What are Satellites for?

[TheCoolSideofthePillow]

The in-game description doesn't really tell me what they do in context of the game.

[Infekted]

a) they illuminate a sphere on your sector map. Advanced make a larger sphere than nav ones.

b) placing one anywhere in a sector will let you see price and stock levels for any station in that sector whilst OOS.

c) advanced allow you to get a live camera feed from them whilst IS. By pressing K? I believe..

[TheCoolSideofthePillow]

Wish I had known that before buying all those M5's for the same purpose. D'oh!

[Infekted]

A bunch of M5s are always handy Dock em at critical terran stations, get em scanning asteroids. Use them to level up CLS pilots, or even better get them laying down a satelite network
I also get them to follow nice ships for later.. Aquirement

[[SOLAR]INFERNO]

I always think of them being like satnavs,except they don't tell you exactly where to go.The autopilot is like a satnav though (it performs stupidly not thinking ahead).

[Twest09]

If you do a lot of assassination missions then advanced satellites are worth more than they cost. If you illuminate all the gates of a sector with adv. sats then you can see where the target spawns and jump right on top of them... this saves time, jump fuel and gets you to your next mission faster.

[Shock223]

The in-game description doesn't really tell me what they do in context of the game.

early in game, they show the prices of the sector with just one in it.

later in game, they can be used to monitor pirates/xenon to make sure they don't get too out of hand when they go on their rampages through the sectors.

[TheCoolSideofthePillow]

Speaking up leveling up pilots, how do I hire them?

Do pilots offer any benefit?

[Infekted]

In Vanilla the only type of pilots you can level up are either Mk3 ST/UT pilots, or CLS/CAG pilots. Basically makes them better for trading, with a few perks.
Incidentally I believe high level CLS/CAG pilots use your sat network to avoid sectors with enemies.

[Manta_Ky]

Satellites! Huh! What are the good for? Absolutely nothing!

Sorry I couldn't help myself.

[TheCoolSideofthePillow]

Actually, I think they would come in handy for early warning systems.

Have your forces in one sector, and have satellites in the surrounding sectors.

Though I think most enemies generated OOS just jump in or spawn coming out of gates, so it might not work that way...

[breytac]

Oddly enough there is a satellite early warning network script available. Very handy for defending against incursions from pirates, kha'ak, xenon and any race you want to set as a foe

[Nanook]

...
Though I think most enemies generated OOS just jump in or spawn coming out of gates, so it might not work that way...

Mission generated enemies, this is correct. But non-mission enemies generally come from somewhere, such as task forces that are assigned a home sector, and given a mission to blow up something in some other sector. Xenon patrols are one example of this.

[BugMeister]

Satellites! Huh! What are the good for? Absolutely nothing!

Sorry I couldn't help myself.

sats are great - you can spot good deals, if you use your maps wisely

with a jumpdrive, you can leap there for a quick profit..

[EtherImp]

My Sat network is keeping me busy right now jumping around taking out fleets of Pirates and Xenon so I can keep my UT/ST's safe.

[Honved]

In the early stages of the game, a couple of Nav Sats deployed in the sectors you normally trade it can make all the difference between being in the right place at the right time to make lucrative trade deals and a wasted trip.

I only deploy Advanced Nav Sats where I've got my own stations to worry about, or where I want to monitor activities in more detail (such as a pirate sector where I intend to "cap" ships). Regular Nav Sats are fine for the rest of the places, since they allow you to check pricing and availability in the entire sector.

[Cpt.Jericho]

Satellites! Huh! What are the good for? Absolutely nothing!

In Reunion I had a plex for these - sold pretty good back then