Keep on probing.....

My technique is improving and as per previous post - I found that dropping more than one probe in a system, making sure that I consult the F10 map for best probe placement, means that I can get a fair coverage around a large system. Once all the probes have been seeded, I then do an 'analyze' on all the probes and away they go. The results come back under 32 seconds and a fathom (or snoop) probe returns a hit for a ship.....but only when they're passing through. I have also used the recon probes to find cosmic anomalies too.

The recon probes are thus better for a quicker, faster coverage - while the exploration probes are more powerful, I find that to use an exploration probe effectively, a solar system needs to be pre-seeded with bookmarks - 4AU apart or thereabouts. Useful if you explore a known system on a regular basis but not so good when you drop into a hot system, in pursuit of someone and need to probe them out quickly. You don't really have time to make bookmarks.

However, I have also used the exploration probes to find ships once it's quite certain that the target is within 4 AU of a bookmark or celestial body. I suspect that many peeps use previous mission locations and evaporated cosmic anomalies for their safe spots. That's a good idea - staying put in a safe spot isn't a good idea.

I still haven't found an escalating encounter anomaly - one that leads you to another location etc; maybe I have been just unlucky but I do like this exploration aspect of New Eden and you never know: the jackpot could be round the corner.