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Exploration

The galaxy is a strange and wonderful place, full of adventure, danger, and more importantly, loot. Exploration is your way to find relics of the past and technologies for the future, but be warned, with great treasure comes equal or greater dangers to go along with it, no great bounty is unguarded in these strange stars.

Surveying

The first step to the bounty of the OPF, you need to know where the loot is to go and claim it, after all. Surveying takes 1 Year, 1 R&D Token, and 1 Ship with the SCIENCE trait to perform. Surveying will usually give you a piece of OPF loot, something left behind in a system that you can pick up, and will rarely give a Point Of Interest, hidden parts of the galaxy that have to be explored and conquered to be claimed. Surveying will also often generate a dilemma which may cause damage to your ships or put some other kind of roadblock in your path, you should expect to see one in about half of your surveys. Only a polity who has surveyed a node can explore points of interest within it, any polity other than them will have to either survey the node themselves, get information on the node through espionage, or get the information directly from a polity who has surveyed it, even if they would otherwise know the location of the points of interest through OOC means they are required to survey the node first to perform an Expedition. Once a polity surveys a node, they cannot survey the same node for 5 years, and non-roamer polities can never survey their capital node, as it has been so thoroughly explored during their development as to offer up no new secrets. Any rewards from surveying are handled like Point Of Interest rewards, please see that section for more information.

Survey Preperations

Polites may spend an additional R&D token or $1000 to gain a +1 to their roll on the survey rewards table, gaining a maximum of +2 for spending an additional R&D token and $1000. Additionally, Polities may spend $ and tokens in the same manner as gaining additional rewards to gain a bonus to their dilemma roll. Polities with the Science! Dominant Ethos gains the $ bonus for both of these effects for free, gaining an automatic +1 to both survey loot and danger rolls.

Surveying In Plot Systems

Some systems are just so prolific or mysterious as to be the perfect breeding grounds for loot and adventure, in FTA3 those are the Plot Systems. Plot Systems themselves are defined elsewhere (Blue-Ringed Systems on the map), but all loot rolls from a survey attempt in a Plot System get a +5 Modifier to their roll, meaning you will generate much rarer loot from surveying in these systems. In addition, there is a consistent source of loot and mystery flowing into these systems, so they are exempt from the normal 5-year cooldown on Surveying. However, due to their nature, certain Plot Nodes cannot generate Landmarks from surveying, and any POI in them does not generate Digsites or Landmarks (Equivalent Alternate Rewards will be given instead). POI and Surveys in Plot Systems are also notably more dangerous than other places, so buyer beware, that anomaly may contain more than you had bargained for...

Surveying, As A Weapon

Sometimes the best way to get something done is to let someone else handle it, in this case, someone else is the eldritch monstrosity you just released upon your opponent. As with normal surveying, it cannot be done in any players capital prime, and cannot be done within the same node within 5 years of your last survey attempt. Unlike normal surveying, weaponized surveying does not produce loot, and instead rolls a guaranteed dilemma, which your surveying craft can attempt to unleash upon your unsuspecting foe.

Expeditions

Now that you know where your loot is, what's left is to go and claim it! Expeditions are significantly more involved than Surveying, first, you need to know which Point of Interest you're going after and who you are sending. Each point of interest will have a basic set of requirements and conditions, such as “1 Ship, 2 Ground Battalions, Void Specialist Only” which are the bare minimum for the expedition to work at all, though particularly for higher difficulty Points of Interest the bare minimum will likely be no better than a scouting report on what exactly is inside, expect to need to send more on anything that isn't the easiest Expedition.

Expeditions are treated as any other military deployment so do not require a token to perform, however, unlike normal deployments, they are variable in timeframe and may disallow you from disengaging even at the cost of a token, as your forces get caught in a quantum trap or behind a steel blast door and cannot retreat. Exhausted Units cannot be refreshed with reinforcements until the end of the Expedition unless a MASH unit is assigned, in which case they get to refresh 3 Battalion at the end of each quarter per unexhausted Battalion with MASH.

On top of the bare minimum, there are also “Additional Reward” thresholds for each Point Of Interest, these are usually not required to complete the mission, you can simply brute force it with numbers, but having the right type of unit can be greatly conducive to getting better loot out of it. These thresholds are kept secret by the mods, but should be able to be inferred from the description of the Point Of Interest, such as a Gas Giant Megastructure benefiting from your ships having the Aquatic trait.

Each polity can only explore each Point Of Interest with one team at any given time, though multiple polities can explore the same Point Of Interest. Be warned though, it's unlikely unaligned polities flying different flags are going to get along well when raiding a tomb... Point Of Interest Capacity Each Point Of Interest has a capacity for how many individuals can be involved before they start taking stacking penalties to combat effectiveness and dilemma difficulty. There is only so much space in the ancient Tomb, after all, packing it full of men to try and capture it is going to make sure that none of them are particularly good at their jobs, and take far more casualties from traps and enemy forces. This is measured in terms of Battalions that are allowed to enter. Ships count as their weight in battalions for filling capacity, ships with Expeditionary count as half their weight instead.

Troops and Ships without the SCIENCE! Trait can be assigned to Expeditions to act as added muscle for your SCIENCE! Units, however, units without the SCIENCE! Trait never count for determining if you meet the Basic or Additional Rewards thresholds, so they are purely for combat resolution purposes. Troops and Ships without the SCIENCE! Trait still count against the Capacity of the Point Of Interest.

This Belongs in a Museum

Points of interest themselves never count as a landmark for the purposes of colonization, but some of them can decay into digsite landmarks or generate other landmarks, and these can be used to make territory.

Expedition Supply Costs

On top of any combat supply burn that may happen due to encounters within the Point Of Interest, Exploring a Point Of Interest requires ongoing supplies to maintain, Food, Ammunition and Fuel for mobile generators, among other things, are necessities to ensure that the Expedition is a success. Each involved Battalion burns 1 Supply Year, and Each Ship burns its weight in supply each year, both of these are modified by distance from the supply point as normal, including modifiers from Expeditionary and Long Legs, except that they count as 1 jump further from any points of supply (this means that exploring in your territory will still cost supply as if you were 1 jump away). Example: John has 6 Battalions and 1 Heavy Cruiser 3 Jumps from his territory to explore a Point Of Interest. He has a total of 6 Base Supply consumption from his Battalions, and 16 from his heavy cruiser. This is then modified by distance and long legs, so his Battalions count as being 4 jumps from supply and his Heavy Cruiser counts as being 3.Jumps, giving him a final yearly total of 24 Supply for his battalions, and 48 for his heavy cruiser.

Dilemmas

Finally, before you can claim your reward, there's going to be a Dilemma you have to solve, potentially multiple. These usually come in the form of enemies or traps you have to get past to get at your loot, and will often come throughout the year in the form of Expedition events that you will have to give orders for and may give you piecemeal loot that are usable immediately, as well as loot that is in escrow until the Expedition is finished. Occasionally a Point of Interest, instead of simply keeping the Capstone Dilemma contained within the Expedition mission, will unleash the Dilemma onto your empire as a whole, in this case you often (but not always) get your loot immediately without engaging the Dilemma, but have to deal with the problem on a national level (looking through old ruins can be an effective way to sabotage your opponents, if you sneak into their territory to do it).

Point Of Interest Rewards

There are lots of rewards one can get for exploring a POI, from Landmarks, to Fold Drives, even Entire ships, but inevitably, they will be yours, the only question left... how the heck do i get this home!?

Anything you obtain from a Point Of Interest or Surveying spawns in the node that POI/Survey was in. These rewards need to be transported back home before they can be properly used or installed, except for landmarks, which always spawn in place and cannot be moved under normal circumstances. Ground Units and Ships can be either spawned in the node they were obtained in or transported back home piecemeal, in which case they have generic freighters which will transport them back as if they were a ground unit outside of a landing force module; any non-ground or ship rewards are always transported back in this way. These generic freighters can be interdicted or raided as normal, and usually require an escort, unless you want pirates to be getting your loot instead of you.

These generic freighters can traverse out of any line, even unstable ones, but will not traverse an unstable line unless it has to. These freighters always make the most direct route for your capital, stepping around unstable lines where reasonable (if it would add more than 6 nodes to your journey to avoid it, you may traverse the unstable line). They otherwise follow normal strategic movement rules.

Point Of Interest Longevity

Each Point Of Interest usually sticks around after you explore it for the first time, and while subsequent Expeditions often give less impressive loot than the first time, they're still a stable source of OPF gubbins and Supertech. That is, of course, until they are depleted. Each Point Of Interest has an amount of successful runs that take place within it until it decays into a Dig Site Landmark, though certain Points Of Interest do not generate a Dig Site. The Dig Site Landmark generates Federation Artifacts, minor trinkets and pieces of high OPF tech that while not particularly useful or valuable on their own, can be combined for interesting effects, see OPF Preparations for more details.

Delays

Certain Expedition events or preparations (detailed later) cause Delays. Delays add additional time to finish the Expedition that do not generate Dilemmas for the players.This is time spent either outside the Point Of Interest or within a rest area of the Dungeon waiting for some sort of blockage to be cleared, or some type of external support. Usually Delays are applied in a block, and progress on the Expedition proper cannot be continued until the Delay is completed; exceptions to this will have a special note attached detailing how the delay is applied.

Expedition Preparation

Expedition preparation is a bit more involved than survey preparation, preparing for Expedition is done during the planning phase of an Expedition when making your initial post to the GMs and is completely optional. Preparation involves multiple options with varying requirements and costs listed below, the Science! Ethos ability does not negate the $ cost of Epedition

Only Troops and Ships with the SCIENCE! Trait that are part of the Expedition attempt count towards fulfilling requirements for Preparations. If a preparation would be made impossible by the restrictions of a Point Of Interest (such as disallowing the use of Ships) that preparation may not be used.

Each Expedition attempt may only have 2 Preparation Options applied to it, and each option can only be applied once. (Note: Preparations can be re-flavoured for Story Posts however the player likes, but putting a name and theme to each effect makes them much more legible to use)

Preparation Options

Slow and Steady Approach

“Slow and Steady Wins the Race, or at least gets out of the race alive. May not be the most glorious approach, but it definitely makes things easier.”
Requirements: Cannot be Combined With Reckless Approach.
Cost: None
Effect: +100% to Expedition Duration as a Delay. You gain a +3 to all rolls on the Dilemma table.
Note: This will not be applied in a block like most Delays, and instead will mean every other Quarter is a Delay, so you generate Expedition events at half the rate.

Reckless Approach

“Sometimes the best approach is just to barrel through things as fast as possible, sure, you get hurt more, but you also get glory and gold even faster.”
Requirements: Cannot be Combined With Slow And Steady Approach.
Cost: None
Effect: Halve The Expedition Duration, This means you will generate less Dilemmas overall, -3 Rolls on the Dilemma table, This makes Dilemmas more difficult.

Exit Strategy

“Always have a way out of every room you enter, and a way to kill everyone in it”
Requirement: None
Cost: 1 R&D Token
Effect: Negate Effects that would prevent you from retreating from an Expedition attempt.

Deep Penetrating Scan

“Huh, neat thing to know, the internal structure is made partially of Nanobots, so expect the place to shift around every once in a while.”
Requirements: A Ship with the STAG Module
Cost: $1000.
Effect: You can accept Delay on the Expedition, gaining a +1 to Loot Rolls for every 2 Quarters you Delay your Expedition, stacking up to +3 and 6 Quarters of Delay.

Forward Scouting

“You know, we ought to stop getting ourselves picked for scouting duty, we're always the first ones to get shot at, though we also get first pick of the loot, so maybe it's worth it.”
Requirement: 2 Battalions with the Fast Trait.
Cost: 1 R&D Token.
Effect: The first Expedition event that spawns enemy units you encounter is automatically negated (This cannot negate the Capstone Dilemma).

Sappers

“Tread carefully here, one wrong step and you will set off a Stasis trap, and it's your own ass thats gonna be here when the sun goes supernova.”
Requirement: 2 Battalions with the Engineers Trait.
Cost: 1 R&D Token.
Effect: The first Trap (or trap-like) Expedition event you encounter is automatically negated.

Enhanced Personal Scanners

“Man, this thing has all the bells and whistles, hell, it even goes through walls, the hell did command score this thing?”
Requirement: None
Cost: $1000
Effect: +1 To Loot Rolls, This makes Loot Better.

Autonomous Exploration Drones

“That's another drone offline in Sector 6, seems like we have company there, lets go around and see if we can avoid that particular confrontation.”
Requirement: None
Cost: $1000
Effect: +1 To Dilemma Rolls, this makes Dilemmas Easier.

OPF Preparations

A special subcategory of Preparation options, OPF Preparations are extremely powerful preparations that require the use of Federation Artifacts. Due to their powerful and expensive nature, each Expedition Attempt may only utilize 1 OPF Preparation. OPF preparations still count as one of the two preparations a nation may make for the Expedition attempt. (Note: The price of these may change once the game gets going, to preserve their balance.)

Omni-Passkey

“A devious little piece of work, this, it filters through every possible security key combination at an absurd rate, and manages to convince pretty much every autonomous defense system that they’re friendly. Sucks it burns itself out so quick, I would love one of these myself, but they're pretty much good for one run, and not much more.”
Requirement: None
Cost: 20 Federation Artifacts
Effect: Trap (or trap-like) Expedition events you encounter are automatically negated.

IFF Spoofer

“Makes you show up as friendly on pretty much every form of IFF the High Federation used, would be astounded by the potential military applications if it didn't require you to be facing an empire that died before our nation existed.”
Requirement: None
Cost: 20 Federation Artifacts
Effect: Any Expedition event you encounter that spawn enemy units are automatically negated (This cannot negate the Capstone Dilemma).

Dowsing Rod

“Okay, Okay, hear me out, I know I sound insane, but this thing actually works, it must have nanobots or something, but it seriously pulls towards any OPF tech. Im not full of shit, I swear”
Requirement: None
Cost: 30 Federation Artifacts
Effect: +3 To Loot Rolls, This makes Loot Better.

Netrunner Bot

“This little beauty will permanently attach to the network access port of pretty much any OPF facility, it can't quite crack down to root access, but it gives us broad authority to tip the scales in our favor.”
Requirement: None
Cost: 30 Federation Artifacts
Effect: +3 To Dilemma Rolls, this makes Dilemmas Easier.

FTA3 Exploration

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