n00b Explorer, excessive crew deaths

[jayhoo]

i've been playing Elite about 20 hours, currently lvl 9, 150+ exp in Demanding, Trade Permits in hand for all six Houses and Syndicates, first rank Military in about half of them. exploring has always been hard on the crew -- they're usually mostly dead by the time the hold is full of goodies -- but recently the aliens have started to show up and the crew is taking a hell of a beating. the death rate is so high that i'm barely able to do two or three explores before i have to head back to the Spice Halls to Recruit. even that's not going particularly well so i'm not really getting much explore time in.

i've seen a few Explorer guides that have been helpful in a general way, but haven't seen a consolidated "these are the ways to Explore smarter" type of list.

fwiw my skill stats are 14-15-2-5-11-1-6, physical stats are 9-14-15-9. we've got a nice new Javat Cutter in fine repair and about 300 grand in cash. crew is "turning fanatical".

i know that some level of casualties are inevitable -- otherwise everyone would be doing it -- but i'm really getting my arse kicked and very much want to minimize crew deaths.

suggestions?  links of key interest?

[Deleted]

Your stats are too spread out. Investing all XP in a few skills/attributes will increase your points more in those skills/attributes. I'd focus all my XP into Explorer, Stealth and Strength. The stealth will give you an advantage in long-range combat. Don't worry about Pilot after 9. Don't worry about Tactics (at all). Also, get an exo-scout and stack up on records if you can. Lastly, it can also depend on the planet. A high danger rating will cause lots of death and failure. Exploring the same planet over and over will cause lots of death and failure. Exploring a planet that you explored over and over again in the past will cause lots of death and failure. Alien rumors, horrible droughts an other negative wilderness rumors will cause lots of death and failure.

Hope this helps =)

[jayhoo]

thank you! i believe it did help

i've restarted with a new cap'n, 3rd lvl now and i already have over a half million credits and combined rep in three houses of 500+ (0 everywhere else). of course i was lucky to be able to exploit a three-way Trade Alliance and unusually good Explore pickin's on Kalflange Outpost (-8,-3) but i think that maxing Explore skill early, getting the Scout Officer and grabbing the Exo Crawler asap has helped enormously. next step is to pack on the Records to see what that does for us.

so yes, thanks again. finally feel like i've got some grasp of how to do this Explorer thing properly.

[phantombudgie]

Also, avoid my mistake of sending out too many crew at once. I got confused by the standard text after crew loss saying "my team was too small!" I ended up with a 300 crew ship and sent them all out at once, Cory was horrified when I said what I was doing! Keep explorer less than (explorer + intimidate) as others of far more wisdom than I have said is a good idea.

[Deleted]

Apr 3, 2014 12:14:29 GMT -5 phantombudgie said:

Also, avoid my mistake of sending out too many crew at once. I got confused by the standard text after crew loss saying "my team was too small!" I ended up with a 300 crew ship and sent them all out at once, Cory was horrified when I said what I was doing! Keep explorer less than (explorer + intimidate) as others of far more wisdom than I have said is a good idea.

Two things:
1. Intimidate plays a minor role in Explore, MUCH less than explorer skill
2. Crew does not need to be less than Explorer+Intimidate, but at the same time you shouldn't send all 300 crew at once either

[Gambit]

In my experience each planet has a magic number. For example...on one planet I explore, exactly 22 is the right number of crew...so even if I have an accident "0 crew have been killed". If I send more or less I take losses. But If I send exactly 22 I dont take any losses consistently. Ive tested this. Granted there are a lot of factors...but experiment a little bit and you will find an optimal number to explore with for each planet with minimal losses.