[Cheeze]

One of the primary questions in this thread was not addressed, perhaps because few know the answer. Even after a player has broken through an opponent's CI, there is still a chance of success or failure. I have run enough intel missions that have failed for reasons outside of the CI of my target. For instance, I would guess that the chance of success on a Puppet Political Parties operation is considerably less than that for Covert Recon or Ship Bomb. What that chance is for any of these, THAT is something I would like to see. I would like to learn, on top of a success or failure, how does the game determine that the target learns of an attack, and then if they know who ran the operation on them?

You cannot say that intel only represents field operatives. Intelligence derives most of its strength not from field operatives (those who gather or report information) but from those people who can analyze a great deal of data, sift out the more likely truths from the less likely, the inaccuracies and the misinformation, and come up with an assessment of situations. As for the number of intel facilities, the CIA (to use that example) doesn't only exist at Langley. That is a administrative center, but there are many branch offices, in the US and around the world (some visible, some no doubt hidden). The more "facilities", the better to recruit, train, analyze, collect, disseminate...pretty much all the activities of an intelligence force for a government.

All this being said, the SEIV intel seems too much of a numbers game. Generally, the races that excel in intel also already possess excessive resource and research generation, so there are few instances where a race strictly dedicated to intel can Last. And an already powerful empire will just be that much better defended and threatening through the sheer size of its intel.