The Use of Probes

[Nicansis]

What are some Strategys that you employ in the use of probes?
A noob would like to know (Thats me, the noob. )
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Phoenix? But its a dry heat!!

[lilkrnboi1018]

well they're needed for things like seeing wat ships they have (not ship types, only how much in each class) they are for tracing fleets to where they came from, and all sorts of things
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PWNAGE!

Gotta love the Magnum (RE 0-3)
Or the Eagle (RE 3)
Leader of DEFIANCE
The grounds are soaked... with your blood!

[T2]

It's a good rule of thumb to never attack unless you have put a DSP ( Deep Scan Probe) there first to see what the opponent has. This is probably the most used probe. The second most used probe would be the investigation probe or the Wide scan probe that identifies the active and inactive empires and places them into your comm list. The rest are pretty much self explained and more for special operations.

[The Butcher]

As far as strategy is concerned using probes, I have a little tip.

When fighting at the scoreplanets, dont put your probe directly on the scoreplanet's coords. I like to go two sectors away.

For one, you will always find a mtwg, or some sleeper spots just outside normal dsp range. Secondly, your fleet wont be affected by scramblers that are popped off on the scoreplanet, by you or anyone else.

If you will be fighting at the same scoreplanet for a while, its best to use two dsps, one on each end, for example 500/500/52 and 500/500/48, to cover more area. Also, you will get a bit more advanced notice of incoming setups.

When I am fully set up on research, and am concentrating on one scoreplanet, I like to fill it with a dsp two sectors off, a decloaking probe right on the planet, and a scrambler right on the planet.

The scrambler is less likely to be used, only when you see a heavy-duty veteran coming, who will adapt his setup to yours. You will need to scramble him and change your setup to maximize your points, because (hopefully) you will be the only one who can see the battle.

The decloaking probe wont get used much, but I have found that it is better to have one on hand immediately. Lots of players think they are safe when they are cloaked, so they dont watch their fleets very closely and will be vulnerable to a shock attack. Also, you just may luck out and catch one of those nano-virus/time slipper/pirate flagship fleets unawares, and you can make about 5000 points in a minute, snap.