New Spy Mechanic Idea

Way to use Agents to build up espionage like in Dread Lords

Ok, so people have been talking about the Agent mechanics for a while. I don't know how plausible the missions thing with % chance is, but I have an idea that might spice things up and fix one of the problems I have with the current system.

First, the problem: I don't like how you can automatically and quickly get High Espionage level with 3 Agents. It's just too fast and means that you can very quickly get full information when you need it. Thus, I propose the following fix:

Allow players to place Agents on Initial Colonies or Capitals. Instead of deactivating that tile, they would begin to accumulate intelligence exactly as in Dread Lords. As an added bit, you could assign multiple Agents to multiple worlds' Colonies for a faster accumulation of intelligence. Additionally, as normal, the opponent could eliminate the Agent with one of his own, but that would mean NOT using the Agent to either stop an enemy Agent on a real improvement or doing damage of your own.

I understand that the power of the Agents must be limited based on what the AI can handle, but maybe this is plausible. Thoughts?

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I'd buy that for 1BC, in other words nice idea.

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Philocthetes

Join Date 10/2003

+152

If I've read rightly elsewhere, the B2 release will require more spies for each intel level.

Although I think that change might help assuage the OP's concern here, I still hope we will see a UI-based change that helps address the passive vs. active spying issue discussed in other threads.

While I am very interested in the option to use espionage aggressively, I am very unhappy to see the "old" intel-gathering system eliminated in favor of making intel a side dish for a system that assumes sabotage as the default goal.

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I am very unhappy to see the "old" intel-gathering system eliminated in favor of making intel a side dish for a system that assumes sabotage as the default goal.

Even though I am not playing the Beta, I would have to agree with this. I do not think that it should be completely eliminated. Maybe make it more difficult to achieve higher levels of espionage or impossible to reach high and advanced levels without spies / agents. To completely get rid of the old system though? A bit extreme I think.

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I never liked being able to see spies on planets. or even giving them assignments. because if you know where they are and what there doing, so does the enemy. I liked this whole thing better when it was kept in the back round.
however i did want to hear about what they did more. such as destroying/ capturing enemy ships, creating unhappiness ect so i can see whats going on. I don't know if anyone played Super Power2, but it was cool to see your spies in action. but again you had to deal with giving them orders and what to do.
As for realism, we really don't know what half our spies are doing or where they are at any givin point of time. there basically patriots with lots of money and worm there way doing what ever they can.

I do agree with how fast you get information, then again when you throw Billions of credits around your able to get your hands on quite a bit. however the discovery of the spies and whats going on would be very easy to pick up.

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Philocthetes

Join Date 10/2003

+152

While I really like idea of the spy units (being able to target some sabotage), the more I use it, the less I like the planet-map placement interface. I'd rather see placement done on the main map with a dialog enabling us to tell the spy to hit Manufacturing, Morale, Influence, etc. A list like that also has room for "lay low and report what you learn."

Because I suspect what ships will not look that different from what we see now, my alternate hope is that we could get a button on the placement window that drops and removes as many spies as possible with one click, so we could at least emulate the old spend-for-info-only mode without all that clicking

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