Teams

Teams allow to conduct various projects (Xenology, Diplomatic, Espionage and Geological Survey) across the Empire. A team is comprised of up to five leaders.

Types of Teams

Espionage

See Espionage.

Espionage teams are led by Civilian Administrators and Officers. Used to gather information about the assets and capabilities of foreign empires. It represents everything from infiltration missions to signals intelligence to simply observing and investigating readily accessible information. Information such as: ship/missile designs, system maps, gravitational survey results etc. Espionage teams can be killed in action when operating on an alien world.

Diplomacy

See Diplomacy.

Diplomacy teams are led by Civilian Administrators and Officers. They represent ambassadors, attaches, and other leaders who engage in diplomatic dialogue with foreign empires. Helping to improve relations between you and another Empire; Diplomatic teams try to help your relations with other empires.(NPRs). Note, their location is not relevant to their assignment. Once created, they are activated in the Intelligence/Diplomacy window Ctrl + F5.

Xenology

See ruins.

Xenology teams are used to explore ancient alien ruins discovered via orbital survey. They study ruins until they learn enough about the alien species to permit recovery by construction brigades to begin.

Xenology teams are led by Scientists and Officers. The team skill is 'Xenology bonus', so you will need five team members with decent Xenology skills on site.

Geology

See Survey.

Geology Teams consist of scientists or naval officers with some degree of Survey skill. They carry out more detailed surveys of bodies after orbital survey is completed, trying to find any mineral deposits that might have been missed by the ships. They may find additional deposits or ways to increase the accessibility of an existing mineral.

Mechanics

Teams assignments are accessible from the Teams/Academy tab located within the Population and Production window F2. When assigning teams only those leaders with the relevant bonus will appear in the list. Their 'Team rating' affects it performance and is equal to the sum of the appropriate bonuses of its members.

Movement

1. Teams can be transferred to their destination via ships (the "Pick up Team" order). They do not require any cargo space and any ship can transfer them.
2. When assigning leaders to Teams, select a colony before creating the team. That will cause the team to appear instantly at that location. A time-saver if you want to set up a geological survey at a prospective new mining colony. To move an existing team in this way, select it, disband and then create it again at the new site.

Training

Teams may be assembled on your home world before they are assigned to less controlled, more hostile situations and may well improve their skills and thereby their likelihood of later successes.

Losing team members

As teams go about their work, it is possible for individual members to drop out due to death, illness, or being assigned to a new job, so periodic checks are recommended. If anyone dies or retires, you can replace them either by disbanding the team and reassembling the squad, or assigning officers to a team via the Officer Corps window. Teams will continue their work even when short a member but obviously their overall effectiveness score will have been reduced.

There is no "lost work" penalty for disbanding a team and creating a new team at any point. e.g. disbanding a geo-survey team with a combined skill of 80 that has been working for four months on a planet and creating a new team with a skill of 100 will actually increase your chance of completing the survey sooner.