Ground-based geo surveys?

[liveware (OP)]

So, I found a planet (Mars) marked as 'minimal' in the survey tab. I landed the following geo-survey ground unit on the planet:

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Medium Geosurvey Vehicle
Transport Size (tons) 130     Cost 35.1     Armour 12     Hit Points 24
Annual Maintenance Cost 4.4     Resupply Cost 6
Geosurvey Equipment:      Geo Survey Points 0.1
Crew-Served Anti-Personnel:      Shots 6      Penetration 6      Damage 6

Extreme Pressure Combat
Extreme Temperature Combat
High Gravity Combat
Low Gravity Combat
Non-Combat Class

I haven't seen anything in my event log and it's been a few months since I dropped the survey crew planetside. Do I need to give them an order to survey? Or just wait it out?

[Pedroig]

Just wait it out.  Going to be a while if you only have that 0.1 generating points though.

Usually survey vehicles are double equipped and use multiple of 5's.  The planet should show you how many survey points are required to survey if you check the correct box on the tac screen.

[Azuraal]

On a side note, you don't need to put additional capabilities on non-combat units and if you exchanged that Crew-served Anti-Personel for a second Geosurvey Eq you would double the survey speed.
If for security or RP you want the survey teams to be armed you would better add to the formations a few armed infantry units with those capabilities, Non-Combat classes won't attack anyway.

[liveware (OP)]

Might need to send some reinforcements to speed things up it seems (or re-design).

For RP reasons, the surveyors get to keep their guns.... never know where you might find hostile xenofauna. Not that they stand a chance against any real military presence, but at least they can return fire.

They're also accompanied by a mech squadron for protection.

[liveware (OP)]

Follow up question:

What is the time period associated with the geo-survey rating? Is it 0.1 per day, per month, per year, etc?

[liveware (OP)]

Follow up question #2:

I was able to land my geo-survey team on Mars using the following dropship launched from my survey carrier:

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LCA Jackson 002  (Jackson class Landing Craft Assault)      500 tons       19 Crew       55 BP       TCS 10    TH 2    EM 0
192 km/s      Armour 2-5       Shields 0-0       HTK 3      Sensors 1/1/0/0      DCR 1      PPV 0
Maint Life 48.45 Years     MSP 75    AFR 2%    IFR 0.0%    1YR 0    5YR 1    Max Repair 10 MSP
Troop Capacity 200 tons     Boarding Capable   
Lieutenant Commander    Control Rating 1   
Intended Deployment Time: 6 months    Morale Check Required   

Steenbergen-Jaggers Drive Systems Shakleton Improved Nuclear Thermal Engine  EP0.96 (2)    Power 1.9    Fuel Use 15.43%    Signature 0.96    Explosion 3%
Fuel Capacity 1,000 Litres    Range 2.3 billion km (140 days at full power)

Steenbergen-Jaggers Drive Systems Shakleton Active Search Sensor AS13-R200 (1)     GPS 600     Range 14m km    Resolution 200
Steenbergen-Jaggers Drive Systems Shakleton EM Sensor EM0.3-1.8 (1)     Sensitivity 1.8     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  10.6m km
Steenbergen-Jaggers Drive Systems Shakleton Thermal Sensor TH0.3-1.8 (1)     Sensitivity 1.8     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  10.6m km

This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and planetary interaction

However, I am not able to order this ship to land my survey teams on other planets outside of my home system. There must be a way to do this? Do I need to establish a colony on the planet before I land my survey units? Mars was already established as a mining colony before I landed my survey units discussed above.

[SpikeTheHobbitMage]

Follow up question #2:

I was able to land my geo-survey team on Mars using the following dropship launched from my survey carrier:

Code: [Select]

LCA Jackson 002  (Jackson class Landing Craft Assault)      500 tons       19 Crew       55 BP       TCS 10    TH 2    EM 0
192 km/s      Armour 2-5       Shields 0-0       HTK 3      Sensors 1/1/0/0      DCR 1      PPV 0
Maint Life 48.45 Years     MSP 75    AFR 2%    IFR 0.0%    1YR 0    5YR 1    Max Repair 10 MSP
Troop Capacity 200 tons     Boarding Capable   
Lieutenant Commander    Control Rating 1   
Intended Deployment Time: 6 months    Morale Check Required   

Steenbergen-Jaggers Drive Systems Shakleton Improved Nuclear Thermal Engine  EP0.96 (2)    Power 1.9    Fuel Use 15.43%    Signature 0.96    Explosion 3%
Fuel Capacity 1,000 Litres    Range 2.3 billion km (140 days at full power)

Steenbergen-Jaggers Drive Systems Shakleton Active Search Sensor AS13-R200 (1)     GPS 600     Range 14m km    Resolution 200
Steenbergen-Jaggers Drive Systems Shakleton EM Sensor EM0.3-1.8 (1)     Sensitivity 1.8     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  10.6m km
Steenbergen-Jaggers Drive Systems Shakleton Thermal Sensor TH0.3-1.8 (1)     Sensitivity 1.8     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  10.6m km

This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and planetary interaction

However, I am not able to order this ship to land my survey teams on other planets outside of my home system. There must be a way to do this? Do I need to establish a colony on the planet before I land my survey units? Mars was already established as a mining colony before I landed my survey units discussed above.

You don't need boarding capability to drop off surveyors.  You do need a colony to drop off to, even if it is empty.

[Ri0Rdian]

Should be per day, same as Ships in most (probably all) things. Do note you can only survey a COLONY.

One vehicle is enough, but it will take ages. Don't forget you can have 2! geosurvey tools on your vehicle too (as well as one on the HQ if you want).  When designing the unit, very bottom left has Additional Equipment where you can select ANOTHER geosurvey equipment to double your output.

I personally only have one Unit that does ground survey, but it does it FAST, slightly twice as fast as my ships do (I start my geosurvey ships with 3 modules, and with improved sensors go down to 2 while still having 30% more points and less cost/weight). The unit is below 10k tons (which is the smallest size I use for RP purposes).

[SpikeTheHobbitMage]

To add to that, if you are concerned about defence, whether due to actual hostiles or for RP purposes, I'd send along a regular garrison unit to protect the trucks.

[Ri0Rdian]

Or a spec force/commando unit, RPing around that with the idea that that geosurvey is gonna visit a lot of different enviroments and it is a great opportunity for your soldiers to get that experience while also being useful. 

[SpikeTheHobbitMage]

Or a spec force/commando unit, RPing around that with the idea that that geosurvey is gonna visit a lot of different enviroments and it is a great opportunity for your soldiers to get that experience while also being useful. 

However you do it, by using a separate unit you can mix-and-match as needed.  Integrated units are less flexible, especially since non-combat units don't worry about environmental factors.

[liveware (OP)]

To add to that, if you are concerned about defence, whether due to actual hostiles or for RP purposes, I'd send along a regular garrison unit to protect the trucks.

Each geo survey vehicle gets a squad of 5 of these guys to guard it:

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Light Assault Mech
Transport Size (tons) 6     Cost 3.04     Armour 9.0     Hit Points 6
Annual Maintenance Cost 0.38     Resupply Cost 1.3
Improved Personal Weapons:      Shots 1      Penetration 8      Damage 6

Boarding Combat
Extreme Pressure Combat
Extreme Temperature Combat
High Gravity Combat
Low Gravity Combat

Still not much against a real enemy, but better than nothing. Also, it's primarily for RP purposes anyway.

You don't need boarding capability to drop off surveyors.  You do need a colony to drop off to, even if it is empty.

True. The Jackson class is intended to deliver the above mechs to disabled ships for boarding purposes. Transporting geo-survey teams is a secondary role.

[liveware (OP)]

One vehicle is enough, but it will take ages. Don't forget you can have 2! geosurvey tools on your vehicle too (as well as one on the HQ if you want).  When designing the unit, very bottom left has Additional Equipment where you can select ANOTHER geosurvey equipment to double your output.

In addition to aforestated RP reasons, I currently lack a transport with capacity > 200 tons. So I can only use 1 geosurvey module on my survey vehicle otherwise it becomes too heavy for my transport.

Someday I will design a larger transport and then possibly a larger survey vehicle.

[Ri0Rdian]

Well, I suck at math but I believe I once read something about Survey needing about 200 points. If it was right, your single vehicle will take about 200/0.1 days to survey the planet (though, I also read that the bigger the planet the longer it takes so it can be better or worse), thus slightly above 5.5 years. Really bad, but assuming you are not in a hurry and can employ multiple vehicles as needed (thus no need to move them from one planet to the other) it could still work.

[liveware (OP)]

For the time being I am just dropping survey squads on all bodies with survey potential. I'll wait 10 years if I need to for results... I have a lot of mining colonies that need to be established in the mean time.