Since this topic has been discussed a few times over the cogmind-spoiler / redacted channels at the roguelike discord, and also having tried DC + visiting secret L myself, I am just curious how intercept squad's timer works. It's plenty obvious that it not the same with extermination at all.
So I resorted to save scumming to do the tests.
Here's how I set it up:
- As a combat build, get sufficient amount of flight units with you before heading for DM.
- Might need some luck, since at DM you need to smack DM and then survive or defeat the 4 enhanced grunts. It's totally doable with EM launchers + EM cannons as combat build though. Can opt to save scum here first.
- Save scum at the end of proximity caves, where you are about to go back to Factory.
For these particular tests, I figured there's no need, or not even suitable to reproduce the exact actions when I was about to go back to Factory. So like based on how I strip or attach parts to prepare for the actual test after spawning in Factory, I just don't care if I have the exact same parts, or head back at the exact turn counter, taking the exact evolution, etc. Since this knowledge will not be useful at all when you are playing normally.
The Actual Test: Near the spawning point in Factory -6 or -5, find a quiet room, and move back and forth, counting the turns and the step count that I make. Make comparsions between a flight build and a grounded combat build. Also make a control test where I do not move at all in that quiet room, only passing turns, and see what happens.
The Result:
I did 2 sets of crude calculations first (not counting steps one by one, but get a rough number by looking at how many turns does it take for intercept to show up, and then multiplies by how many steps I can move per turn); after zxc tipped me off with his own test conclusions back when beta 3 or 4, I then made a precise counting of how many movement keystrokes I hit after heading into Factory -- here's the conclusion that I reached (also zxc's conclusion) --
- The way how the intercept squads can pinpoint LRC-V3 seems to be solely based on your movements, nothing else seems to matter much (propulsion used, alert, weapon firing, etc), and then your luck when entering a map where you can be tracked.
- You can get unlucky and move as little as 250 tiles and get sent intercept squads. But if you are lucky, that can be as high as ~500 tile movements or so.
What this means:
- I don't think flight has a distinctive advantage when doing DC runs or other situation where you might be facing trackers as I previously thought. Even more so, if you can't out-fly the trackers, you will actually be better off using ground propulsion when facing trackers, because if you get unlucky, you'll get sent at least 1 intercept squad before you can reach an exit as efficiently as possible. (This also implies hover is the worst for combating trackers -- they cannot possibly out-fly trackers in any way, and they can get disabled just as easy like flight)
- During tests, I found leg combat builds at as low as -6, with good weapons and/or some targeting + at point blank range, can kill ONE tracker without too much trouble. I tried 3 times and 2 out of 3 I was able to get linked autogun and in turn obliterate the one following CProg. But CProg always drops nothing and then you'll be pretty corrupted even though it's very possible to keep your combat build more or less intact. So fighting CProg is still very not ideal anyhow.
- As pointed out by Maiker, Drones might mean something here -- you need to cut down unnecessary steps for exploration as much as you can.
True TL;DR:
The intercept squad after DC is not based on timer but steps taken. The magic number seems to be a range between 250 ~ 500 or so. Can be even lower or somewhat higher. Combat build for data run might not be a bad idea. Prepare the DM enhanced grunt fight like how you prepare for z-imprinter, pack a few armor, at least 1 backup power, a few EM launchers and a few EM cannons. Drones might be useful.
