Deploy Espionage Drone
All Drones: [ external image ]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Overview:
With any ship equipped with:
Explorer Command Software
Special Command Software
and has the following equipment:
Analysis Drone.
Other associated requirements:
Headquarters
IMPORTANT you must first set-up your PHQ to be ready to accept station blueprints. See Constructing Stations above.
The ship can launch a drone (on menu in special commands interface menu) at a station in the same sector as the launching ship that will move to the "target" scanning it to then analyse and make schematic blueprints to be transfered to your HQ. However, if it loses scanning lock periodicaly it will cause anomolies in the scanning result causing potential errors, this usually happens when the distance goes beyond it's scanning range. On losing contact it will attempt to re-establish contact with the target station and continue scans. Once a successful scan of a station is completed the drone will attempt to fly back to the player HQ and transfer the schematic.
Only certain classes of station can be scanned (Equipment Dock, Trading Station and Factories) and it is limited to player orientated factories so certain types are currently not set as valid, also alien technology such as Xenon, Khaak and some others is not compatible for the scanning process.
The station must have a hull intergrity above 87% in order to get a reliable scan.
Messages will be relayed for any aborted scan commands due to restrictions. (Note: Plot stations cannot be scanned).
A
SINGLE scanning time is normally 6.4s but this is multiplied by 4 or 5 dependant on the type of station. But it takes multiple scans to complete an analysis. There are ways to reduce overall scanning periods on Espionage drones but I will let you discover those secrets yourself.
As blueprints are involved you obviously require a Headquarters to return them to, the drone will abort the launch without one.
As much as freindly/neutral stations may only be a simple challenge to these drones, dont expect the drones to last long in enemy territory.
Espionage drones can be viewed as "bothersome" to stations and especially moreso to races who require licences for scanning ability as a result any single scan attempt will now naturally incur a 1% chance of provoking a hostile reaction from the target station. This changes if sector ownerships and legal conditions are as follows (note this is dependant on the sector the drone is in at the time of the scan, not the target station):
Race - Bothersome %
Terran - 2%
ATF - 5%
Main Race without licence 10%
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
See
Analysis Drones for how to custom engineer them otherwise they can be bought.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Possible Lore/History/flavouring to follow)