Espionage?

[ASHBERY76]

We have heard nothing about it! What kind of spying system is used?

[LarryP]

You have a special dedicated menu for managing your spies. It's cool!

[HsojVvad]

I have no idea. I hope a good one, and it's fun. Nothing more boring than a bad Esionage system. For exampl Birth of the Federation and Moo3. I feel I have no interaction in them. I loved Moo1 and Moo2 espionage system.

[LarryP]

Here is the menu for Intelligence Agents:

[LarryP]

That Success Probability at the bottom right is real handy. It will give you percentages of success when you assign an agent to each task available.

[Wade1000]

Thanks. The Intelligence screen is not beautiful looking but it seems very well organized and self explanatory. Overall, it seems well done. Some little name, skill, and mission icons might make it a little more interesting to look at. Artwork is an important part of entertainment...as the 'Distant Worlds: Introduction of the alien races.' thread seems to substantiate.

[Hyfrydle]

Good to see an espionage system is implemented this is something I've been meaning to ask.

[jnpoint]

Interesting - what missions can they perform?

[Gertjan]

Good question (again)!

[elliotg]

I quote directly from the in-game Galactopedia article "Intelligence Missions":

Intelligence missions enable you to secretly infiltrate other empires and steal or destroy their assets.

Agents
Intelligence agents are the highly-trained and skilled specialists that you use to accomplish these missions.

Agents become more skilled with each successful mission. The more skilled an agent is, the more difficult a mission they can take on.

Conversely, it only takes one failed mission to get your agent killed or captured, so choose your missions wisely.

Counter intelligence
Counter intelligence is also critical to protect your empire. You can assign agents to prevent enemy intelligence missions – they will actively seek out spies and saboteurs and report any discoveries to you.

Diplomatic fallout
Beware of the negative fallout from botched intelligence missions – if another empire discovers your actions against them it will dramatically lower their estimation of your empire, and could even lead to war.

Mission Types
The following types of intelligence missions are available.

Sabotage Construction
Damage ships under construction at a space port

Steal Territory Map
Steal the territory map of another empire, revealing all of the colonized systems of that empire

Steal Operations Map
Display the locations of all ships and bases of another empire for a short time (approximately 30 seconds)

Steal Research
Steal research information from another empire, enabling you to manufacture better components for building ships and bases

Steal Galaxy Map
Steal the galaxy map of another empire, revealing all of the exploration of that empire

Sabotage Colony
Cause a colony to lose some of its population and lower its development level

Incite Rebellion
Cause an empire to experience a revolution and change of government type. The new government type is difficult to predict – it may or may not be favorable to you

Deep Cover
Infiltrate an empire, providing ongoing intelligence on their Galaxy Map and Operations Map, i.e. you can see all of their ships, bases and colonies. This mission type is ongoing – i.e. if successful, your agent remains in deep cover in the target empire until either you cancel their mission or your agent is detected by the other empire

[Gargantou]

I wish there would be the possibility to organize a terrorist attack that gets blamed on another nation.

I.e. agent of nation X does a terrorist attack against nation Y but makes it look like nation Z is the perpetrator, thus lowering their diplomatic relations.

Oh well, maybe it can be implemented in the future.

[jnpoint]

Thanks for the info, elliotg

[Gertjan]

Very well thought about!

[HsojVvad]

I don't know why, but I find the game more fun when you have espionage that you can be part of. Too bad you can't steal ships though. Maybe in a patch or future update to the game eh?[8D]

[Gertjan]

Stealing ships seems to be too micro for this type of game. More something for a tactical rts like Sins

[Sarissofoi]

Actually you can steal ships.
If youy take colony by invasion you take also all ships in shipyards.

[Webbco]

That's not in the context of spying and espionage though, it's just plain war!

[Justascratch]

Is it possible to have a bulletproof counter intelligence? This was a disappointing possibility in SE5.

Can you run ops to cast suspicion between two enemy empires?

It would be great if a set of internal counterintelligence missions could be developed to mislead the enemy. For example they are informed that their agent succssfully brought back a map, but are unaware that my counter intelligence efforts provided them with a false map etc. I have not seen that depth of play in a 4x before but it could be very cool if implemented correctly.

[Wade1000]

Heh. Cool. They would get new information about a nice available planet. They would send a colony ship to the system and be attacked by a horde of space monsters in an asteroid belt. They also might get sent to a hostile alien empire.

[Erik Rutins]

I haven't been able to "bulletproof" my counter-intelligence so far, but you do catch plenty of enemy plots if you focus on it. Also, as your spies gain skill they can be more effective at any mission. There are also opportunities where you may find out that one empire is plotting against another and you have a choice of whether to reveal that information or not. I ended up effectively starting a war once when I decided to let the target empire know that their enemies were conducting ops against them.