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Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Simulator Enhancements (03/13/24)

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Author Topic: How are you actually supposed to do 'Stealth' missions?  (Read 7820 times)

Sutopia

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Re: How are you actually supposed to do 'Stealth' missions?
« Reply #15 on: April 15, 2021, 05:24:53 PM »

i agree these missions are a little too hard - even with minimal signature a patrol sitting in orbit will make things impossible. Patience can be rewarded though - patrols will cycle around and a lot of the vanilla systems have great piles of helpful ring systems and such near targets that you can use to lurk nearby.

I expect the 'intended' way of doing these missions is to sabotage the comm relays etc and get the patrols to investigate while you sneak in..

Mostly though just don't take these missions against military bases >_>
I did exactly that, bombed the sensor array for them to investigate while I sneak. Kills two birds with one stone.

But yeah, there should be hint in mission dialogue or when you ask for help from a NPC.
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KDR_11k

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Re: How are you actually supposed to do 'Stealth' missions?
« Reply #16 on: April 16, 2021, 02:01:14 AM »

single phase ship (lowest profile signature). 

Multiple large phase ships have a lower signature since they all have a signature of 0 and the only relevant part is how much they can reduce your base signature of 300 with their bonus.
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Rain

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Re: How are you actually supposed to do 'Stealth' missions?
« Reply #17 on: April 16, 2021, 02:43:50 AM »

General spy-sat deployment (and to some extent smuggling) missions I've only been accepting when the objective is around a planet I know has some useful terrain to hide in around. After that, going dark and opportunistically picking the right time has overall worked for me; that said, it probably has cost me more in travel and supplies waiting for the right time than it paid when my fleets got a bit larger and I used the missions mostly as a means to increase reputation with the contact to figure out how/if that impacts the missions they give. Otherwise I've generally also found them more trouble (and time) than they're worth.

As for the Atzlan thing, I've completed it (sneaky like) three times over in different ways on my three characters so far:

1) I went in with a single phase frigate, but as KDR_11k remarks above I've since learned how the reduction in fleet profile actually works on phase ships; I'd never even read the phase coil hull mod thing and seen there's a reduction in profile fleet-wide for having that before very recently, since I used to dismiss phase ships out of hand as too expensive and too quick to run out of PPT in battle.
2) Pirates were raiding the system and the patrol flew off to fight some right as I was coming on up. Lucky freebie.
3) I simply patiently waited for just the right time in how the patrols were moving. A bit tedious, but it worked.

In all cases I had the T1 sensors skill, too, which obviously helped.
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Locklave

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Re: How are you actually supposed to do 'Stealth' missions?
« Reply #18 on: April 16, 2021, 03:52:52 AM »

That is one of the biggest annoyance with the new contact missions system - the reward have little common with the risk or force/cost needed to fulfil them.

Indeed. I got a mission to not be seen and put something in orbit for about 50k. It was an empty system right next to the core. Took like 3 minutes including travel time.

The degree of difficulty isn't being taken into account.

single phase ship (lowest profile signature). 

Multiple large phase ships have a lower signature since they all have a signature of 0 and the only relevant part is how much they can reduce your base signature of 300 with their bonus.

Alex said in another thread the numbers can actually go negative from phase ships, it doesn't show for some reason I can't remember. He said this last week I believe.
« Last Edit: April 16, 2021, 03:55:08 AM by Locklave »
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