First contact with a neutral NPR

[Ulzgoroth]

I'd note that I got one of my embassy ships blown away apparently by accident. The NPR was fine with my ship being there, but saw another enemy, volleyed missiles at it, and a bunch of them killed my ship too. (Possibly self-guiding missiles.)

Probably not what happened to you if they killed your ship immediately on arrival instead of after a while though.




As for sneaking information, stealthy ELINT ships are possible. I've got small ones with cloaking and stealthy engines. A big one with several ELINT modules might instead be able to read its target from very far out so it doesn't need as much sneak. ELINT that can detect a colony generates intel points on the colony that will eventually give you an idea of what is there. (And on serious colonies give you other information about the owning civilization, like design datasheets or system maps.)

[bankshot]

I thought you should only have one ELINT per ship.  For additional detection range I add an EM sensor. 

[Garfunkel]

They both do the same thing, except EM sensor is smaller.

[nuclearslurpee]

They both do the same thing in terms of detection, except EM sensor is smaller.

Clarified, since EM sensors don't give ELINT. Probably obvious but I want to make sure no one gets confused.