*Also posted in steam forums*

So i know in the ship creator for explorer ships the tooltip reads that probe recovery is increased by 100% for probe modules but this isn't lining up in regards to probes on hero ships. I know the tooltips are misleading and read wrong for probe recovery but after experimenting I see that basic probes on hero ships actually recover faster than when they are on explorer ships. I just got done experimenting quite a bit with all three probe types on both hero and explorer ships and am seeing results that don't add up.

I tested by just spamming probes (not exploring curiosity) and ending turn. With hero ship testing i made sure the level 1 heroes didn't have any probe recovery default skills. I also tested it with non seeker heroes just in case the seeker hero ship hull which is listed for its role as exploration/adventurer had some hidden recovery bonus like regular hull explorer. No mods used and multiple factions tested. Start a game with a hero in his own fleet with probes installed and an explorer in his own fleet. Spam probes, end turn and look at how quick probes recover over a few turns while still spamming probes.

When mounted on explorer ships the standard white probes will always recover one every other turn, blue titanium probes will always recover two per turn and yellow hyperium probes will always recover one per turn tested over multiple turns.

When mounted on hero ships though the standard white probes will recover one per turn for two turns in a row followed by it taking two turns to make a probe. In other words over four turns a hero ship with white probes recovers three compared to the explorer ship (with its supposed bonus) making only two over the same four turns. I've always relied early game (before unlocking blue and yellow probes) on explorers instead of heroes to gather curiosities but seeing now that over the first 20 early game turns I could have five more probes to explore with on a hero than an explorer i think this might help early game exploration.

Blue titanium probes on heroes recover one probe per turn, then on the next turn will recover two probes in sequence over and over. So over four turns with blue probes, a hero will recover six probes and an explorer will recover eight probes so the explorer does get a benefit.

Yellow hyperium probes recover the same with one probe per turn on both hero and explorers so there is no recovery bonus at all for explorers with yellow probes.

So in other words if you have only have stock white probes hero ships get more over time, blue probes the explorer ships get more and yellow is a straight tie with identical recovery rates.

It's not supposed to work this way right? So i guess my question is this... do you guys explore curiosities initially using exploration ships or heroes and if you don't use hero ships to explore would this discovery change your initial opening moves on how you play?

I agree.  It doesn't really change much.  Just thought for years that explorers get a bonus and it's not always the case.  Another lying tooltip!