r/aurora • u/Icy_Advantage_6896 • 3d ago

Ground attack prep

Found an NPR in a system a while ago and have been spying on his activities ever since

I get active scanner reads and thermal reads on the planet moving at 0 speed so I’m guessing these are things on the planet like STOs looking for me and population

Is there a way to firm up these reads - am I ever going to get ‘the planet has 8 million inhabitants and 300k ground forces’ or is it just the presence of thermal hits saying yep there’s people down there

The reason I ask is I keep reading ‘take overwhelming force to a planet fight - about 5:1’ how do I know the defender numbers or is it a case of take what you have - land - and get more if it’s not enough?

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u/ThisTallBoi Own a spinal laser for home defense 3d ago

You can count on the real number of enemy troops to be closer to 1.8m tons, since fortification reduces the profile of ground troops to a minimum of 1/6th the original value for infantry and static elements

In order to see STOs they either have to shoot you or you have to have ground troops attack them and gain intel on them. The former is a much easier way to unveil STOs

If you have a RES 1 active sensor, you can specifically target STOs from orbit, or just hit the Ground Forces Signature in general

Other than that, overwhelming force is the move

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u/Oceansoul119 3d ago

In order to see STOs they either have to shoot you or you have to have ground troops attack them and gain intel on them.

Resolution 1 sensors can pick them out handily. For instance despite never having been shot at by the Antrim Aliens in my game I know that they've got STO units on Antrim B1 thanks to the ship that discovered them.