Broken Intel?

[tbontob]

In the Are You Tough Enough to be the King of the Hill thread, Fyron had this to say:
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There are a few things that are horribly horribly broken in SE4 (such as intel)...
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And in the same thread Geoschmo said:
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Well, I don't want to turn this into a thread about the plusses or minuses of intel. The problems with the system are well documented.
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Plus and minuses of intel, well documented? I can't seem to find it. Just bits and snippets here and there.

Anyways, can anyone give me an idea of what is wrong with intel?

[Askan Nightbringer]

The main problem with Intel is that its far easier to defend than it is easy to attack.
With Counter Intel II you only have to defend with half the points your opponent is using to attack. If you have enough resources to overwhelm the enemy with Intel you could most likely overwhelm them with ships.

Askan

[Ruatha]

I'd rather like to know myself.
Sofar all I've seen is opinions wheter it's a good system or not.
I rather like it but still it can be improved.
Like spies that can be trained for different tasks.

[tbontob]

Originally posted by Askan Nightbringer:
The main problem with Intel is that its far easier to defend than it is easy to attack.
With Counter Intel II you only have to defend with half the points your opponent is using to attack. If you have enough resources to overwhelm the enemy with Intel you could most likely overwhelm them with ships.

Askan

Good point! And at Counter-Intel III (unmodified racial characteristic set at 100%)it is worse at 3.6 times protection.

But is that what Fyron means when he claims it is broke?

I am wondering if he is referring to something more fundamental?

[Ragnarok]

I think Fyron mostly don't like the fact that it's all or nothing. If you can get through their intel defense then you will always succeed in your action against the other empire. Whereas if you don't, well then of course it fails.
I'm sure there are other reasons why he don't like the intel system. But that's just one I know he doesn't like. Which for that matter, I don't like it either.

[spoon]

Originally posted by Askan Nightbringer:
The main problem with Intel is that its far easier to defend than it is easy to attack.

Given the effectiveness of some of the intel attacks, this is probably a good thing. When I think of intel being "broken" its because of a few overpowered, undercosted attacks:

- Crew Insurrection (steals a ship for 50k)
- Resource Procurement (steals 10k of each resource for 15k)
- Food Contamination (kills 100M population for 15k)
- Comm Mimic (makes one empire declare war on another for 20k

To me, it is another part of the game that needs to be balanced by MM, or modded, to really shine. As it is now, Intel is something experienced players use to torment less experienced players (or Fyron, who refuses to build enough counterintel out of moral obligation )

-spoon

[ March 07, 2003, 17:48: Message edited by: spoon ]