AFS/Probing

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Factoid's Probing Guide

Overview

Intelligence and informational warfare are a critical part of Allegiance. All other things being equal the team with better Intel will win. Continuous scouting is therefore essential to a successful campaign. However, pilots are a limited resource, and sometimes you just can't afford to have scouts camping sectors of interest. Probing allows you to keep tabs on areas you can't keep under manned surveillance but probes are never as effective as having a scout or stealth fighter in a sector.

Therefore it is important to probe effectively so that you can focus attention on other matters. Bad probing is worse than no probing because it may lull you into a false sense of security and waste pilot time that might have been better spent.

Good probing starts by identifying a clear objective and building a probe net to meet those needs. Due to the sig/scan ratios of most probes there are only 4 things that probes are generally good for:

1. Spotting bombers/capships
2. Spotting constructors
3. Spotting miners
4. Spotting TP2 drops

Contrary to popular opinion probes are not effective against "end game" tech (HTTs, TP2 Scouts, or Stealth Bombers). They may buy you time but the probe nets you would have to construct to spot HTTs and Stealth Bombers can be easily countered by the scouts and/or stealth fighters that accompany them. Stopping TP2 Scouts, HTTs and SBs requires active camping of alephs. If you've got nothing better to do than probe spam alephs, you would be better off camping it instead.

HOWEVER: That said, when you are too busy to camp alephs it can be valuable to keep a handful of probes near alephs for them, since this brief warning at the aleph is enough to get scouts in the air actively searching for the threats. Just be aware that these probes will be eyed easily, so they will not last long.

Target Selection

Now that we've identified what it is that we can reasonably locate with probes, let's think about how we go about spotting these craft. Bombers, cons, and miners have signatures of 200% or higher (until late game). EWS1 has a scan of 500m. This means that a probe more than 1k from a point of interest is unlikely to spot anything. On the other hand, enemy scouts, cons and miners all have excellent sensor suites of 2400m at least and our EWS1 has a signature of 30%. So if we place it closer than 720m to those same points of interest the probe will be immediately eyed when the target goes by, and soon destroyed.

Therefore probes should be placed between 800 and 950m from points of interest. 900m is a good rule of thumb although it will only alert you to the enemy's presence, not give you enough time to identify its direction. Remember folks, EWS stands for "Early Warning System", not "Effective Watching of Ships".

The probe must be placed outside of the normal flight path otherwise something will see it eventually. Too many probes are placed 900m directly in front of an aleph or on a direct course between two alephs. If you're just stumbling onto enemy probes you know someone didn't probe properly. You have to place probes so that people will need to hunt for them. This usually means 900m perpendicular (at right angles) to the target in question, but anywhere off the beaten path is fine.

So we know we must place probes 800 to 950m from points of interest and off the expected direction of travel. Now we need to identify what are points of interest, and in what order they should be probed. Looking at the ships we want to probe for, we see some unavoidable patterns in their movement.

• Bombers: They launch from ops/techbases, but can also rip to teleport receivers. They travel towards your alephs.
• Constructors: They launch from the oldest base (the garrison unless it was destroyed) and can rip to teleports. Techbase cons can only launch from a garrison.
• Miners: They launch initially from the garrison, but offload primarily at ops and refineries. In IC's case, they can rip to teleports, and can dock at techbases.

This lends itself to a "rule of thumb" order for target priority:

1. OPs
2. He3 rocks
3. Refineries
4. Teleports
5. Travel corridors to alephs in hostile sectors
6. Alephs in empty sectors leading to hostile sectors
7. Travel corridors between alephs
8. Tech rocks

The ordering on this list reflects the fact that economy (miners) is a major aspect of any RTS game. Denying your opponent resources prevents them from expanding and getting advanced tech up. Early game your probing should be focused on finding miners and cons. Since there are no bases yet constructed you're primarily interested in probing their home alephs and He3 rocks, working your way back.

As bases start to go up and the map is taken, you want to start probing your opponent's front lines so that you can catch forward mining efforts and any early attempts to bomb. It's critical that you keep the blind spots to your techbases probed since a loss of a techbase during the mid game is a major blow.

Special Note

IC RPs and TF beacons have excellent scan/sig ratios. If you're playing as either of those factions try to bring one or two with you and place them about 500m (for beacons) or 1000m (for RPs) from any enemy base. They will give you excellent sensor coverage and make recovery really quick when you go to hunt miners or bomb the base. If you're finding that these RPs and beacons are getting shot down too easily then try 900m and 1800m deployments. The sensor coverage won't be as nice but they'll be nearly impossible to find.

RPs and beacons also let you attempt to build a sensor net around the enemy garrison right at the start of the game; 2-4 RPs or beacons around the enemy garrison will let you know where every constructor is going.

Probing for TP1/2 probes

Probing vs. end game tech can be a waste of time, however TP drops can be thwarted if you can reach them before the probe goes live. This means making sure that you can see the TP. Enemy scouts will often drop behind asteroids in an attempt to block your team's scanners LOS. If a probe drop goes live without being eyed there is an excellent chance the run will succeed, as the defenders won't have a clue until bomber start pouring out from around the rock.

The TP has a 1000% signature so even an EWS1 probe will spot it at 5k. All you need to do is drop a few probes above the grid, about 1 behind every asteroid that is within 5k of your base. Placing the probes at about 2500 from the rock will ensure the TP is spotted while ensuring that the probe is unlikely to be found. These probes will never see anything except teleport probes, but they will prevent you from being surprised.

Otherwise, dropping a cluster of probes behind choice TP2 drop points will buy you some time, and if the commander is paying attention, they may notice the destruction of probes before the drop goes off, giving your team time to get defenders out to that position to kill the scout and/or probe before the probe activates.

Mid game probing

Want to be a hero? Have the commander remember your name forever? Ask the commander where he needs probes placed. The set of probes laid out when the map was first scouted is not enough to provide good intel but unfortunately it is often all that is done in pick up games. As the game progresses the enemy will deprobe, map control will swing back and forth, stealthier ships will be researched, all of which mean that sectors will need to be reprobed again and again. Other than nanning, nothing will win a commander's heart faster than someone who is willing to reprobe and maintain his probe net for him throughout the game. Refer back to the probing guide lesson.

If you did some of the initial probing early in game it will make it easier to tell where probes are missing. Dock and use the F3 overhead view to see where probes are needed. Otherwise ask the commander and he will tell you his most immediate need. At this point in the game you should know your opponent's primary tech and can probe effectively to counter it. The key is to maintaining your early warning system on a continuous basis. Not a glorious job but one that can cost you the game if it's not done.

When several players are probing it is essential to maintain communication with each other and the commander so that you don't double up your efforts in one sectors while neglecting another. Tell the team "I'm probing Gery" so the other guys know what you will cover.

Oh by the way, squad members really notice this in game. If you are ever interested in joining a squad it will reflect well upon you as a team player.

Here is a good F3 shot of a sector probed up defensively. The opponent has Supremacy and an attempt has been made by blue team to probe all of the rocks in their sector to let them spot any teleport probes. It doesn't guarantee success, but it helps.

Defensive probing. Click on the image to view a larger version.