Patrolling

Patrolling is one of the major activities that a captain can do in orbit. Of the three primary orbital operations, patrolling is the only activity that is regarded as helpful or beneficial to the zone and its faction below. The text of the Patrol screen will tell you as much. Essentially you are helping to keep the system free of pirates, smugglers and other unwanted types. Patrolling may help you to gain reputation with system's faction owner, making it one of the few ways to do that when the Captain lacks contacts within that faction or trading talents which might otherwise help them. Reputation gain can be most pronounced when that faction is in a conflict as the captain may draw the participate in a conflict card, which, if selected, will change the conflict score in the zone owner's favor and give more significant rep to the captain. Missions may also require that a Captain perform patrolling actions. In this case, they will need to patrol until hitting a "Mission Success" card. Many patrolling cards result in a ship contact with a hostile ship and the Spacer who patrols should be prepared to engage in ship-to-ship combat.

### Strategy

Like other operations, becoming great at Patrolling will require a dedicated build. Increasing ship Command, Navigation and Tactics Skill Pools should be a key priority. Captains who focus on Patrolling will also need to invest in Talents that will help them determine the results of the card game. Most of these are provided by Military Officer and Zealot crew members, though Gunner, Diplomat and Crew Dog also have single Talents that can help. In the early game, it is best to Patrol often, checking the hand that is dealt at nearly every zone that is visited and only playing those hands that give a reasonable chance of success versus possible negative outcomes. As a Captain's crew and ship develop they will be able to engage in more extended Patrolling activities over the planet of their choice.

### The Card Game

The results of patrolling are determined by a card mini-game. The Captain will draw 5 cards which are determine by risk and reward factors. He or she may then have the opportunity to modify their draw through the use of crew talents which allow them to redraw, remove or improve a card. Then one card will randomly be selected from the remaining cards providing either a negative, positive or neutral result. If a negative result is drawn it is possible that its results may be avoided by a test of certain captain and ship skills. All patrolling actions consume time and fuel.

## Card Game Mechanics/Logic

Card games are based on a deck of cards. Based on the Risk Factors and Reward Factors, positive and negative cards are used to create the deck. Risk and Reward Factors are also used to calculate the chance of Common, Good and Rare positive cards and Risk Factors calculate the Low, Medium and Max Risk changes. These are used to then determine which positive and negative cards are in the deck. For example, areas with higher Common Rewards will feature more +1 and +2 cards, while areas with high Max Risks will feature more -5 cards. Once the hand is shuffled and dealt, 5 cards are shown and the chance to draw any one of those five cards is 20% (random card selection). Upon completion of the hand and after the results of the final card are handled, the deck is reshuffled and 5 new cards are dealt.

Mission steps that require a successful card draw start at the normal base 20% chance of selection. However, after each unsuccessful draw, the chance increases by 2%. Without talents modifying the odds, you can expect to succeed at the mission step in 3 or fewer attempts most of the time, in 9 or fewer attempts almost all the time, and for a very unlucky few 41 attempts would be required. On the 41st draw, the chance of success is 100%.

## Secondary Talents for Patrolling

See Also: Patrolling Notes for some exploratory information on the impact of various statistics on the risks and rewards of patrolling.