trihero wrote:
That's not what I am saying. I'm saying that once you have 2 GOP + Liberation, the low hanging fruit are all now gone. It has nothing to do with rescues, which aren't even a type of activity (missions are sorted and spawned by activity, not mission type). You can continue to run intel if you are hoping to catch a Dark Event or a Supply Raid, but for low pop havens, it is almost always better to do a round of recruiting instead, because there isn't anything that can legally spawn anymore that you can realistically detect.
But the low hanging fruit isn't gone if you haven't picked up a second rescue mission in the same region. And believe me I've done a lot of the switching strategy back in 1.2, but I'm not convinced it's always optimal now. I know rescue mission isn't a type, but because you can get two missions with rescue engi/scientist in one region without waiting for an 18 day cooldown, you might as well hang around until you see two of them rather than keep losing time switching rebel jobs.
I still don't think you understand. Rescues are spawned by ProtectData (a GOP), HighValuePrisoner (a GOP), and Lib2 (a non-random mission that is always either available or not available, depending on where you are on the chain. That's it for the low hanging fruit. Period. Dark Events
sometimes spawn rescues, but 1) they're rare 2) they're hard to detect with small havens, 3) they don't even spawn during the first 1-2 months (depends on difficulty).
So, in most situations, and in 100% of the first month situations, if you have 2 GOPs + a Lib, you're done until you start clearing missions. Any Intel you generate is wasted, unless you just really, really value the tiny resource intel income you get (which will be quickly made up for by the increased productivity from recruiting).
An example: I detect three missions in a region. I have not done any liberation missions in this region, and Strength and Vigilance is low (let's say they're both 3, just so that we have a number) I find a "steal package from vehicle mission" that grants an Intel Package, an Extract VIP and a hack workstation that doesn't grant an Intel Package. The fist mission is a Protect Data, the second one is a HighValuePrisoner (it can't be ProtectData because the first mission must be a ProtectData already). The other mission is Lib1, which always a data raid of some sort that offers some Intel but no Intel Package. I will not get a second rescue mission until I start clearing those missions out. Ever. The slots are filled. There is no "second rescue mission slot," there are only GOP and Lib slots. Any Intel gathered during this time is wasted. Most missions take 4-6 days to infiltrate, and there's a ~1 day cooloff between the queue being emptied and the AI refilling it, so there will usually be a substantial amount of time to get in some recruiting, even taking into account the the work lost by switching.
Assuming you do all three missions, I can even predict what the next draws will be. I will get one Rescue/Extract (Lib2, 100% guaranteed to be in the pool if Lib1 is done), a Smash and Grab (Logistics), and a Jailbreak (PoliticalPrisoners). The Jailbreak and the VIP are the obvious plums, and they are guaranteed to be present, given the strength and vigilance numbers. Potentially squeezing in an extra rebel for Intel during the waiting period actually increases the average rescues you get in this situation.
The only benefit to staying on Intel is that you might snag a rare mission, like a Dark Event or a UFO or something. But we are talking about small havens that really, really need the recruits. Those missions are hard to detect even with large havens backed up with towers and scientists. I would rather increase the haven's long term detection power than take a tiny gamble on 1) those missions even being present and 2) detecting them with a small haven.
For larger havens (i.e. ones that you done a few Jailbreaks), I still usually do a round of recruiting between cooldowns, simply because the time needed to grab a recruit is now very small, so I get a near-immediate benefit for a very small opportunity cost.It gets more complicated as Vigilance and Strength go up and the pool of possible missions changes, but that's a different topic altogether.