Intel Guide?
 

Can there be a guide to Intel projects created for us newbs?

I'd like to know:
1) what the possible projects are
2) What the result for you is if it succeeds.
3) What the result is for the other guy, if it succeeds. (This is just as important!)
4) Why you'd use the mission, why you wouldn't.

Also some tips on how to defeat CI projects, since they seem to be this invulnerable (albeit depleteable) shield against Intel operations.

IF anyone has any links they could offer as a help for intel ops, I'd appreciate it.

Re: Intel Guide?
 

Open up Intelprojects.txt in the Data folder. It has all that info in there. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: Intel Guide?
 

Including usage tips?

For example: I figured out, after much hmming and haahing, that stolen ship blueprints can then be plugged into the simulator to give you a much better idea how your ships will compete with available enemy designs.

Re: Intel Guide?
 

Well not usage tips, but nearly every project's uses are self-explanatory. Like Crew Insurrection. It captures an enemy ship. Uses: capture enemy ships. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif If you can see them, capture minesweepers, and watch their fleet hit your minefield and go BOOM! Capture Stellar Manipulation ships. Thanks for spending 20 turns building this WP Opener for me! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Intel Guide?
 

Or, you can think more subtly... Capture an enemy Colony Ship... He's probably got dozens of them hanging around, so he won't miss one or two... What can I do with a Colony Ship, you ask? Well... now you have a sample of another race's population, which if you're lucky breathes a different atmosphere - and if you're even luckier he even has a different planet type so you can analyze the colony ship and steal his colony tech! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Always use the latest Version of Counter-Intel. (Unless you have a lot of points stored in a previous Version, of course, then you might as well keep it around until it expires.) Counter-Intel 2 blocks twice as much intel as CI 1, and CI 3 is 3 times as effective as CI 1!

Only use Food Contamination on smaller colonies - don't even bother with a homeworld! The population will regenerate in a turn or two and you'll have wasted 20K intel points. But if you use it on a smaller colony (<50M), you can wipe out the entire colony and force the enemy to send a transport to repopulate it before it can produce or build anything! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Conversely, use the intel that causes plagues (if there is one - I don't use intel much anyway since it always seems to get blocked http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif ) against larger colonies, since (I think) plagues kill based on a percentage of the population, not a fixed amount (unless the population drops really low, otherwise it would take forever to finish a colony off! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif )

Write down the results of stuff like Ship Blueprints and Tech Reports because this will not be updated where you might expect (known technology for an empire, known enemy designs) - though this might have been fixed for Ship Blueprints.

Never use the one that destroys resources, if you feel the urge to, use the resource stealing project instead - it's cheaper, has the same effect on the enemy, and you get resources as a bonus! (Note: some mods fix this oversight, check the mod before you try this!)

Use Crew Insurrection as a poor man's Technological Espionage - it's only 1/3 the cost, and you can get multiple technologies from a single ship! There are only two drawbacks: 1. The enemy has to have the technology you want actually deployed on a ship, not just researched. And 2. You have to manage to get the ship back to one of your spaceyards safely to get the technology! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: Intel Guide?
 

Ed, these are great tips. May I ask if they may be added to an Intel Strategy Article in the Newbie FAQ?

Re: Intel Guide?
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">There is no such project. Plagues kill a nearly constant amount, with just a small amount of variation each turn. I am fairly certain that it is not percentage based.

Re: Intel Guide?
 

Sure, go ahead and add those tips to the FAQ... except the one about the plague intel of course! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif I THOUGHT plagues killed a percentage of the population every turn... hardly ever run into them so it's hard to remember, and besides, that would be more realistic http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: Intel Guide?
 

I will summarize the points here and add it to the FAQ.

Slick.

Re: Intel Guide?
 

OOPS! I misunderstood that post.

Stone Mill, are you intending to write an Intel section to the Newbie FAQ? If so, that's the right place to put this info and we can wait for that. If not, then I'll summarize this thread (with author credits of course) and put it somewhere in the Intelligence section. Which do you prefer?

Slick.

Re: Intel Guide?
 

Why not do both?

Re: Intel Guide?
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">unless you have blockaided it http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Intel Guide?
 

I think you should add "17.11 Intel Operations"

Perhaps you could take Ed's (and other's)paragraphs and number them under 17.11.

I think I can take a crack at writing an Intel one in this thread or my existing Strategy Articles thread. I'm not the expert on Intel, but I can get some good tips down. Hope to have some free time tonight.

Re: Intel Guide?
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Will do at next opportunity.

I just didn't want to be redundant, or do the same work twice, or have the same stuff in two different places or, worse yet, be redundant. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

Slick.

Re: Intel Guide?
 

Newbie FAQ and Strategy Articles server different roles. The FAQ is for basic info, and learning how to play the game. The SA is for advanced tips and such. So, it isn't really redundant... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: Intel Guide?
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Thank you very much. The strategy articles are in the FAQ.

[ April 19, 2003, 01:54: Message edited by: Slick ]

Re: Intel Guide?
 

So what about failure? What determines whether I'm detected/undetected? If you succeed well, can't you also frame another empire? How does that work, and can I frame another for the attempt even if I fail?

Re: Intel Guide?
 

Success depends only on whether you can get past their CI and there is a valid target. Only Puppet Political Parties has a chance to fail, and it is a hard-coded 50% chance to fail if the project gets past CI.

What determines if you are detected or not is what Messages the project gives the enemy, and also how much CI they have. If they have almost no CI compared to how much you are sending at them each turn, then sometimes they do not get any intel Messages IIRC.

You can not frame another for an attempted or successful mission. IIRC, there is one mission that does this specifically, but you can not do it for missions in general.

[ June 02, 2003, 20:28: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

Re: Intel Guide?
 

A note here from an utter newbie:

If you use Crew Insurrection blindly (any ship), you're likely to get a ship deep in enemy territory. If you sacrifice it to attack an enemy planet, you're get a whole load of ship and unit blueprints, much better than stealing them one by one.

Re: Intel Guide?
 

That, and you can get star charts. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif