I Did It.

[Atrocities]

Ok, how does the counter intel work in SEIV? Is it hard coded, or can we mod it?

Counter Intel 1
Counter Intel 2
Counter Intel 3

If we can mod them, and I doubt we can, then we can beef them up. Each one providing a better use of the Intel points given to them.

Is this possible, and if so how?

[Fyron]

Originally posted by spoon:
Not really, though. With the example you give above, you could just do the 50k project twice -- and there is little difference between defending against two 50k projects and one 100k project.

That works when you have an unlimited number of project spaces. But, SE4 only allows you to perform 12 projects at once. You can do 12 100k projects, but not 24 50k projects.

Originally posted by Atrocities:
Ok, how does the counter intel work in SEIV? Is it hard coded, or can we mod it?

The Effect Amount line of the CI projects determines what the points stored in the project are multiplied by for their effectiveness. For default SE4, this is 1, 2 or 3, depending on level of project.

[ April 08, 2003, 05:23: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

[ZeroAdunn]

I just got to say, this is a crazy cool intel project. Imagine, late in game, entire empires with almost no starships, no stabases, nothing but units and intell facilities. Spending all their money on intell projects to try and blow up enemy shiznit.....

[spoon]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
That works when you have an unlimited number of project spaces. But, SE4 only allows you to perform 12 projects at once. You can do 12 100k projects, but not 24 50k projects.

But that still isn't as big a deal as it seems. Especially with higher costed intel projects, since you won't have the points to do more than one or two per turn anyway. And even with lower cost projects, it only means that you have to put a couple high-cost projects in the queue first so you don't end up wasting points.

I still think it is feasible to mod in 5M point projects (like Blowing Up Planets, which would be so cool!) as long as you drastically increase the maximum level of defense for CI projects. (Something I'd recommend anyway, because it sucks having to micromanage your intel projects to ensure you aren't spending more that 5k on CI in order to maximize it's lifespan...)

So I stick to my point here, higher cost projects aren't significantly more difficult to defend against, and shouldn't be a reason to NOT mod them into a game.

-spoon

[Fyron]

Ok. Micromanage it so that a lot (10 or so) of high-cost projects all finish on the same turn. That will definitely cause them all to succeed. If it is an unbalancing project like PPP or a planet-buster, then there is a big problem.

[Phoenix-D]

"Ok. Micromanage it so that a lot (10 or so) of high-cost projects all finish on the same turn. That will definitely cause them all to succeed."

If your opponent has been putting points in counter intel..it shouldn't.

Say you have equal intel points, he's using CI 1 (i.e. no point modifier). 20k per turn each, half toward attack. You both attack with a 20k project. A attacks one at a time, B attacks en mass with micromanagement.

Turn 1:
A puts 10k into CI, total 10k
B puts 10 into CT, total 10k
A puts 10k into A1, total 10k
B puts 10k into B1, total 10k

Turn 2:
A: 10k CI, 20k total
B: 10k CI, 20k total
A: 10k into A2 (A1, A2 10k each total)
B: attacks with B1: 20k lost from A's defense

Turn 3:
A: 10k CT, 10k total
B: 10k CI, 30k total
A: 10k into A3 (A1-3 10k each)
B: 10k into B2, 10k total

Turn 4:
A: 10k CI, 20k total
B: 10k CI, 40k total
A: 10k into A4 (A1-4 10k each)
B: attacks with B2, 20k lost from A's defense

Turn 5:
A: 10k CI, 10k total
B: 10k CI, 50k total
A: splits into A1-4 (A1-4 12.5k each)
B: 10k into B3, 10k total

Turn 6:
A: 10k CI, 20k total
B: 10k CI, 60k total
A: splits into A1-4 (1-4 15k each)
B: attacks with B3, 20k lost from A's defense

Turn 7:
A: 10k CI, 10k total
B: 10k CI, 70k total
A: aplits into A1-4 (1-4 17.5k each)
B: 10k into B4, 10k total

Turn 8:
A: 10k CI, 20k total
B: 10k CI, 80k total
A: attacks with A1, A2, A3 and A4. 80k lost from B's CI.
B: attacks with B4, 20k lost from A's CI

Net effect: same. The only benifit you get is if your attacks can go over the total amount of CI that can be stored by the other empire- if they use all 12 slots, you'd need a project that costed 500k points or more. In unmodded SE4, all they have to do to ensure they stop this sort of attack is have four CI3 projects. And this if ALL your CI slots are used up with the most costly project.

Phoenix-D

[Fyron]

What was the point of that long post? I know how the intel system works, and I already said that it is very terrible.