How can I re-hire some new intelligence agents?

[Larsenex]

Its a silly question but perhaps someone can help.

I had TWO agents. Both went on missions against a known Pirate faction. The missions were vital, one was steal Galaxy map other was steal Operations map.

The agent in charge of Galaxy had a 72% success but failed and was Killed!

The other succeeded and I got the Operations map however I could not find any 'bases or targets' for my fleets to attack.

However after succeeded he got a WONDERFUL trait of 'weak' to him. This decreased all his skill by 10%!!!! I promptly FIRED his sorry ass and now I am left with ZERO agents. Alas I regret even this move but must move forward.

How can I get at least one new agent or such? What is required to entice the citizens of my mighty empire to apply for work at the Solarian Intelligence Network (Sin)?

Thanks much!

[TrooperCooper]

Appearance of characters is a random event (for the most part - except for events like "the recent space battle got us a new fleet admiral" etc.) based on your races characteristics. One way to improve the odds is to build the related planetary facilities though. Like for intelligence agents it is the "Spy Academy", which you get from the "Stealth-" technology in the High Tech tree.

[Mansen]

It's a chance event - and specific to your race. Some races are more likely to receive new agents than others. So never sell them short and keep them if you can't spare them.

A 72% still means there is a 28% it fails - roll a 100 sided die enough times and you'll realize never to trust percentage chances. Not even when they are 99% ^^

[Brainsucker]

don't worry, I lost all of my agents in the game recently (as Human) but then they came again and again, now I have 3 agents

[mikeCK]

It's seems to me that in Shadows, you lose agents much easier?? I rarely had agents captured before but now it happens a lot. What's annoying is when I have a 92% chance of stealing a tech and my agent is caught! Seems to happen a lot on these high percentage missions. Is there a different equation for determining if your agent is caught vs the chance of a successful mission? I'm losing a ton of agents and I only do missions where I have above 80% chance of success

[necaradan666]

I always worry about wasting agents, in my current game I've waited over 13 years and still going for a new agent to show up, I have no penalty but it can still take forever if you're not lucky.

[FerretStyle]

ORIGINAL: mikeCK

It's seems to me that in Shadows, you lose agents much easier?? I rarely had agents captured before but now it happens a lot. What's annoying is when I have a 92% chance of stealing a tech and my agent is caught! Seems to happen a lot on these high percentage missions. Is there a different equation for determining if your agent is caught vs the chance of a successful mission? I'm losing a ton of agents and I only do missions where I have above 80% chance of success

Sounds like bad luck. I rarely lose agents and I'll send them when they're at 70% or lower sometimes.

Though it helps to have a good Concealment stat (I'm pretty sure?), so I'm more careful with agents that don't.

[necaradan666]

Not sure, I figured Concealment was the skill used when attempting Deep Cover missions or perhaps it determines if you evade detection regardless of mission success or failure.

I've never lost an agent on a 92% chance though, I only send agents when the mission is yellow risk or higher unless I don't care if they live or die. 92% would be a grey no-risk mission.

[MartialDoctor]

ORIGINAL: Larsenex
The agent in charge of Galaxy had a 72% success but failed and was Killed!

Yes, that can happen. There's still plenty of room, 28%, for failure. If there was a defending agent, he may have been part of your failure.

ORIGINAL: Larsenex
However after succeeded he got a WONDERFUL trait of 'weak' to him. This decreased all his skill by 10%!!!! I promptly FIRED his sorry ass and now I am left with ZERO agents. Alas I regret even this move but must move forward.

Yeah, as you probably now realize, there's your mistake there. Don't fire your last agent... you should have kept him at least until you receive a new one; agents are very valuable. Even weak agents can perform tasks effectively.

[Mansen]

ORIGINAL: mikeCK

...What's annoying is when I have a 92% chance of stealing a tech and my agent is caught! Seems to happen a lot on these high percentage missions. Is there a different equation for determining if your agent is caught vs the chance of a successful mission? I'm losing a ton of agents and I only do missions where I have above 80% chance of success

Alright - Seriously, do me a favour. Find a coin and start throwing it in the air for heads or tails. Are you seeing an equal amount of heads and tails? Aka. 50% - or are you seeing noticeably more of either?

Yeah that's statistics for you - 92% still means 8 of 100 chances of the opposite result. And those 8 can in theory happen 20 times in a row. Only once you start doing large scale tests will the percentages show as you'd expect.

[WoodMan]

@mikeCK

What Empire were you spying/stealing from? If it is a race that has a lot of agents or bonuses on agents I believe that would put your agent in more danger without telling you about it in the % chance (counter intelligence). I'm not sure about this, but that is what I have always assumed. Wasn't Ketarov by any chance was it? [:D]

[mikeCK]

I don't remember the race. It has happened twice on 92% missions... I have had 2 successes on 92% missions. Could be that the change of capture is calculated differently. I have played two games and launched about 20-25 missions. In 5 of those my agents were killed. May be bad luck