Raid
Raids use marines to attack a colony directly for the purposes of plunder commodities, to disrupt facilities, to steal special items, or to send a message.
Raiding is a feature added in version 0.9.
Basics
The raid effectiveness is calculated as attacker strength / (attacker strength + defender strength), with a minimum divisor of 1. Higher raid effectiveness increases the loot acquired, industry disruption length and stability penalty from the raid.
Nearby patrol fleets allied to the target may attempt to block any raids, but only if they want to fight. Stations do not prevent raids on their own, but even a small fleet backed up by a station will block raids, and the Station contributes a significant multiplier to ground defenses.
After a successful raid you will not be able to use the targeted colony's market / bar / etc. for 60 in-game days even when trying to dock with the Transponder off. Any subsequent raid will increase that penalty additively (the penalty is always the same - irrespective of type of performed raid or its strength). Case in point - plan accordingly what kind of raiding you are performing where to reap the most benefits from your other activities.
A given target may only be raided once per day. Raiding a market repeatedly will increase its defender strength temporarily.
There is a chance to not lose any marines on the raid, if the attacker's strength is sufficiently high.
Raiding can cause the colony to lose 1 - 3 stability, based on the number of marine icons assigned (see below). If a colony or installation is plundered and raided enough, the stability impacts are likely to result in the colony decivilizing.
Plunder
Try to acquire valuables, such as commodities, blueprints, and other items
The player can designate targets to raid from the provided screen. Usually this will be commodities of some kind, but ship weapons, AI Cores, industry items, blueprints (if a Heavy Industry or Orbital Works is present) and some mission-specific targets are also sometimes available.
The player is provided a number of marine 'icons' (one for every 10% raid effectiveness) to allocate to different objectives. Assigning more marines to steal commodities will increase the number of commodities procured. Single-item targets such as AI cores, industry items and blueprints will require a specific number of icons to execute.
Leaving some icons unassigned will use those marines to conduct diversionary operations, reducing casualties; assigning them to a low-danger target can be more effective for this purpose.
The danger level is based on the raid objective and any commodity excesses or shortages present.
If your raid manages to cause deficit across some commodity or commodities - it will be visible as a "recent raid" condition on the relevant good(s) and will last precisely 90 days of in-game time.
Disrupt
Disrupt the operations of a specific industry or facility
Can only be executed if raid effectiveness is at least 40%.
Disruption duration has diminishing returns; you cannot disrupt a target industry for four years by conducting four raids that disrupt it for a year each.
Tips and strategies
The following section contains user-submitted suggestions, these may be inaccurate or outdated.
- Raid strength can be boosted with the Tactical Drills skill and by using ships with a Ground Support Package or Advanced Ground Support.
- Commodity rewards from raids are small (but can still be situationally worthwhile), unless the target has a surplus of the commodity, in which case large volumes can be looted.
- Stability factors into the colony's ground defence strength. Consider a tactical bombardment, other destabilizing actions or triggering shortages to reduce an otherwise overwhelmingly strong target.
- Piracy can reduce stability & cause shortages. Taking out Comm Relays is usually simple. Hitting any other allied colonies in the system can help other threats like pirates to build up & provide a handy distraction.
- Dedicated defensive ground facilities Ground Defences / Heavy Batteries provide a massive ground defence bonus, so consider disrupting these.
- While it is possible to raid without defeating the colony's station (if any), disabling it greatly reduces ground defense strength.
- You cannot raid the same target again for exactly one in-game day.
- Raiding the same target repeatedly quickly will generate a stacking Defender Preparedness defensive bonus. This is often minimal after one raid but will stack very high after multiple raids. It does decay with time.
- Raiding a target with many defense fleets with minimal reputation loss can be tricky; you will need a distraction such as an expedition against them. Sit near the target with Transponder on, wait for the distraction to lure all the defense fleets a reasonable distance away. Go Dark and hit the target. Immediately toggle transponder back on.
- Raiding a Spaceport is a good way to economically ruin the target market, potentially leading to its decivilization when combined with multiple other raids or bombardments.
Changelog
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