I heard that you guys at Stardock were not completely satisfied with the Espionage aspect of the game and may improve it in the future. I had a couple ideas of what I would like to see from espionage, so I thought id post it.


1. An Espionage report. It would be nice if, once you got a sufficient level in espionage on a race, you could opt to get an espionage report every 3, 6, 21, or 24 turns. The report, depending on your level, would include information such as.

- What planets the race has taken
- What new ships they are building
- Where they have built new starbases
- What technology they are currently researching
- What their tax rate and overall approval rating is
- Strategic advice on what might work to "stick it to em"

These reports would be given in such a way that if the report said "The Drengin have taken Zeus III from the Torians" and then the view would pan to where that planet is and show it, giving information about its class, and (if you have a high enough esionage) what special tiles it has. Then you would click next and it would go to the next planet they have taken, or on to the next topic, such as ships they are building. Then it would show the ship, and its stats. You click next and it shows what tech they are currently researching, and which one they just finished. Click next again and it shows their Tax rate, approval rating, and the lists the planet with the lowest approval rating, and the highest approval rating. Then click next again and it would tell you something like "Tycho IV is in turmoil.. If we could sufficiently influence them, they may come to our side"

This would keep the player up to date on where the race is advancing, which route towards advancement they are taking, what measures they can take to counter them, and where they may consider striking if they want to declare war, or get a planet from them...all in one easily readable pop-up window.


2. Another thing that would be pretty fun is if you could randomly acquire "state secrets" on a race. Just like how you sometimes get a technology from them. A state secret could be something like "Inside sources have informed us that Alan Bradley dresses up like a woman on the second tuesday of every month and hangs out at local night clubs". The player could then use this state secret as either a bargaining chip to get something he wants (ie: "Give me Majesty or I will tell everyone you dress up like a woman... I have pictures").. OR.. you could opt to release the information to the universe in order to reduce the influence of their race... OR... you could release it to a single planet to drastically reduce their approval rating and increase your influence on it. other good "state secrets" may be things like "The Torian leader has to use Wiagra to produce heirs" or "N-1 of Yor is obsolete and is running on only 400terrabytes of processing power". Things like that


3. High espionage levels on 3 or more races would allow you to see what topic will be brought up in the UP the week before it happens, and for a price you could influence the votes of the races you are spying on.



This could add alot of flavor to the game, and make espionage pretty fun and useful too