Unmanned Probes

[Hyfrydle (OP)]

Is it possible to have a unmanned probe transit a jump point to explore a system? In my current game I have an aggresive NPR and would like to scout there system before moving any military ships in.

[The Shadow]

Nope.  Unmanned drones are great for probing in-system - you can fire them at a planet from a billion miles away or more.  But you can't send them through a jump point.

You might try small fast ships with really small jump drives and all the jump radius you can afford.  Or if you have cloaking devices you could get away with a bigger ship.

[UnLimiTeD]

Yeah, if you expect the enemy to sit on the jump point, you basically can't prevent the loss of ships, and thus, crew.
There's sadly no automation tech yet.
In this case, swarm approaches might help.
If the enemy is just somewhere in the system, a small ship might be able to jump in and slip out in a minute to gather some data.

[Hyfrydle (OP)]

The problem I have is the race was encountered quite a time ago and at the time had much higher tech than me. They didn't follow me back to Sol but they are only one jump away also both planets in the system are within a colonisable range, which is a rarity in my current game.

I might find they have moved on or they could have a massive empire. Diplomcay is no good as I was unable to communicate when I first met them but since then The diplomacy team has improved is it worth trying to communicate again?

I might just bite the bullet and send a small fast ship with good sensors for a recon it may be a mission that is guaranteed to end in failure but I'm sure I have some brave crew who will lay there life down for the Terran cause.

[UnLimiTeD]

Chances are good they are totally uninterested in you^^

[Hyfrydle (OP)]

Chances are good they are totally uninterested in you^^

Why does that make me feel uneasy? It's like a ticking timebomb on your doorstep.

[The Shadow]

Chances are good they are totally uninterested in you^^

Why does that make me feel uneasy? It's like a ticking timebomb on your doorstep.

I think you just answered your own question.

Also, most people would rather be attacked than ignored.  The latter is kind of insulting.

[Andrew]

I might find they have moved on or they could have a massive empire. Diplomcay is no good as I was unable to communicate when I first met them but since then The diplomacy team has improved is it worth trying to communicate again?

If you have been told that you cannot open communication as the race is too alien you cannot try and communicate again. The open communication button will be grayed out. If they have a large population in system your initial probe would probably have spotted it as large planaetery populations are hard to hide if you had any passive sensors on the probe ship.

[Hyfrydle (OP)]

would a fast recon fighter work if so how would I go about buildng something like this?

[Andrew]

Build a really small jump engine and fit it to a small ship.
This is fairly pointless though as a small ship will have poor sensors and all it will really tell you is if there is something close to the WP and if you are RP comms through a WP it will tell you this by not coming back. If there are hostile ships picketing the WP nothing short of a full assault will survive , return to the WP and come back to you. If as is more likely there is nothing sitting on top of the WP any jump ship can do a quick check . I built specialist scout ships fast with good sensors (No weapons or defenses) which I send to have a look around, although in the situation described I would send a battle fleet through with active sensors(Active sensors in this case work like an angler fishes lure bringing enemies to investigate) on wait at the WP see what came to kill me and then either kill it or run away. The problem with the scout ship being if the precursors are faster than you , it will probably be killed.

[Hyfrydle (OP)]

Build a really small jump engine and fit it to a small ship.
This is fairly pointless though as a small ship will have poor sensors and all it will really tell you is if there is something close to the WP and if you are RP comms through a WP it will tell you this by not coming back. If there are hostile ships picketing the WP nothing short of a full assault will survive , return to the WP and come back to you. If as is more likely there is nothing sitting on top of the WP any jump ship can do a quick check . I built specialist scout ships fast with good sensors (No weapons or defenses) which I send to have a look around, although in the situation described I would send a battle fleet through with active sensors(Active sensors in this case work like an angler fishes lure bringing enemies to investigate) on wait at the WP see what came to kill me and then either kill it or run away. The problem with the scout ship being if the precursors are faster than you , it will probably be killed.

Ok I've decided I'm going to send a small battle fleet through and hope for the best will post on my blog how things turn out. Wish me luck!!!

http://auroranewbieaar.blogspot.com/

[Hyfrydle (OP)]

Well I didn't manage to scout out the Tau Ceti system last night for some reason the jump tender I built didn't let me transit my military ships. Details of the ships are below can anyone shed any light on this:

Gateway class Jump Tender 4100 tons 298 Crew 510.8 BP TCS 82 TH 240 EM 0
2926 km/s JR 4-50 Armour 6-22 Shields 0-0 Sensors 25/25/0/0 Damage Control Rating 1 PPV 0
Annual Failure Rate: 134% IFR: 1.9% Maint Capacity 78 MSP Max Repair 144 MSP Est Time: 0.4 Years

J5500(4-50) Military Jump Drive Max Ship Size 5500 tons Distance 50k km Squadron Size 4
Ion Engine E8 Military (4) Power 60 Fuel Use 80% Signature 60 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres Range 27.4 billion km (108 days at full power)

Thermal Sensor TH5-25 (1) Sensitivity 25 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 25m km
EM Detection Sensor EM5-25 (1) Sensitivity 25 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 25m km

This design is classed as a military vessel for maintenance purposes

Sunstrike class Command Ship 4950 tons 376 Crew 705.4 BP TCS 99 TH 320 EM 0
3232 km/s Armour 6-25 Shields 0-0 Sensors 25/25/0/0 Damage Control Rating 3 PPV 0
Annual Failure Rate: 65% IFR: 0.9% Maint Capacity 267 MSP Max Repair 150 MSP Est Time: 1.86 Years
Flag Bridge

Nuclear Pulse Engine E9 Military ( Power 40 Fuel Use 90% Signature 40 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 100,000 Litres Range 40.4 billion km (144 days at full power)

Active Search Sensor MR75-R150 (1) GPS 15000 Range 75.0m km Resolution 150
Thermal Sensor TH5-25 (1) Sensitivity 25 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 25m km
EM Detection Sensor EM5-25 (1) Sensitivity 25 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 25m km

This design is classed as a military vessel for maintenance purposes

Broadsword System Protector class Missile Cruiser 4650 tons 288 Crew 529 BP TCS 93 TH 160 EM 0
1720 km/s Armour 4-24 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 2 PPV 8
Annual Failure Rate: 86% IFR: 1.2% Maint Capacity 142 MSP Max Repair 32 MSP Est Time: 2.71 Years
Magazine 608

Nuclear Pulse Engine E9 Military (4) Power 40 Fuel Use 90% Signature 40 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres Range 21.5 billion km (144 days at full power)

Size 2 Missile Launcher ASM (4) Missile Size 2 Rate of Fire 20
Missile Fire Control FC96-R200 (1) Range 96.0m km Resolution 200

This design is classed as a military vessel for maintenance purpose

Fly Swatter class Area Defence Cruiser 4700 tons 536 Crew 462.2 BP TCS 94 TH 160 EM 0
1702 km/s Armour 1-24 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 3 PPV 48
Annual Failure Rate: 58% IFR: 0.8% Maint Capacity 184 MSP Max Repair 30 MSP Est Time: 4.08 Years

Nuclear Pulse Engine E9 Military (4) Power 40 Fuel Use 90% Signature 40 Armour 0 Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 100,000 Litres Range 42.6 billion km (289 days at full power)

Twin R4/C3 Meson Cannon Turret (4x2) Range 20,000km TS: 15000 km/s Power 8-6 RM 4 ROF 10 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Fire Control S04 10-16000 Anti-Missile Mesons (1) Max Range: 20,000 km TS: 16000 km/s 50 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Gas-Cooled Fast Reactor Technology PB-1 AR-0 (4) Total Power Output 36 Armour 0 Exp 5%

This design is classed as a military vessel for maintenance purposes

If I can sort this issue I'll try again tonight any help much appreciated.

[Steve Walmsley]

The size of ship that a jump ship can escort is based on either the size of the jump ship or the capacity of its jump drive, whichever is smaller. So in this case, the Gateway class Jump Tender can only escort ships that are 4100 tons or smaller. See this FAQ for more details

viewtopic.php?f=100&t=2090

Enjoying your blog btw

Steve

[Hyfrydle (OP)]

damn now I remember reading that what is the reason for this game mechanic?

[UnLimiTeD]

Not having cheap Jump ships instead of gates?^^