Intelligence war
 

I am playing a TDM mod single player game of the original SEIV. I am currently fighting a 3 front war against the Romulans, Sergetti and the Drakol. I have a large number of Intelligence points (200k+) which I am using to steal enemy ships via crew insurection. Only problem is when I steal their ships I go broke cause I can't afford the maintenance (most of my colonies are intellingence or research) I usually lose them in combat to the enemy and get round the maintenence cost that way but what can I do - I need a big fleet to push the enemy back. virually all my planets are used and I can't expand except into enemy systems (for which i need a fleet). I don't want to scrap my intelligece or reseach facilities and buld mineral miners cause I need the intelligence to steal enemy ships. Anyone got any bright Ideas - the game seems to be at a bit of a stalemate at the moment?

Re: Intelligence war
 

I'd scrap some research facilities. You can always gain tech from ships you steal, so you won't fall behind.

Or switch to Puppet Political Parties and steal their planets.

Re: Intelligence war
 

1) You can self-destruct these ships if they have self-destruct devices. If you get more than 1 together, you can "fire on" all except the Last one. Although this seems counter-productive, it is equivelant to you going there and killing the ship thru combat.

2) You can engage in combat until you either get destroyed or run out of supplies. This does additional damage to the enemy. If you run out of supplies, go to an enemy planet or warp point. Being on a planet causes it to be blockaded and denies the enemy production from that planet. Being on a warp point or planet makes it more likely that the enemy will engage you in combat to get the ship destroyed and thus eliminating the maintenance costs.

3) Try to Crew Insurrect an enemy shipyard base. Take your ships there to scrap them.

4) If you CI a colonizer, colonize something with it. That eliminates the maint cost.

Re: Intelligence war
 

Cheers for the ideas mates. I have tried using puppet political parties but my attempts always seem to get blocked by their counter intel. I have used a few ships to blockade etc but I still have to fork out for the maintainence while they are doing that - can't afford it. I have stolen a few colony ships but there are very few planets to clolonize left that are worthwhile and the enemy soon blows them away anyway.
I guess I will have to scrap some research and intel and build mineral. I heard you can build facilities to change the atmosphere of a planet and therefore could build more facilities and therfore more mineral mines. What do you need to do this. i have researched planet imrovement (up to lvl 5?) but all I get is planet value improvevers - does this change atmosphere as well? Am I on the right track re: changing atmosphere to improve my mineral situation?

Re: Intelligence war
 

Why don't you use your intelligence points and redirect some of their resources to yourself.
I usually gets alot of resources that way, minerals, organics and radioactives.
Not only do you gain them but you deprive your enemies of resources, it's great!

Re: Intelligence war
 

Great idea - I'll give it a go!

Now, can anyone explain the rules of American Football to me?

Re: Intelligence war
 

im not a sports fan but from what i gather its:
A:Run around.....ALOT
B:Slam into things.....mainly eachother
C:Ogle the cheerleading babes(or is that just me?)

YES YES i caved this is a post to make my rank go up.So sue me i wont rest until i receive custom title:Harbringer of insanity!

Re: Intelligence war
 

Now the game is clear to me! Shall I explain the rules of cricket?

Re: Intelligence war
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">You just need to keep going... Level 7,8 and 9 will give you the atmosphere converters.

The converters will change the atmosphere instantly, 2 years or so after being built (depending on tech level)

Re: Intelligence war
 

Just my 2 cents: sounds like an economic problem.

Are you familiar with getting breathers from other races to expand the facilities on your planets?

For example, steal, capture, (or trade for) Oxygen population, and transfer them to an Oxygen giant you are currently populating with Hydrogen breathers. BAM! Your planet just went from 5 facilities to 30 facilities.

Master this technique, you must. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: Intelligence war
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">BUt to do this you'd have to take off the Hydrogen breathers to work right. If there are any population that don't breath oxy then it will be domed no matter what.

Re: Intelligence war
 

Right on, Ragnarok. Good clarification.

rockman, insurrect some of his colony ships and put 'em to use!

Re: Intelligence war
 

Been playing one game as Methane race and was extremly lucky to capture one medium transport filled with none race that run out of supply (=no shields). Thats luck http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Intelligence war
 

Okay I tried a few things as sugggested by this forum.
I decide to just hold the front against the Romulans and Drakol and attack the Sergetti as they were a more immediate threat (attacking my planets - bloody bastards!) I used my intel to steal resources from the Sergetti. This was enough to pay maintainence on the ships I had intelled and form a fleet to attack. I managed to destroy the main Sergetti fleet that was menacing my southern flank but a few ships slipped through and are now behind my lines and blowing away my unprotected colonies! Also my planets have started rioting due to the enemy ships flying around and the intel efforts of the enemy (bloody Drakol!). How do I stop the riots? I can't build troops because the whole system is rioting and I can't get transports through due to enemy ships. Any ideas?
The atmosphere converter sounds good - I'll stick it in my research queue
Thanks for all the help!

Re: Intelligence war
 

Try switching all of your ship capture projects to be ship specific, and take the ships that are harrasing your planets.
Not only will the anger due to enemy presence go down, but you'll also get the happiness due to "your" military presence. You can then use your captured ships to kill off the rest of the enemy raiders.

When things stabilize, (or before things got ugly), I'd reccommend a turns worth of mines in orbit of every planet. They'll pick off the AI raiders very nicely.
As you have noticed, troops are another thing that you must build before you need them. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif
20 Police Troops per planet can keep your economy running smoothly. (Design a small troop with a cockpit and nothing else. You can build 'em really quick)

Re: Intelligence war
 

Or if you're organic put on organic weapons, that way when you want to go on teh offensive you can just bring along a few troops from your planets.

So, SJ, is 20 really the magic number? I've need up to 50 or 60 to bring a planet back into line before.

Re: Intelligence war
 

Well, 20 is a good start. 60 will really boost happiness, and more than a hundred will keep the pop jubilant despite really horrendous events like plagues.

Re: Intelligence war
 

Troops?!? Something I wish I had been aware of MUCH, MUCH sooner. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif

Re: Intelligence war
 

Okay - I've followed the advice and now am fighting back against the evil Sergetti. Only problem is I try to use Puppet Political Parties and my efforts are always blocked by counter intel.
I have enough intel points to do a couple of PPP each turn (and a few smaller projects like resource procurement). If I use crew insurrection instead of PPP it works fine - any one know why? It seems to be the same whether I use "any planet" or if I choose a particular planet.
Also I have intelled an enemy ship which had a quantum reactor (limitless supply) a technology which I didn't have. When I scrapped/analysed the ship I didn't get the quantum reactor? any reason why. Is it something to do with me not having the right theoretical technology? If any one can shed some light on it I would be most grateful

Re: Intelligence war
 

You probably got "emergency propulsion" or somesuch.

QR is something like level 7 in the tech area, so you'll need to analyse about 7 ships to get the tech.

// Captain Q says 5. 7 is pretty close to 5 http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[ October 29, 2002, 20:42: Message edited by: Suicide Junkie ]

Re: Intelligence war
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">PPP is the only intel project known to have a chance of failure even without counterintel opposing it, but if you're doing multiple PPPs, I don't know why at least some of them aren't succeeding. <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">You should have gotten one level of Resupply tech (one of the Emergency Resupply Pods); you only would get the Quantum Reactor if you already had Resupply 4.

Re: Intelligence war
 

Thanks for the help, I didn't realise you didn't get the same technology as on the ship - I DID get an energency supply pod technology so that explains why no QR - I'll just have to intel some more enemy ships!
Not sure about the PPP thing - maybe just keep on trying, only trouble is I need to use resource procurement just to keep my enconomy going or else I wouldn't be able to pay my maintainence costs. I thought that if I used PPP to get a couple of mineral planets it might relieve the pressure on me to use Resource procurement every turn and free up some intel points for crew insurrection. I have a serious mineral shortage - are robo miners etc worthwhile?

Re: Intelligence war
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">It depends. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

The "best" way to use robo miners is to design a base station (or starbase) filled with miners, and then (obviously) build the base on the highest mineral value asteroids you can find. Fortunately, in Gold (at least the current Version), asteroid values can be as high as 300% (!). The two reasons for using bases instead of ships are:

</font>

1. <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Bases have 50% maintenance reduction, so the net gain is higher </font>
2. <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Only one ship/base/satellite can perform remote mining in a given sector at any given time, and bases can hold more mining components </font>

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Of course, for the above strategy you have to be able to build space yard ships (requires at least cruiser hull size) and be able to survive long enough for that ship to build the resource base. Not to mention pay maintenance on the space yard ship... but the long-term benefits should outweigh the short term losses.

Re: Intelligence war
 

To follow on in my game - (if anyone is still interested!) i have been using my intelligence to bLast the Sergetti, the main threat to my empire. I have been using the "food contamination" against them and I reckon I must have successfully contaiminated between 15-20 of their planets. The question I have is whether there are degrees of sucess eg small number of population die, sizable number die, all population dies etc. I always seem to get the message that "a sizable percentage of the populaton has died" what exatly does that mean?
I have had a few intel attacks slip through my counter intel (those bloody drakol!) and they have used food contamination against my planets. However in those cases ALL my population of the planet has died, not just a sizable percentage. Also my attacks do not seem to have significantly reduced the population or resources of the Sergetti empire much - I have checked it out on the Empire comparison graph.
Can anyone please shed some lght on this?

Thanks!

Re: Intelligence war
 

The food contamination kills a certain number of people. 300 million maybe... on domed planets, that can easily be everybody.

If you're using it on a major population center, it will not have much affect at all.
If you hit a small world with it, you can totally shut it down.

Re: Intelligence war
 

Okay - get it now. Say I have aleady hit a small planet and killed everyone on it and I select food contamination and "any planet" will that planet be excluded from the list of "any planet" to be hit? I am guessing probably not? Would reduce the effectiveness of your attacks over time as more and more planets got hit you would end up hitting the same "dead" planets again. Am I right?

Re: Intelligence war
 

Hmm, interesting question.
Can colonies without pop be targeted?
Anyone knows?

Re: Intelligence war
 

I tend to find Puppet Political Parties don't work as well unless the enemy planets are full of angry people. Try several turns of massed Anarchy Groups projects then start hitting them with PPPs. The Anarchy Groups also reduce the enemy's production which is always a good thing. Unless your opponents have Urban Pacification Centers, hundreds of troops etc... the effects can be quite long-Lasting.

Another thing is... make sure the PPP isn't the first thing on your project list (best of all make it the Last project on your list that'll complete in one turn) - I suspect it's more likely to succeed as the first projects use up the enemy's Counter-Intelligence points so they can't resist the later projects. Might not be the case, but it seems to work most of the time.

Oh, and don't be disheartened if your first successful PPPs merely cause enemy planets to rebel and declare independence. You'll eventually get planets defecting directly to you. The single planet empires will usually surrender to you (along with some tech) if you enter the system and challenge them.