Listening Post Cheapens Contact Acquisition

[drspendlove]

Once my E-techs hit rank 8, I no longer struggle to find contacts for anything, ever. I go from a scarcity of contacts where I consider my contact acquiring options including buying introductions, to just passively not having to care about getting contacts because I have all of them that I could ever want. This is because Listening Post gives me a contact nearly every time I land on a planet. Let's look at some math with a moderately high number of E-techs, common on larger ships:

Note that Electronics at Rank 8 with no skill bonus is 7 points. This gets more extreme as they level, of course. Also note that there is a 13 week cooldown for this talent and I'll assume we're landing on a planet every 4 weeks. Let's start with the best-case scenario:

If I have 6+ E-techs I have about an 67% chance of getting a contact on my first planet landing (none on cooldown): (1 - (0.1 + 0.01 * Electronics_Rank8)^6) = 0.673
If I have 5 E-techs with the talent ready for the next landfall (1 - (0.1 + 0.01 * 7)^5) = 0.606
Now 4: (1 - (0.1 + 0.01 * 7)^4) = 0.525
Now 3: (1 - (0.1 + 0.01 * 7)^3) = 0.428

These are pretty high odds for getting contacts, and at this point my odds are about 50% or better per landing as the initial talents come up from cooldown. But let's do the math for all cases. Let's call 0.1 + 0.01 * 7 just 0.17, as it is and do 4 landings. Probability of not getting a contact individually is 0.83.

Probability of 4 Contacts in 4 landings = (1 - 0.83^6) * (1 - 0.83^5) * (1 - 0.83^4) * (1 - 0.83^3) = 9.2%
Probability of 3 Contacts in 4 landings = (1 - 0.83^6) * (1 - 0.83^5) * (1 - 0.83^4) * 0.83^3 +
                                                           (1 - 0.83^6) * (1 - 0.83^5) * 0.83^4 * (1 - 0.83^4) +
                                                           (1 - 0.83^6) * 0.83^5 * (1 - 0.83^5) * (1 - 0.83^4) +
                                                           0.83^6 * (1 - 0.83^6) * (1 - 0.83^5) * (1 - 0.83^4) = 37.9%
Probability of 2 Contacts in 4 landings = (1 - 0.83^6) * (1 - 0.83^5) * 0.83^4 * 0.83^4 +
                                                           (1 - 0.83^6) * 0.83^5 * (1 - 0.83^5) * 0.83^4 +
                                                           0.83^6 * (1 - 0.83^6) * (1 - 0.83^5) * 0.83^4 +
                                                           (1 - 0.83^6) * 0.83^5 * 0.83^5 * (1 - 0.83^5) +
                                                           0.83^6 * (1 - 0.83^6) * 0.83^5 * (1 - 0.83^5) +
                                                           0.83^6 * 0.83^6 * (1 - 0.83^6) * (1 - 0.83^5) = 39.1%
Probability of 1 Contact in 4 landings = (0.83^6)^3 * (1 - 0.83^6) +
                                                         (0.83^6)^2 * (1 - 0.83^6) * 0.83^5 +
                                                         0.83^6 * (1 - 0.83^6) * (0.83^5)^2 +
                                                         (1 - 0.83^6) * (0.83^5)^3 = 12.7%
Probability of 0 Contacts in 4 landings = (0.83^6)^4 = 1.1%

Average number of contacts per 4 landings = 0.092 * 4 + 0.379 * 3 + 0.391 * 2 + 0.127 = 2.4 Contacts

Let's play it a little conservatively and say that we then get 2 contacts continually every 13 weeks. That's so many contacts from just the E-Techs. It makes the entire nuanced process trivial because this is a passive effect from an activity that you must do to survive.

Suggestion: Make this trigger from positive spying results (10 + double Electronics skill)% of the time. It's still a listening post but now requires deliberate action rather than passive "Oh gee, more contacts I don't need."

[daveal]

I agree that in spy builds, or others with a lot of etechs, my contact list overflows with people I have never heard of and will never use. Sometimes late game, I decide I need a contact which sells something or offers a certain crew type, and look! I have four of them I've never met. Maybe it could work more like introductions, instead of requiring actual spying. A contact has a certain number of contacts, which mostly never changes, so after a while, they don't have anybody new to introduce.

Perhaps listening post could only give contacts who are *local to this system* instead of anywhere. So, if you only visit 3-4 systems regularly, you eventually know everybody there, but your contact list stops increasing in size.

Although this isn't really an exploration game, it does give a little more sense of venturing into a new area. Today late game, I already have 4-5 contacts in a system I've never visited before, probably mostly from listening post. Even though they won't do much for me the first time, it's like moving to a foreign city where I have friends. If I have no friends, I'll have to work harder to get started there.

Do you feel the same way about the navigator talent? I wind up choosing this for high level navigators due to lack of many other interesting talents.

[fallen]

Thanks for the feedback!

[drspendlove]

Yes, w.r.t. Navigator talent but that's not as bad as you have to allow your crew's morale to get low (a slightly less common condition than orbit) and spicing takes a small amount of money and time. Still probably could use a re-work.