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[DDwarrirofire]

I'm currently building a system with 3 colonies (4 when I lvl up again) and just claimed the relays the independents so kindly built for me.  When doing so I noticed I can put a sniffer on them as well.


Is their any point really?  I'm 8-10 light years from the nearest core world.

[geminitiger]

Comm sniffers are a hack to get the bonus in a hostile system, not your own, as I understand it.

[DDwarrirofire]

Comm sniffers are a hack to get the bonus in a hostile system, not your own, as I understand it.

Not the local bonus, the information bonus so to speak.

Hacks are just temporary and don't offend the faction using the equipment.  Sniffers on the other hand allow you to receive information (frankly I'm not sure about the specifics) over a long distance and you can have several but the more you have the more likely you're to lose one and anger the faction it belonged to.

[wei270]

i never seem any trade requests in my own system, after all that is why you put them there right? to plan for multiple trade mission in one trip

[Daynen]

The value of a comm sniffer depends on the number of colonies in a system and their needs.  In a safe, remote system you've colonized and well supplied, they probably won't need much.  In a high traffic system with colonies embroiled in conflict, raids and economic upheaval, the missions just never seem to stop.  Find a multi-faction system with a high number of planets and drop a sniffer there instead.

Of course, you could simply make some enemies and neglect your colonies' defenses just a little...I'll bet that'd generate some missions.

[bobucles]

Is there any way to tell if a sniffer picked out a mission or does it appear as a random spawn with the rest?

[DDwarrirofire]

Is there any way to tell if a sniffer picked out a mission or does it appear as a random spawn with the rest?

As I understand it,  it just passes information much faster.   Put it in a system with multiple factions or one you're focused on and it just seems to work in the background

[Aereto]

Sniffers turn delayed information into realtime information for systems that have sniffers installed. Most importantly, sniffers are used to get the most updated intel on that system while within range of any comm relay, which makes sure that you get missions or system-wide event updates right as they happen.

I use only one of them at a time, focusing on factions that I can improve standings on, but mindful that procurement missions still may provoke major factions that are currently at war with one another, as they are treated as trade events.

[wei270]

Is there any way to tell if a sniffer picked out a mission or does it appear as a random spawn with the rest?

if you have your sniffer on jangala relay for example, you can get mission from any planet in that system, from anywhere in the universe as long as you are near a another relay.

this is how you get exploration mission while on an exploration.

if you don;t have sniffer, you have to be in certain range from the jangala system to get the mission and the further you are from jangala the later you will receive the mission.

[01d55]

To clarify the role of comm buoys and sniffers

By default, missions are posted not by factions generally but the governing authority of specific colonies, and you only hear about missions posted by colonies that you are close to. A comm sniffer will allow you to discover missions posted in that system from any relay. A single sniffer will never be detected, multiple sniffers leads to a risk that one will be removed at random. When that happened I didn't notice a reputation hit, but it's possible that comm was under pirate raider control when it was caught.

In my current save I put a sniffer on one of the two worlds with a Luddic Path colony and used the exploration missions to get non-hostile with the Path, and then built colonies in a system with two nice prospects and a Pather base. The Pather fleets guarding that base kill Hegemony AI inspections and most expeditions for me. (The Luddic Church doesn't like my free port and I have to deal with those myself.)

(Note: in fact I was not totally out of hostilities with the path when I first established a colony, and that made a lot of problems for me because it drove me to start on the high hazard class 4 instead of the 125% that their base is orbiting. But now that things are established the Pathers are well worth the trade disruptions they occasionally cause.)

[DDwarrirofire]

That's a creative set up.  I just found a system with 8+ planets and fortified the place.

[NephilimNexus]

I usually do because whenever pirate raiders show up the first thing they do is try to steal all my satellites.  Having a sniffer installed ahead of this means that I don't lose their bonus when this happens.

[Aereto]

That's a creative set up.  I just found a system with 8+ planets and fortified the place.

I have found similar systems like those, but I settled for more scattered colonies to act as resupply points for my expeditions. Sometimes their high hazard rating is not worth colonizing due to upkeep outpacing exports and income.