This character is mainly a PI and exploration alt and I have Archaelogy and Hacking scanned to V and all the other 5 scanning skills to IV. Ignoring the Survey skill as I don’t do moon surveying is it worth training all those other skills to V?
Likewise with the PI side of things, ive interplantary Consolidation and Command Centre upgrades to V the other 3 skills are to IV, are those other skills worth training to V baring in mind the training times for some of them.
Also, regardless of the above what would be another good set of skills for a PI/Explorer to train?
For PI, you’ll get some benefit from the planetology skills - they wouldn’t be at the top of my priority list. Level 4 gives you 80% of the functionality at 20% of the cost.
I must admit that I do enjoy scanning as fast as I can, so training your Astronomic Acquisition skill is nice. However, you should do it AFTER skills like Astrometrics, which you should absolutely get to V, and Astronomic Rangefinding.
As a general guide, you need 104 scan strength to resolve a level V signature, maybe 89-90 for a level IV. In both cases you are probably going to need to move the probes in closer, ctrl and mouse wheel usually. You can also position each probe manually, and zoom in and center it on the signature. Always center the probes, zoom in and out to check, and make sure its accurate. Signal Cartel have a club for getting over 200 scan strength. That takes max skills but you can get good strength with level IV skills. Bonussed ships like racial frigates, covops, Astero and Stratios help. Rigs like Small Gravity Capacitor Upgrade, and Prospector implants can boost it as well.
For the best performance to quickly probe down cosmic signatures, definitely max train all scanning skills, use a ship with scan bonus fit with Sisters Of Eve Launcher and Probes. Also at the very least have your clone equipped with Slot #8 Scan Implant = Poteque ‘Prospector’ Astrometric Rangefinding AR-806
(6% stronger scanning strength with scan probes)