fightin dat dem dere aliems

[kuzkula]

So how the heck do I start smacking some aliens around? I follow the rumor and patrol and find nothing but the swarms of bounty hunters coming for my head. What's up?

[Tenebrous Pirate]

The rumors just mean you have an increased chance of finding them, but they are still very rare. I have done my share of hunting for them, and once asked Cory this very question. He suggested several things that increase your odds of finding them.

Red squares are more likely to have aliens in them than green ones.
The further from a green square a red one is, the higher the chances.
Rumors increase the base chance of an area significantly.
Dead planets have the highest chance of having the aliens.
As time progresses in the game, all chances of aliens go up.

So, if you look in the center of the map, in that vast area of red squares, you should see a few dead planets far from any green squares. Patrol those, or any rumors of alien activity near them, and you should have better luck.

Enjoy the death screams of your crew! Cheers!

[absimiliard]

We should also note that alien activity is STRONGLY tied to difficulty.

So if you are playing on an easy difficulty you may never see an alien. (and at best they will be extremely rare, where "best" is loosely defined)

-abs

[HateSolstice]

This one time, at space band camp, I saw an alien do this thing with another thing, and then he stuck the thing inside his other thing, and it was hilarious.

[kuzkula]

So being on demanding, non elite, aliens probably 0% eh?

[Tenebrous Pirate]

Yeah, they will be pretty darned rare on demanding. I have a level 69 Pirate on impossible difficulty. It is the year 558.38 AE for him, and he has only ever seen maybe 2 hostile aliens and 3 space hulks. Only the space hulks got away...

[sebastian]

I have found 1 alien, not on purpose, in my current game (lvl 20, crazy) was a lvl 54 narvidian carrier, ended up killing the captain in duel. Is there a reason to want to find them? Get a good price for the ship salvage but i have been seein better prices on most of the contracts.

The 3 times i have ever encountered them i have won, but i still do not want to find them on porpoise.

[absimiliard]

The only reason to pursue them is because it's late-game, your captain already has too many ships and too many credits, and you need something new to do and decide "Hrmm, maybe Silla Cadar has been so anti-Indep all these years because of that early alien encounter, and she believes the Indeps are opening humanity up to invasion . .. . yeah, that works. From now on she, and her Alien Hunter First Officer, will go and hunt only aliens. They will Defend Humanity!"

Or something like that.

-abs

[sebastian]

Yeah, okay i can see that. Should get trophies to mount in the mess hall. "we captured this here 2,000 point Narv last cycle over by hellarc, put up a hell of a fight. Almost lost it myself, if it weren't for a lucky 'whoa! Whats that behind you!' trick he'd be telling this stories to one of his slime suckin buddies.... True story"

[that1guy]

darn it. I knew that's where I went wrong. I said "hey you, look at me" instead of "whoa! What's that behind you". I remembered thinking to myself "hmmm.... this is a weird way to distract an alien". hunting aliens is fun ...... for only one of my captains.

[slayernz]

You know, I've been testing out the alien frequency in Demanding with one of my captains, and he's been flying for around 13500 turns. I've been using him to specifically hunt aliens, and he's had a heap of encounters with Aliens. A heap as in at least a good half-dozen. I've focused on the red zone dead planets, but I've also stumbled across them during the jaunt between Tucanae-JM and De Valtos Prime.

Funnily enough, I've only had one space hulk - the rest have been those really nasty ones that seem determined to tear you to pieces. Most combats end in draws, which is scary given how comfy flying Demanding is compared to Insane

[fallen]

Have your alien hunters been willing to sign on an Veteran Officer who has come face to face with the aliens? These often scarred and tormented warriors know the ways of the aliens and can help you sniff them out in deep space or on dead planets.

[slayernz]

My Demanding capt has the standard set of officers I usually kit out:
* Scout (cos I like to explore)
* Political (cos I can't be bothered checking faction conflicts every time I land in an urban area)
* Mechanic (cos I break things often).

My Insane captain has an Alien hunter - but only cos the guy looked lonely so my captain felt sorry and adopted him.

[HateSolstice]

Just don't forget to change his litter regularly, feed him 3 times a day, and take him for walks occasionally. They get a little restless otherwise.

[slayernz]

I fed him after midnight and he turned into Ole Turdlip!