Explorer class - guide

[Cory Trese]

Intimidate only appears once in explorer, and it is used during a check following the possibility of an accident. The Captain's Intimidate can contribute to the Crew following orders, which will reduce casualties.

[chrisl]

Is there any documentation that even hints at skill/attribute : Planet ratios you should be aiming for?

My current (relatively new) Captain has the following:
Charisma 11; Wisdom 17; Quickness 16; Strength 10
Explorer 17; Pilot 16; Negotiate 1; Tactics 17; Stealth 16; Warrior 10; Intimidate 1

The planet I've been exploring most is "Hills of Ghactllli" which has:
Danger 6; Explore 7; Harvest 1; Cache 3

I've got a fairly decent ship I'm using right now (Guardian Class, Crew 50; Hold 70). I have had a number of really successful exploration runs, but out of the 581 Exploration attempts (15 Harvest attempts) that I've made in my Captain's 201 years of game time, probably close to 75% have brought in nothing and cost me most of the crew I sent on the attempt. I don't know if the game tracks things like the number of crew members hired/lost, but I'd estimate that of those 581 attempts, I've probably lost over 6000 crew members. I've tried doing exploration runs with my entire crew, with the bare minimum crew and with pretty much everything in between, and I don't see any significant different in the odds of success. Sure, when I send a large crew, and IF they actually find something, I tend to get a large haul. But most of the time if I send a large crew I lose them all. And I can't even count the number of times I've sent out 20+ crew and they've returned with a single item, thus shooting down the idea that larger crews might result in larger finds.

I'm not looking to find a major cache every time I send out 6 crew members, but I also would rather not throw away 50 crew members and get nothing in return simply because my attributes/skills are too low for the planet I'm exploring.

Just as an example of what I'm hoping to find. It's been posted that to keep fuel usage down, you want a Pilot skill that is greater then 1/2 your ships Hull rating. So is there something similar for exploration? I.E., is Danger *3 the Intimidation skill I need to aim for to actually see reduced casualties, or is Planet Explor *3 the Explorer skill I should be aiming for before expecting to see reasonably consistant successful runs (even if by successful I mean finding a single item).

[jadraki]

I have found that there is a sweet spot for search crew size that is pretty dynamic. I.e., conditional on planet stats and skills there is an optimal crew size. BUT, also conditional on what year it is. The longer the galaxy matures, the tougher things get.

So starting out, with planets with danger and explore less than 10, I usually run 18 to 25 crew.

I have never gotten to the point of running more than 50 in an explore.

But you need to keep Intimidate high enough and on pace with crew size that you are not herding cats in a minefield.

[chrisl]

Oct 24, 2012 5:05:49 GMT -5 jadraki said:

I have found that there is a sweet spot for search crew size that is pretty dynamic. I.e., conditional on planet stats and skills there is an optimal crew size. BUT, also conditional on what year it is. The longer the galaxy matures, the tougher things get.

So starting out, with planets with danger and explore less than 10, I usually run 18 to 25 crew.

I have never gotten to the point of running more than 50 in an explore.

But you need to keep Intimidate high enough and on pace with crew size that you are not herding cats in a minefield.

Ok. So Indimidate plays a much higher role then I had originally thought. My current Captain has an 11 right now (the "1" I originally posted was a typ-o). Is there a ratio I should be aiming for between Intimidate and Crew size?

I know there are more variable then simply Explorer skill, Intimidate skill, Danger and Planetary Exploration (for Explore option) but of those 4, how do they equate to each other? Is Intimidate used to offset Danger while Explorer is used to offset Planetary Exploration? Or is Planetary Exploration simply a general factor representing potential find sizes, while Explorer offsets Danger and Intimidate simply determines casualties?

My Captain has Explorer 17 so does that mean I should have a "50/50" chance of success at a Planetary Exploration 17 planet? Or would that "50/50" chance be at a Danger 17 regardless of what the Planetary Exploration value was? This is the kind of information I'm trying to figure out. I'm guessing right now that Explorer is actually compared against Danger but I'm not positive. Back when my Captain had Explorer 15, Intimidate 1, I had attempted about a dozen exporations of a Danger 18/PE 11/HG 11 planet and failed every attempt. So should I expect to not have much of a chance until my Explorer skill is higher then the planet's Danger level?

[ntsheep]

Move from planet to planet when one appears to be mined out, wait a few months before returning unless there is a rumor about treasure there. The higher your skill, the more you tend to find at one time. I have had new characters with almost no exploration skill at all find good loads to make a quick profit and buy a new ship within a month. For every five points in explore, you tend to start getting more treasure than you did before, at least that is what I have notice with my games. Try these planets listed below and happy hunting ;D

-10,9
-2,-5
18,-6
2,9
16,9

[mandead]

So what is the best ship in the game for an explorer?

[Deleted]

Depends on your preference. High agility and speed is good for encounters and retreating from hostile enemies. High crew is good for higher crew party exploations and more exlorations before having to recruit more men. High cargo is good for being able to have a lot of found valuabls in your hold at one time, so you don have to make as many trips to the exchange. You could get the omega cruiser, 180 crew and fast/quick, but the cargo size is only at 90 so you'd have to cache constantly to keep exploring, or constantly go backand forth between wild planets an exchanges. You could get the harbinger carrier or admiral cruiser/carrier (can't remember which), about 150 crew and cargo, but slow/low agile. There's a ship with 180 cargo and 100 crew, with medium speed but low agility.

You can raise your cargo capacity, crew size, engines and sails via upgrades. The exo-planetary crawler reduces casualties a lot, and whencombined with the scout, records in hold, high explorer and stealth and a knolegable player with good strategy, you will master exploring.

Exploration/harvesting becomes much more dangerous each tme the difficulty is raised.

[Cory Trese]

Cargo, Speed, Crew, Torps

I would say Agility, Engines, Armor take a much lower priority.

Explorer should fight at Long Range, Retreat/Torp a lot to escape Combat, needs Cargo for Harvest/Explorer and will want Speed to avoid / escape.

[Deleted]

I agree with everything except the torp part. Exlorers could torp if they need to in order to escap, but getting a ship with a lot of torps shouldn't be a propiority.

Agility will help avoid encounters in orbit and for landings, but your right. Not a priority. Although isn't speed useless when in orbit of a planet? Or is that just sails?

[khanwulf]

So, is the only skill/stat useful to reduce personal injury stealth? Do other factors go into it? I've been able to handle crew deaths pretty well by limiting the size of the group to my skills, stacking bonuses (explorer, exo scout, exo tank), but find my limitation is that I get chewed up *myself* too fast.

This is with fairly significant stealth skill anyway--I dislike encounters as an explorer/merchant. What I've not been stacking is strength/warrior.

Advice?

--Khanwulf

[gaybarowner]

Could someone explain what the exact bonuses for gaining more items from exploring/harvesting I know explore skill counts as one but what about crew size?

[Cory Trese]

Jan 11, 2013 11:27:53 GMT -5 khanwulf said:

So, is the only skill/stat useful to reduce personal injury stealth? Do other factors go into it? I've been able to handle crew deaths pretty well by limiting the size of the group to my skills, stacking bonuses (explorer, exo scout, exo tank), but find my limitation is that I get chewed up *myself* too fast.

This is with fairly significant stealth skill anyway--I dislike encounters as an explorer/merchant. What I've not been stacking is strength/warrior.

Advice?

--Khanwulf

Strength and Warrior are critical for avoiding HP loss, as well as avoiding Rumors like Xeno Infestation (both in Wild Zone and Orbit above.)

[Cory Trese]

Jan 11, 2013 12:29:05 GMT -5 gaybarowner said:

Could someone explain what the exact bonuses for gaining more items from exploring/harvesting I know explore skill counts as one but what about crew size?

Finding a balance between the planet's ratings, skills and attributes and stacking officers and ship upgrades can all play a role in improving the results of Exploration and Harvest.

The fastest way is to exploit Rumors in the Wild Zones.

[Deleted]

My warrior is over 200% my level. I jut tried exploring to see myself how much warrior/strength plays. It'll help for avoiding HP loss, but no matter what your skills are you're alwayes going to get wounded sometimes for explore/harvest, no matter what. The explorer professioni going to help a lot for preventing wounds (for exploring, not harvesting).

I actually made a super post about wilderness, but I can't find it. If only someone had the skills to find where the post was *cough* cory *cough* *cough*

[Cory Trese]

Hahaha, sorry, I'll leave the exercise of digging up old forum posts to other people who aren't trying to code two new games and simultaneously support 3 existing ones.