But this entire discussion seems to illustrate that the SE4 system is an abstract representation of how it all works. Most of the actions in the game are not really abstractions (you see the ships cruising around bLasting stuff) but a lot of it is: what are resources? just an aggregate measure of what your economy produces. What are "research points"? Just an abstract measure of how much effort your scientists are putting into learning new and practical things.
Intel I would posit is the same: it is such a complex system that the only way to effectively model it and make it playable and enjoyable is to abstract it out.
One way to do so is to use the "points" and "projects" that it currently does.
I would argue that if you tried to make a more specific system (specific agents? taking geography into account? Needing ships to get the agents there? etc...) then you would suddenly find yourself faced with the need to "explain away" a whole lot of contradictions or weirdnesses - all the things that you are mentioning.
By keeping the intel at the abstract level, we avoid the need to deal with lots and lots of contradictions.
What I mean is, I guess, that for every example someone can make about how the intel system is screwy I can make a counter example explaining how it can be accomodated. This is a good thing.
Did that make sense? Probably not...
Quote:
Originally posted by Alneyan:
Sorry then if I have unwillingly disturbed one of your Posts to come. 
I can think of two other means to explain why spies would manage to get behind the lines that easily. If you are a very mean race, you might send these operatives when both your Empires are trading and your relationship is good. You would then check all the entries within the Empire, but as the spies would be already in, it would be much harder. Unless the target is a most paranoiac and isolationist Empire, or unless you are yourself a warmonger that is.
The other way would be to disguise spies as "political refugees" if you do feel like generous. It could even be some famous scientific team looking for leaving the corrupted Empire in which they live, and who were working on some special weapon of tremendous power. You might be tempted to allow these disguised spies to enter your worlds, and then...
Obviously, these ways would never, ever, always work, and that's why I don't quite like the current system "all or nothing" linked with Intelligence. Do you only need to bypass Counter-Intelligence to successfully plant a bomb on a given ship without any chance? Or to kill these hundred million settlers? And then you fail to pass Counter-Intelligence, not only you don't have the slightest chance of succeeding in your project, but you will be immediatly detected and the target will know you were attempting some actions. That can unfortunately led to some infelicitous diplomatical incidents, especially when the target was only looking for a pretense to declare war.  But I seem to digress.
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