D scan for Dummies

Ok, one of the things I have got a lot better at over the last 2 months is using the directional scanner on ships, this seems to be some sort of “tricky subject” for carebear’s to wrap their head around, and some of the new pirates seem to have trouble grasping how to scan people down..so I thought I would write a small post explaining the basic’s of how to find people on the D scan ( note this is MY way not possibly the BEST way)

First off, always have your scanner open, click the little icon at the bottom of the screen just above autodeath..err auto pilot. Now pin that box open at the top of your screen. Now you don’t want system scanner or moon thingy, you need directional scanner. Once you have that open set the distance for the maximum which is about 14 AU, just put in about 20 9’s and it will be set to maximum.
Next make sure you have a “combat” type tab in your overview..i have a few but you want one that shows ships only..NOT npc’s..actual ships, and to make life easy include force fields ( this will help to determine if a ship is at a POS)…right done that? now click "use acive overveiw settings"

Now head out to the sytem you want to hunt in.. and make your self a safe by warping between 2 points and creating a bookmark somewhere along the way…this means you are harder to find while scanning unless they have probes out…
Warp to your new book mark and ensure your scanner is set to 360 scan, see how many are in local and hit scan…if you have say 5 in local and 4 on scan, it is a reasonable guess the 5th is either over 14 AU away or docked, depending on the size of the system.
Right now zoom out from your ship and click on it so you have a little box around it…that is how you will target..the D scanner will work on the angle of the camera not the direction the ship is pointing…THAT is important.
Set your scan to 180 deg now and look in front and behind you hitting scan both times…you get the general direction of where the ships are..if you want to be good repeat this at 90 deg looking north east south and west, but I often skip that. Now you have a rough direction of where each ship is…set the D scan to 5 deg if you have a ship on scan you want to fight off to the right of you, look right, lets say there are 2 belts a planet and a customs office…point your targeter so the box around your ship lines up with each of them in turn and hit scan..if you get a hit at 5 deg warp to that target (i.e belt 1 for example) and you will normally find your ship.

Now what often happens is you will have 2-3 celestials in a tight cluster when you get a 5 deg hit , like a planet , a customs office and a belt..there is no way to determine which one the target is at or there range on it, this is where expirence and common sense come into play.. if your target is likely a noob..maybe the belt ratting ..or the planet for PI, if it’s a hauler, almost always the custom office, you get a feeling for where they will be after a while.

Some important points to note- you NEVER get a warp in from D scan only a sense of direction, they are not probes.

You cannot find people at safes with the D scan , you can often get an idea where the safe is but not a warp in.

Never warp to a celestial at 0 unless you are sure you can win.

If there is a fleet of you, and you have a 5 deg hit, all warp to one celestial, one of you should find him and get tackle.

When your scanning from a safe keep an eye out for combat scanner probes or sister probes, these normally mean some one bigger is looking for you.

By no means a complete guide but may set you on the right track.


Have fun