Gardering Intelligence point

[Norm49 (OP)]

HI,

I am trying to gather Intelligence point on a colony but I'm not getting any thing. It is a precursor colony maybe it have something to do with it. The ship i use for this have a ELINT Module EM sensor, Thermal sensor and Active sensor. The ship been in orbit of the planet for over a years.

What am I missing here?

[nuclearslurpee]

It is always good to check the Aurora C# change logs which are as close to documentation as we can get.

The post on ELINT has the answers:

If the target can be detected by the ELINT modules' built-in EM Sensors, intelligence can be gathered.

So make sure the target is within the effective EM sensor range of the ELINT module, which is probably different from any normal EM sensor you might have installed on the same ship.

For populations, the intelligence is also multiplied by (100 - Population Species Xenophobia) / 100. In other words, it is much harder to gain intelligence when a population has high xenophobia. If the alien language is not translated, all intelligence is reduced by 80%.

For Precursors, like any spoiler race they will not communicate so you will not have a language translation without SM mode, and more importantly I believe Precursors will have 100 Xenophobia since they are always hostile, so the intelligence multiplier is zero. Basically, trying to cheese the ELINT game to steal tech from Precursors will not work. 

EDIT: And also take note of the below:

If the population is less than 100m, the translation of Population Intelligence to Race Intelligence is modified by Population in millions / 100.

So to compound the above, since the colony is unpopulated you will not gain any racial intelligence leading to technology and other goodies anyways.

[boolybooly]

I have not yet used ELINT on an NPR myself but I do know you can use ELINT on precursors to get active scanner resolutions and range for known ships, which is useful military intel, though I am not sure if it requires detecting a precursor active scanner with the ELINT passive EM or whether a colony signature will also do it.

You might want to check known ships in the alien race section, if you have encountered any, and see if the active scanner data has been filled in.

I wrote an account of this in the fiction section based on real gameplay in case that helps. Skip to the end of the post for the data output and a map view showing how ELINT sensors interacting with ships guarding a precursor colony acquired the data.
http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=12965.msg160269#msg160269

[nuclearslurpee]

though I am not sure if it requires detecting a precursor active scanner with the ELINT passive EM or whether a colony signature will also do it.

From the linked Steve post:

Their primary function is to gather electronic and signals intelligence on alien populations and active sensors

I would say it is certain that this is what happened, from what I can make of the AAR post you linked.

It is worth noting that you can gain active sensor data from population ELINT, but this happens via the racial intelligence points rather than population-specific ELINT points. You can gain the same information from interrogating NPR crews rescued from life pods.