[Baron Munchausen]

Originally posted by DavidG:
Yup I think sadly intel is useless in SE4. Well it can be fun for a bit early on but it seems that it quickly becomes useless as races get defenses which seem impossible to breach. I would like to have any intell project have at least a certain minimum chance of succeding. Intell defense should just reduce the percentage chance of a project succeding. Getting back to my idea is it acutually possible to mod the game so that you could run an Espionage project and have a gauraneted chance of success? I'm thinking if you could remove counter intel and basically all the projects except Tech Espionage. But will this mean the tech espionage would always work or can you set the percentage chance that it will work. ie say 10 or 20% chance of sucess?

This is another aspect of the 'sophistication' problem. Attacks are calculated on a fairly simple 'point total vs. point total' basis. There is no factoring in the type of culture/society/government you have defending, nor the ability of agents from the attacker to figure out the culture and move around in it. Also, you can start intel attacks instantly once contact is established. Ridiculous. It should take months or years to establish an intelligence network in a newly contacted empire before any major projects can begin. The amount of time you have invested in building a foundation intel network is completely over-looked in the SE IV system. There should be a special 'Build Intel Network' project that you have to use on each and every target empire in order to even have the ability to stage intel projects within them.