A probe reveals the identity of an enemy ship

Probes are a type of ordinance that are carried by TSN and Ximni starships. Unlike torpedoes, probes are not intended to deal damage. Instead, they carry a sensor instrumentation package, which is capable of scanning the area around the probe. Despite the probe's small size, it has the same sensor range as a starship or base, and can identify enemy ships within 7500 units with its visual scanners. Probes have a top speed of 3 (approximately Warp 0.5) and a range of more than 50,000 units, although they will self destruct automatically when they reach the edge of the sector.

Unlike homing torpedoes or tags (a similar type of launched instrumentation) a probe is fired straight forward in the direction the ship is currently facing. Thus, Science and Weapons must coordinate with Helm in order to launch a probe. Helm must maneuver the ship to point in the direction indicated by Science, while Weapons loads and fires a probe. Science then monitors the probe as it flies across the sector.

A probe is only temporary. If sensor range has been set to limited in the Configuration settings on the Server Setup screen, any enemy ships revealed by a probe will disappear when the probe passes out of range of the enemy ship, or when it hits the edge of the sector and self destructs. If sensor range is set to Unlimited, a probe is less useful, as enemy ships are visible all the way to the edge of the sector. However, a probe can be used to identify a ship or group of ships, and they will remain identified even after the probe disappears. Note that the latter, using a probe to identify a whole fleet of enemy ships, may take less time than scanning each of them individually.

Scouts and Light Cruisers, which are more lightly armed than other, combat-oriented classes of starship, are well suited for patrol and exploration missions that could make use of probes. As of Artemis 2.7.1, Scouts (either TSN or Ximni) carry 8 probes, the most of any class of ship. Light Cruisers (TSN and Ximni, and the Pirate Strongbow) carry 5 probes, and all other ships carry 2. Version 2.7.0 uses an earlier loadout of probes, tags and beacons in which these numbers were not finalized and in many cases wrong, but this should not be a problem if you have updated your installation.

Because a Scout only carries one torpedo launch tube, it is also limited to launching only one probe at a time. There is little reason to launch two probes in the same direction, but Engineering may wish to increase power to the torpedo tubes in order to make it faster for a Scout to fire probes a few degrees apart. The Pirate Longbow carries an unusually limited number of probes (2) and you may wish to edit the vesselData.xml file to modify this.

Starbases can produce and store these probes. It takes 1 minute for a starbase to produce one. Thus, large numbers of probes can be produced even faster than homing torpedoes, although they cannot be made from energy, as homing torps can. Probes were added in Artemis 2.7.

Quick Stats

Effect:	Extends sensor range/First scan
Speed:	3
Fire Arc:	0 degrees
Range:	up to 100,000 units
Base Stores:	0-4 (at start of game)
Build Time:	1 minute (divided by build factor)