[Shadowstar]

So how about combining certain intel attacks that would otherwise be repeated excessively into single attacks of larger proportions. For instance, an empire with a small intel capacity may just steal a wrench, whereas one with a developed intel department would bomb the facility, killing the research staff and destroying the subject material. A super-developed intel empire with lots of intel points going into sabotage would not only bomb the facility, they'd delete all government records of its existence, destroy the funding, and make sure organized crime "professionals" made sure no other scientists in the society would be willing to continue researching that technology (in other words, potentially driving the research score in that field into the negative).