WILDERNESS LANDING
For the wilderness landing operation, you are attempting to enter the wilderness zone of a wild or feral planet, to explore or harvest the planet for riches, to cache cargo, to obtain your cached cargo, or to complete a contract.
During wilderness landings you consume water-fuel, and you may encounter ships (sometimes hostile) and/or have ship accidents which cause damage to your sails or engines. Pilot and Tactics play the greatest role for wilderness landings.
Besides your skills, your ship stats also play a role in wilderness landings. Engines and ship agility help you when landing. Hull, on the other hand, makes it harder for you to land. A high engines value and ship agility and a low hull will result in fewer encounters and fewer accidents when landings. A low engines value and ship agility and a high hull will result in more encounters and more accidents when landing.
Anything that increases your ship signature will increase your chances of encounters when landing. Hull, armor and crew all increase your ship signature. Any cargo that you carry that isn't water-fuel also increases your ship signature, especially contraband (weapons, electronics).
Besides ship signature, ship stats and your skills, other factors can help or hurt you when landing. The Exo-Scout and Templar provide a bonus for wilderness landing. The ancient reactors upgrade provides a bonus for landings. The cargo prow (+16) upgrade provides a penalty for landings.
Overall: Wild Landings = Pilot skill + Tactics skill + engines + ship agility + hull + ship signature + upgrades + officers + luck
EXPLORE
For the explore operation, you are looking for artifacts, electronics and weapons. Such cargo cannot be carried nor sold without a trade permit, and bounties and military that encounter you when carrying such items wthout a permit will be hostile and confiscate them from you if you surender to them. You also may need to explore a planet in search of an enemy or freind in order to complete a contract.
The planetary ratings tell you how good the planet is to explore. The greater the danger rating, the more dangerous and risky it is (greater the chance of casualties, failure and HP loss). The greater the exploration rating, the more stuff there is on the planet (greater returns)
Explorer and stealth play the greatest role in exploration. Tactics plays a role as well, but not as much as explorer and stealth. Warrior and strength will help prevent HP loss for exploring, and Intimidate/Charisma will help reduce casualties, but again, not as important as explorer and stealth. The bigger the crew party size, the greater the potential retuns. However, do not send more crew than you're willing to lose, or than your skills can handle (Explorer, Intimidate)
Rumors play a role in success. For example, alien attack rumors will mean much higher chance of casualties from aliens. Dark age technology rumors will mean higher chance of artifacts. A list of rumors and their effects is in the help.
Besides planet ratings, rumors and skills, other factors play a role as well. Having records improve your explorer skill. Exo-Scout officer provides explore/harvest bonuses, helps with 'wild' landings (avoiding encounters), and increases the bonuses that records give. The templar also helps with wild landings, and helps protect the captain and crew from aliens when exploring, but isn't nearly as important as the exo-scout. The exo-planetary crawler provides explore bonuses as well, but a) won't protect you from aliens and b) will prevent you from getting any upgrades that increase your ship's crew capacity. The explorer profession prevents you from losing HP when exploring.
The more you explore a planet, the less chance of being succesful. So its best if you keep losing at a planet to go to a different planet.
Overall: Explore = Danger rating + Exploration rating + Explore skill + Stealth skill + rumors + Exo-Scout + records in-hold + how many times planet recently explored + crew party size + morale + tactics skill + warrior skill + intimidate skill + upgrades + templar officer + profession + luck + captain's HP
HARVEST
For the harvest operation, you are looking for water-fuel, spice, vodka, clothing, metals, crystals, plants and luxury-rations. Such cargo can be carried and sold without a trade permit, and will not be confiscated by military nor bounties (although pirates are a diferent story)
Harvesting is almost the same as exploring, with some sublte differences.
1. the harvest rating determines how much stuff you get, not the exploration rating
2. The stealth skill does not play a role in harvesting. In addition, the pilot skill helps for harvest (but not as much as the explorer skill)
3. The explorer profession special wound protection ability does not work for harvest
4. Different rumors affect harvest than explore. A list of which rumors affect exploration , which rumors affect harvest, and how is in the help.
5. How many times the planet was harvested helps determine success/failure, not how times the planet was explored.
Other than the above, harvest is more less the same as explorations. Overall: Harvest = Danger rating + Harvest rating + Explore skill + rumors + Exo-Scout + records in-hold + how many times the planet recently harvested + crew part size + morale + tactics skill + pilot skill + engines + warrior skill + intimidate skill + upgrades + templar officer + captain's HP + luck
CACHE
For the cache operation, you are leaving a certain amount of your cargo on a planet, whether its to obtain at a later date to sell or to be available in case you need it (like an emergency supply of water-fuel, weapons, etc)
The cache rating tell you how good the planet is to cache cargo. The greater the cache rating, the less chance of your cache being found at the planet.
When there is a treasure hunter fleet rumor, your cache is in great danger of being found. Never cache cargo in a plnet with a rumor of treasure hunters. In addition, if you hear a rumor of treasure hunters at a planet where cargo is cached, it is a good idea to return to that planet and get your cache stash, either to sell or to leave at another planet. You can see the rumors that you've heard and their location is the staus menu.You can also see where your cached cargo is in the status menu.
In addition to the cache rating and treasure hunter fleet rumors, the profession also plays a role in how safe your cargo is whn you cache it. If you are a smuggler or explorer, there will be a much lower chance of your cargo being found. If you are a pirate or spy, there will be a slightly lower chance of your cargo being found. If you are a military officer or zealot, there will be a slightly greater chance of your cargo being foung.
Overall: Cache = Cache rating + if there's a treasure hunter fleet rumor + profession
That was exausting
