration/multilateration), which is like a 3-D version of how GPS works. The details of how it works aren't that important to know, the important part is that it means to get a lock on something you need four probes overlapping it. For added strength or area coverage, you can add additional probes vertically above or below the others.

When scanning with the new system, sometimes results will show as a red sphere or red circle and it's important to know what these mean. The sphere just means that only one of your probes has found the site and so the site is at some point on the edge of this sphere. In this case, arrange your probes so they cover as much of the sphere as possible. The red circle means two probes have overlapped the location and the site is somewhere on the edge of that circle. If three probes overlap the site, the scanner will give you two results with identical scan strength. One of these is fake and the other is the real site. You can find out which is real by getting a fourth probe to overlap the site.

Probing methods: Radar
ToG, one of our corporate probing experts, came up with this idea when looking through a system to see where exactly the sites were. ToG's idea was to place small probes in a line from the system centre outward and sweep around the system like a radar. This was useful in finding out roughly where any signatures are.

Probing methods: Scattergun
The scattergun approach has been invaluable to our corp in localising signatures within wormhole systems. The basic idea is to place all of your probes in a small, tightly packed area at 2AU range and with a lot of overlap between them. All probes are then moved at the same time (hold shift when moving one of the probes) and the system is slowly combed over. One of the big benefits of this system is that it works very well in wormhole systems or at the centre of a system where signatures are most densely packed. The biggest benefit is that since your probes are tightly packed, the strength of any signatures you find is usually high enough to reveal what group the site belongs to. If you're searching for asteroid belts, for example, you'll know straight away which signatures are asteroid belts as they will be in the gravimetric group.

Summary:
The scanning system received a total revamp with the apocrypha expansion and some players are struggling to adapt. As with any change to the game, the players that adapt to the new system the fastest will reap massive rewards. I hope the tips in this guide have helped you adapt to the new system as much as coming up with them has helped us.