Can someone explain to me how to scan data ports in settlements without being caught?

Agony_Aunt

Agony_Aunt
DøømHåmstër said:
As for power cells, restore missions provide them. See my edits above. The big T shaped tourist settlement with the power center by itself at one end sucks. It only has one. You want the settlement layout with all the hab buildings lining a central boulevard. It has 8-ish if I remember right.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Yeah, i've been reading about that. Need to find one. Ideally an anarchy one for when i inevitably mess up.

And yeah, i suppose i could just find a faction i don't care about and take a restore mission then dump it.
 

DøømHåmstër

DøømHåmstër
Agony_Aunt said:
Thanks. Yeah, i've been reading about that. Need to find one. Ideally an anarchy one for when i inevitably mess up.

And yeah, i suppose i could just find a faction i don't care about and take a restore mission then dump it.
Click to expand...
Or just look for a mission that gives them as a reward. You can also find them at the 'distress beacon' sites which spawn either an eagle or a sidey with two power cell drawers each with a somewhat lowish chance of having a full power cell in it. Those sites spawn frequently with the salvage missions that have you recover goods (not assets). That is actually my favorite way of getting power cells fast but requires having an SRV and relogging but, once you are in the groove, you can rack up 30-40 power cells per hour (YMMV...RNG).
 

Frop

Frop
Like people said, it depends on the settlement layout, but I'd say my default approach to any nefarious wrongdoings would be:
  • Buy e-breaches from an anarchy controlled station and put one in your inventory when you disembark;
  • Make your way to the power center while tagging nearby guards;
  • Use the e-breach on the quietest entry to the power center;
  • Scan one of the usually three civilians inside to obtain easy level 3 security clearance;
  • Use the nearby panel to identify the settlement alarm panel and/or any other objectives;
  • Turn off the alarm with hopefully as little casualties as possible.
Also, to keep the amount of bounties and notoriety as low as possible, try to scan people before unconsciousnessing them (just whip around behind them while crouched).
 

Brannor

B
Agony_Aunt said:
Looking for opinion polls, found many threads on best places and various ways of doing them from going full Rambo to stealthily. Rambo mode i'm not up to. However, those who do it stealthily seem to be light on detail how they do it, beyond don't get spotted.
Click to expand...
Pretty much any surface settlement mission where what you are doing would upset the locals is handled in the same fashion.

I found surface missions incredibly difficult before learning this as they seemed almost impossible (or to take WAY to long in the few cases where I succeeded.)

1) Local the 'Settlement Alarms' panel
2) Select it to disable the alarm
3) Engage in whatever you were supposed to do there

Some important points:
1) Selecting the 'Settlement Alarms' panel requires Level 2 authorization. You get that by illegally scanning it from one of the locals. Illegal scanning (i.e. hitting R while having the scanner out to put it in clone scan mode) is, well, illegal. So make sure no one is looking at you when you are doing it (i.e. be roughly behind the target with them facing away and make sure no one else nearby is looking in your direction.) You can scan through windows if the target is close enough, but be careful since NPCs typically are looking out the window and have pretty good peripheral vision (if they see you with the scanner in cloning mode, they instantly go hostile and raise the alarm.)
2) Once you have Level 2 authorization, you can use a nearby terminal to look at facility details to find (and mark on your HUD) where there alarm panel is located. This is really helpful in lower security installations since they can be in some odd places.

Once the alarm is disabled, the settlement is pretty much yours. The automated defenses will no longer activate (because the alarm isn't raised), and hostile NPCs don't 'share' data to locate you, so can basically run and hide from them and not have the whole base gunning for you. Also, some missions require that the settlement alarm not be raised. Once it's disabled, it can't be raised, so that mission objective can not be failed after that point.


There's a whole bunch of other nuanced 'stuff' that can impact how you do the mission (a few examples below), but you always want to turn the alarm off as soon as possible.

  • e-breaches (what they can be used on, when its worth it)
  • when to use the Maverick suit plasma cutter and charge tool (R) to pop a secured door open vs use a cloned authorization
  • when to disable the authorization scanners on the doors vs. leave them turned on
  • when to stealth kill with the charge tool (R)
  • when you can get away with fast drawing and 'stealth' killing someone in the face with the charge tool (R)
  • how to 'contain' a situation if you're spotted (i.e. an NPC goes hostile before the alarm is disabled) (hint: shoot them)

Oh, one more tip. Don't be afraid to run. To my knowledge, there isn't any ground mission you will fail by leaving. If things go sideways (and sooner or later they will), don't be a hero and try to salvage the situation. Just run back to your ship, take off and low wake away, swing back to the settlement and land again. The locals have really short memories so low waking out and coming back resets everything (note: any bounties you picked up will still be with you, so if you're wanted you'll want to give the guards a wide berth to avoid scans.)
 
Last edited:

hems303

hems303
TScal12 said:
Disable the settlement alarm first as to not trigger the illegal download alarms
Click to expand...
Yes...but... there are several (?couple of) settlements where you can disable the Settlement Alarms and THEN go to HAB building/s and downloading anything sets off the supposedly previously disabled alarms...? Bug or intended (for some reason)????????????:unsure:
 
Last edited:

DøømHåmstër

DøømHåmstër
hems303 said:
Yes...but... there are several (?couple of) settlements where you can disable the Settlement Alarms and THEN go to HAB building/s and downloading anything sets off the supposedly previously disabled alarms...? Bug or intended (for some reason)????????????:unsure:
Click to expand...
It is a bug. The alarms in that situation don't actually alert anyone in my experience.
 

gooddoc

gooddoc
Im finding my OP's (which I don't need now) SCP's & SDP's from just wandering around from Civil Unrest System to Civil Unrest System, if also an Anarchy, the better. These are the types whose Stations generate Power Restore Missions, providing you with a Power Regulator.
I'll usually try three or four Missions, seeing what the data ports throw up, if they're chucking out the above, then I'll stay longer, if not I'll move to the next Civil Unrest System.
I'm in no real rush to get them, so just amble along, slowly upgrading as I go:cool:
 

Agony_Aunt

Agony_Aunt
Just want to say thanks to everyone who gave advice. While i still don't have any opinion polls i've sucessfully done my first raid. It was on a disabled base, but that's fine. It takes longer because you have to mess around with power (or charge lots of ports? - didn't try) but i "borrowed" a power regulator from a mission giver and got a base with 6 data ports.

So ill try grinding this out for a while, and if power is restored, ill practice doing it with an inihabited base as well.

Maybe it won't take me an eternity to get the required amount...
 

Frop

Frop
Agony_Aunt said:
Oh, has anyone noticed a difference between high and low security in terms of data gained?
Click to expand...
I once read a theory here that High Security settlements would yield "better" loot. It does sometimes feel like that when you take something like Tech into account, Low Security has a lot of (encrypted) chips and High Security has more straight up Titanium/Tungsten/Weapon Components and all that. However, with the massive loot tables that just might be more RNG than anything. Especially since you can't trade data and have no idea of their relative values (if any), it would take a lot of record keeping and a lot of looting to even try to determine if there's some truth to that theory.
 

Factabulous

Factabulous
Agony_Aunt said:
Oh, has anyone noticed a difference between high and low security in terms of data gained?
Click to expand...
No - though that's a difficult one to track as the settlement security level isn't recorded in the journals AFAIK. The only thing that I've seen that does correlate is system government which seems to relate to some types of data (well, obviously Smear Campaigns which are only Anarchies). Not seen anything else interesting (other than Port type). More https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/odyssey-engineer-unlocks-and-the-bgs.587911/
 

Frop

Frop
Factabulous said:
No - though that's a difficult one to track as the settlement security level isn't recorded in the journals AFAIK. The only thing that I've seen that does correlate is system government which seems to relate to some types of data (well, obviously Smear Campaigns which are only Anarchies). Not seen anything else interesting (other than Port type). More https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/odyssey-engineer-unlocks-and-the-bgs.587911/
Click to expand...
A bit off topic, but do you use any tools to analyse the journals and if so, which one would you recommend? I'm BGSing a bit more and I have this weird feeling that on-foot Influence rewards (with the three stripes) don't yield as much influence as just selecting the cash or material reward, but they're just a mess to navigate through with a regular editor (for instance can't believe the entire inventory is being repeated on each and every action).
 

Vekt Ey'doom

Vekt Ey'doom
Learning the settlement layouts is key to efficient farming, and to be honest, this only comes with practice.


You'll have to disable the security, as so many have already pointed out. If you're going for speed, and don't care about RP or the ramifications of butchering an entire settlement, get your biggest guns, and just wipe everyone out. However, it is 100% possible to do clean infil and exfil action on any of these bases (Outside of rare pathfinding bugs that might lock an NPC in a bad place) with no bloodshed. It just takes a bit longer. The hardest buildings to get in and out clean are the Reactor rooms which can have three NPCs inside.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom