Espionage and intel info?

[Nibelung44 (OP)]

How do I use espionage? I assembled a team and know of 2 alien races, but the drop box is empty. Do I have to land the team to a planet where the race is? (that would make sense)

Bonus question, I have a ship over a neutral alien colony , but I don't get any info but the thermal/EM signature. How can I know more (pop number, ground units)? By espionage? By active sensor?

[Vanigo]

Bonus question, I have a ship over a neutral alien colony , but I don't get any info but the thermal/EM signature. How can I know more (pop number, ground units)? By espionage? By active sensor?

For the most part, you can't. An active sensor will get you an estimate of the total ground unit strength, but that's it.

[Nibelung44 (OP)]

hu, and espionage can't do anything about that? How do I use my team in any case?

[Vanigo]

You assume correctly; you have to get a team onto a world with an alien population. It works better the bigger the population is up to (IIRC) 10 million people, so don't bother spying on mining colonies.

[Nibelung44 (OP)]

ok, but now the question is, how can I drop a spy team on a planet of a race I'm at war with.

[Vanigo]

Yeah, I haven't entirely figured that one out myself. I've had some success planting spies on small colonies that don't have much sensor coverage yet and just leaving them there while the colony grows.

[UnLimiTeD]

Nuke the planet until it glows.
Put espionage team there. Immediately get all the info.  
Alternatively, don't start a waR and then try to get the info. Try it the other way around.  
edit for typo.

[Nibelung44 (OP)]

I was thinking of targeting a planet not too protected, with a ship having (more a drop pod than anything else) something like armor thickness 10, that would be able to soak up the damages until it arrives at range 0 to drop the team. This can perhaps work, if the planet don't have too many armed ships in orbit I think.

[On_Target]

I was thinking of targeting a planet not too protected, with a ship having (more a drop pod than anything else) something like armor thickness 10, that would be able to soak up the damages until it arrives at range 0 to drop the team. This can perhaps work, if the planet don't have too many armed ships in orbit I think.

Make it a ship with only a FAC engine, fuel, and nothing else (well, a tiny engineering space).  Have as much reduced thermal signature on it as possible, 25% would be my absolute maximum.  A team needs no drop pod, IIRC.

Slip speedily in (faster than a fighter even), right under their noses.

[Vanigo]

Slip speedily in (faster than a fighter even), right under their noses.

Actually, if you make a class dedicated to this, I think a fighter engine is faster. You only need a single command module and fuel storage, which are light enough that I don't think the FAC engine's higher total power makes up for its higher mass. What's more, the fighter engine has a lower thermal signature.
That said, I don't think this will really work. Even as fast as it is, it'll probably take at least a few minutes to get through the aliens' sensor range, and a little ship like this won't be able to survive anything more threatening than a couple countermissiles. It's reasonably likely to work anyway if you use a big enough time increment, getting in and out in one sub-pulse, but that's a bug, really.

[Nibelung44 (OP)]

yes, I would not dare bet that the Spy Ship is fast enough to avoid missiles, so I prefer the armored version (which is still a project right now!).

[Hawkeye]

A highly cloaked ship with very good thermal reduction might work. Haven´t done a lot with cloak myself though.

[UnLimiTeD]

Without weapons or anything, you can get a fast fighter at two hullsizes, that'll likely do to conceal it for a while, until the planet has strong Anti-Missile sensors on all the time.
But if they are hostile already, what do you care?
You can't change what they have on that planet by virtue of espionage, if you kill their fleet you can normally survey the planet without problem, and population size and economy can be roughly extrapolated by means of the emissions.

[On_Target]

Actually, if you make a class dedicated to this, I think a fighter engine is faster. You only need a single command module and fuel storage, which are light enough that I don't think the FAC engine's higher total power makes up for its higher mass. What's more, the fighter engine has a lower thermal signature.
That said, I don't think this will really work. Even as fast as it is, it'll probably take at least a few minutes to get through the aliens' sensor range, and a little ship like this won't be able to survive anything more threatening than a couple countermissiles. It's reasonably likely to work anyway if you use a big enough time increment, getting in and out in one sub-pulse, but that's a bug, really.

From everything I've seen, FACs outstrip fighter speeds in most cases, but especially when things are stripped out.  There's also fuel efficiency issues that make them better able to reach the planet without a mothership to take them.

[Vanigo]

From everything I've seen, FACs outstrip fighter speeds in most cases, but especially when things are stripped out.  There's also fuel efficiency issues that make them better able to reach the planet without a mothership to take them.

FACs can be faster than fighters if the FAC's engine:total mass ratio is higher. Since an FAC engine is five times larger, it's not hard to do this. However, if the ship consists of an engine and practically nothing else, the fighter engine does have 50% more power per ton, and you can squeeze fuel, life support, and minimal armor into a half a hull space.