The Expedition is a fleet mission where You can find resources, fleet or dark matter. On the other side they comes with a risk of getting involved into a fight with pirates or aliens. In the worst case the fleet can find a black hole, vanishing expedition completely.
Sending
To perform an expedition, the fleet must be sent to the 16th position of any solar system. It can be choosen from Fleet view or Galaxy view. The "Expedition" order has to be chosen from.
The Hold time setting doesn't have any effect on expedition mission.
Requirements
Expedition mission requires research of Astrophysics technology. The maximum number of expeditions that can be send at the same time is given by rounded root of the astrophysics stage:
| Astrophysics level | Number of expeditions |
|---|---|
| 1 - 3 | 1 |
| 4 - 8 | 2 |
| 9 - 15 | 3 |
| 16 - 24 | 4 |
| 25+ | 5 |
Possible events
Each event return depends on "Expedition points". It is a sum of each ship value (metal+crystal spend on them). The larger it is, the more raw materials or ships are found.
Expedition points formula:
Expedition points = (metal + crystal) * 5 / 1000 [for each ship]
Find resources: 32,5% chance
An expedition always finds only one type of resource. The frequency ratio is Metal:Crystal:Deuterium = 3:2:1. Size of raw material finds correspond to ratio 6:3:2.
Dice roll k100 draws what happens. In 89% there will be normal size of resources found, 10% large and 1% very large amount.
The maximum amount of resources found depends on how many points place 1 in the universe has:
- <100k points: up to 2400 Expedition Points
- <1kk points: up to 6000 Expedition Points
- <5kk points: up to 9000 Expedition Points
- <25kk points: up to 12000 Expedition Points
- <50kk points: up to 15000 Expedition Points
- <75kk points: up to 18000 Expedition Points
- <100kk points: up to 21000 Expedition Points
- over 100kk points: up to 25000 Expedition Points
Maximum amount of resources found:
Resources found = min(dice k100 * max(min(Expedition Points, Max Expedition Points), 200), Fleet Capacity)
Find abandoned ships: 22% chance
Which ships can be found depends on the composition of the fleet or on the "heaviest" ship, which usually requires the highest technologies. Excluded are colony ships, recyclers and death stars, with which nothing can be found alone, as they can not be found on an expedition either. All other ships can find anything that is one level "heavier" than the corresponding ship itself.
Findable ships
| Existing ship below | EP | SC | LF | LC | HF | Cr | BS | BC | Bo | De |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Recycler | ||||||||||
| Colony ship | ||||||||||
| Death Star | ||||||||||
| Espionage probe | X | X | ||||||||
| Small Cargo | X | X | X | |||||||
| Little Fighter | X | X | X | X | ||||||
| Largo Cargo | X | X | X | X | X | |||||
| Heavy Fighter | X | X | X | X | X | X | ||||
| Cruiser | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | |||
| Battleship | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | ||
| Battlecruiser | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | |
| Bomber | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| Destroyer | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |
Dice roll k100 draws what happens. In 89% there will be normal size of fleet found, 10% large and 1% very large amount.
The maximum amount of ships found depends on how many points place 1 in the universe has:
- <100k points: up to 1250 Expedition Points
- <1kk points: up to 3000 Expedition Points
- <5kk points: up to 4500 Expedition Points
- <25kk points: up to 6000 Expedition Points
- <50kk points: up to 7500 Expedition Points
- <75kk points: up to 9000 Expedition Points
- <100kk points: up to 10500 Expedition Points
- over 100kk points: up to 12500 Expedition Points
Maximum amount of ships found:
Ships total value found = dice k100 * min(Expedition Points, Max Expedition Points)
Find dark matter: 9% chance
Each expedition fleet has a chance to find dark matter. Neither fleet capacity or Expedition Points have any influence on the fund of dark matter.
Dice roll k100 draws what happens. In 89% there will be normal size of dark matter found, 10% large and 1% very large amount.
- normal size: 100 - 300 dark matter
- large size: 301 - 600 dark matter
- very large: 601 and more dark matter
The fleet delays or return earlier: 9% chance
Flight time changes are particularly disturbing that the fleets come back to unpredictable times. Therefore, it makes sense for many players to have sufficient for the expedition fleet defense so that is not vulnerable in case of doubt. 3/4 of all flight time changes are delays.
Encounter pirate or alien ships: 8,4% chance
Not all encounters in the unexplored areas are peaceful and so it comes to fighting.
- pirate attacks are as probable as aliens
- pirates always have technologies that are 3 levels lower than their own
- aliens always have technologies that are 3 levels higher than their own
Dice roll k100 draws what happens. In 89% there will be normal size of enemy fleet, 10% large and 1% very large foes.
Black hole: 0,3% chance
Sometimes fleet encounter a black hole and is destroyed completely. This is the most pesimistic scenario commander can meet. All ships vanishes instantly.
Else nothing happens
There is also a possibility that nothing happens, so no event takes place.
Recommendations
Example recommendation for raiders:
You need to have 1 Destroyer and Small/Large Cargo.
Example:
Top 1 < 100k points, you can have 2400 expedition points, the preference, you should have 1 Destroyer and 33 Larges Cargo
"This is not useful to use more fight ship, because there are a risk with aliens or pirates. Also, the expedition takes only the best ships in the expedition.
Another advice, a lot of players prefer put a bomber, to avoid big fight against the aliens and pirates."
Example recommendation for miners:
Example:
Top 1 < 100k points, you can have 2400 expedition points, the preference, you should have 42 larges cargo or 125 smalls cargo
Source: https://board.origin.ogame.gameforge.com/index.php/Thread/872-Guide-12-Expedition-guide/
Current state in the game
Original 2Moons engine have original code slightly different than SteemNova does now. The randomness of events were simplified. The formula for resources and ships found was completely different also (broken? bugged?). This is why last days/weeks Expedition mission bring too low/too high rewards which bring to huge disparities between players on the sever. The situation stabilized at 14th Feb 2018.
The current Expedition engine can be read here:
https://github.com/steemnova/steemnova/blob/master/includes/classes/missions/MissionCaseExpedition.class.php