Thoughts on future of Intel

[klausD]

I would like to break a lance for the "personalized" intel system. I just like the romantic feeling of "cloak and dagger" operatives with specific advantages and skills instead of just calculating abstract numbers and intel points. Maybe the latter is more realistic (whatever this reality in a space strategy is) at this scale of game, but nontheless I like the first better.

The problem with MOO3 is that it has some good ideas but the implementation if these ideas is in most cases fundamentally broken. So it is with the spy subsystem too.

But in SEV such a system could be introduced and implemented in a better and more tested way.

Now the idea.
Each spy has certain %skills ranging from 0% to xxx% and a race which is part of the SEV empire.

Like "infiltration" (the ability to infiltrate a social, economical and political community)

Other skills could be "diplomacy" (the skill for destabilization missions) or "cleaning" (finding and terminating enemy operatives). Further skills could be "intelligence" (collecting informations)and so on.

First step for operatives are the training. There could be intelligence training centers as facilities which can train operatives similar to ship yards which are building ships.

Second step is gaining Skill% (see above) in a random manner. Its important to gain skill AFTER training, so the owner dont know of the qualities of his operative in advance and thus preventing the player stopping its training program.

Third step is assigning a mission. Default mission could be the "defensive mission" which is just cleaning the own empire from enemy activities. If not on defensive mission, the operative could be assigned to a specific planet or a specific enemy empire. This depends on the type of missions.

The Missions type and effects could be similar to the current intel projects. (puppet party etc.)

If a mission is successful each other turn (not necessarly every) after infiltrating the enemy, a random "%dice" is rolled. If the roll is under the operatives Skill% it is a success. Modifiers could be - the race (if the operative has the same race this is positive), mission difficulty, enemy empire defensive intelligence etc.

thats it
KlausD