Would like a new intelligence model
Does anyone really like the way Intelligence works? The model is terrible in my opinion.
I am glad to see the next patch will fix the Intelligence bug for those who want to use Intelligence, but I would like to see SEIV use a new intelligence model where every operation has a percentage chance to suceed, modified by the racial attributes. This would allow a country with an inferior points or even no points to still survive. Right now it works such that the side with the most points pretty much wins. Give different items different chances to suceed.
Counter Intelligence projects would have a chance to take out the targets projects. Counter Intelligence should not be something you can save up.
I would also like to see a diminishing returns principle if the same attack is used multiple times in one turn. For example stealthing resource might take 10% on the first attack. The second attack would take 10% of the remaining 90%, etc.
Also add something like Loyalty to a race to determine how easy it is to get them to defect. A Ferengi can pretty much be bought, whereas a Vulcan would be very harder to get them to defect. Loyalty would be a modifier to some intelligence operations. Intercepting Messages to other players would be something that would not be modified by a loyalty factor.
Xenophobic races or collective conciousness races should be very hard to infilitrate and conduct intelligence. About all you can do is send some sort of cloaked probes into their empire to gather information.
The more an operation is performed against an advesary, the cheaper the cost. If you stop performing the operation, you gradually lose the discount. I understand this suggestion would be hard to implement as a history would need to be maintained in the turn data to figure the discounts.
I would also like to see a time delay in intelligence projects based on how far the opponent is from the attacker. Just because you have the points should not mean you can start and conclude an operation in one turn. As it stands now, you can launch an intelligence attack clear across the map in one turn, but you cannot move colonists clear across the map in one turn.
My next game will most likely be with Intelligence turned off, even with the next project. There are no tactics to Int combat. It is purely my points against your points. If my attack points exceed your C.I project, my attacks succeed. If I have 200K points and you have 100K points. I get 100K worth of successful attacks that happen instantaneously. If I store up attacks worth 1M and you store up defense worth 500K, I can execute 500K worth of attacks on you in one turn.
The current Intelligence system is like having a combat system where you take the fleet with the least hit points and destroy it. Then the attacker loses ships of equal hit points. It would be a combat system where fleets are combat points: No components, not racial modifers, no weapon trade offs, etc. What you would have would pretty much be the combat system used in the game Risk. We play SEIV because we want more detail, more options, more strategies. The current Intelligence system gives you limited choices: 1) Get the most points, 2) Get enough points to limit what your opponent can do and win with fleets. If your opponent out numbers you in points, there is not really that much you can do as there is no inate defense. The purpose of fleets is to hold off the enemy while you out point him with Intelligence.
In one game, I was up against an empire that took away all my resource every turn. I could not build intelligence facilities to stop him. Forunately, that was back when no maintenance races were possible (which I had), so I did not lose all my fleets for failure to maintain them. My only option in that games was to give my empire to another player who had enough counter intelligence to oppose tht player. It made for a very dissatisying game.
There should be some sort of limit to how much damage an intelligence operation can do. People have comment on the fact that the cheapest way to get a Ring World is to let your opponent create one and take it over using Intelligence. No player should ever build a ring world unless he has equal or greater Intelligence points than his opponent. Maybe the troops on a planet could modify the chances of subverting such a planet into a riot.
I would propose intelligence operations be much more limited in scope:
1) Steal Technology
2) Disrupt resource production (small percentage limit per turn) in a planet or system.
3) Hinder movement (-1 movement point to a fleet)
4) Coup Attempt (create a small force of troops suddenly on a planet to try to take it over)
5) Intercept player Messages
6) Fake player Messages
7) Decrease happiness on a planet, system, or empire wide (limited amount per turn so that this would only add to unhappiness brought by other means).
8) Steal ship designs
9) Report fleet composition.
10) Report population, happiness level, troops, Weapons Platforms, Grounded Fighters, Facilities, etc on a planet.
11) Sabatoge a facility or component on a ship.
The purpose of Intellignece in the game should be to gain information to defeat an opponent militarily and to harass his empire. Intelligence should be a factor to enhance military operations. Intelligence itself would not be a means to victory in itself as it is in the current model.
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