Espionage in GalCivII
from 
GalCiv2 Forums
GalCiv2 Forums
I've been playing this game daily, and I'm loving every minute of it. After some thought, I have a few ideas about espionage and how it can be improved in the next update.
Right now, to spy on a civilization, you simply go to the interstellar relations tab and ramp up the money being used - while useful, I think this is a tad simplistic, and a whole new level of depth could be added to the game. For most of human history, we have been spying on one another, and new surveillance techniques usually meant one side gaining vital information from the other. What I suggest is implementing espionage as an active part of the game - players can build ships equipped with stealth generators (researched, of course, and expensive to put on ships) while also equipping their starbases with anti-stealth radar and other countermeasures. This would mean that in addition to the social/economic/military conflict civilizations would also be engaged in a spy war - researching a new stealth technology would mean you can penetrate the other civilizations' screens and allow your surveillance craft to sneak in. Also, this stealth technology, while bulky, could be used to cover military ships. Obviously, the ships can't fire while stealthed, but equipping a corvette with a cloak would allow it to sneak in undetected and attack vital supply routes/starbases. To make the game fair, a ship can't engage stealth for x number of turns after firing (maybe make this number vary according to tech level?).
This would be simple to implement - a lvl 1 stealth generator gives you 1 point of stealth, while a lvl 1 stealth radar would give you a protection of 1. To successfully spy on a civilization and pass undetected, a ship has to have a higher stealth rating than the level of the civilization's anti-stealth tech. Also, to add flavor, adding radar modules to starbases would allow players to create anti-surveillance nets. The placement of these nets would be essential, and players would have to make sure that no holes existed. A cool addition would be to make Aegis cruisers, allowing players to add detection modules to their ships and create a moving anti-surveillance platform.
This sounds like a pretty cool aspect of the game, especially if the AI were to be "taught" how to use stealth. This could potentially ruin a player, if he researches, say, rail guns, and the Dregnin send in a few cloaked ships, discover this, and immediately start researching armor tech to counter his technology (they already do this, but only after a confrontation, right?) If the mods agree with my idea, maybe it'll become reality in a future patch. I think most players enjoy subterfuge, and right now there just isn't enough of it in GalCivII. Not that I'm complaining - I love this game to death.
Right now, to spy on a civilization, you simply go to the interstellar relations tab and ramp up the money being used - while useful, I think this is a tad simplistic, and a whole new level of depth could be added to the game. For most of human history, we have been spying on one another, and new surveillance techniques usually meant one side gaining vital information from the other. What I suggest is implementing espionage as an active part of the game - players can build ships equipped with stealth generators (researched, of course, and expensive to put on ships) while also equipping their starbases with anti-stealth radar and other countermeasures. This would mean that in addition to the social/economic/military conflict civilizations would also be engaged in a spy war - researching a new stealth technology would mean you can penetrate the other civilizations' screens and allow your surveillance craft to sneak in. Also, this stealth technology, while bulky, could be used to cover military ships. Obviously, the ships can't fire while stealthed, but equipping a corvette with a cloak would allow it to sneak in undetected and attack vital supply routes/starbases. To make the game fair, a ship can't engage stealth for x number of turns after firing (maybe make this number vary according to tech level?).
This would be simple to implement - a lvl 1 stealth generator gives you 1 point of stealth, while a lvl 1 stealth radar would give you a protection of 1. To successfully spy on a civilization and pass undetected, a ship has to have a higher stealth rating than the level of the civilization's anti-stealth tech. Also, to add flavor, adding radar modules to starbases would allow players to create anti-surveillance nets. The placement of these nets would be essential, and players would have to make sure that no holes existed. A cool addition would be to make Aegis cruisers, allowing players to add detection modules to their ships and create a moving anti-surveillance platform.
This sounds like a pretty cool aspect of the game, especially if the AI were to be "taught" how to use stealth. This could potentially ruin a player, if he researches, say, rail guns, and the Dregnin send in a few cloaked ships, discover this, and immediately start researching armor tech to counter his technology (they already do this, but only after a confrontation, right?) If the mods agree with my idea, maybe it'll become reality in a future patch. I think most players enjoy subterfuge, and right now there just isn't enough of it in GalCivII. Not that I'm complaining - I love this game to death.
