Spy/Informant Automation?

[Anxiety]

Hey folks... I'm still a bit new on this, though I seem to have my automation set to have Basic Spy/Informant coverage enabled, I have yet to see any informants/spies recruited and assigned missions without my intervention. I have played three games this way and find that unless I continually do it myself, nothing gets done. What takes away from this is that if you play at 5X or 10X and manually recruit/assign spies and informants, the results of their missions are almost instantaneous, which means you could spend the greater portion of a game just sitting on this screen recruiting and assigning. Though I sometimes like to do this, I don't want to have to do this when other more important things are going on. Such as the Frashkins arming pirates against me.

Any ideas on what I may be doing wrong?
-Anxiety

[EricLarsen]

Anxiety,
I too tried the spy automation in my first game and it didn't work. I know the AI players sure get their 100% spy coverage but it seems like the automation for the human player is broken. I think it makes one informant/spy and then figures it's work for us humans is done. Definitely not like the automation of freighter routes which it handles very well.
Eric Larsen

[Andrew Ewanchyna]

The AI only offers basic coverage for Spies and Informants. This is for the gathering of basic intelligence only. Think of it as training wheels. If you want a spy/informant to do something, then you have to send it on a mission. Only you can decide what you want your spies to do, otherwise, they'll stay in the background.

[Anxiety]

Eric, Andrew:

Thank you for your rapid responses... That explains a good bit -- but I haven't seen the automation even try to recruit a spy or informant. That's why I have had the impression that nothing seems to be happening. But it may be that the basic coverage still provides some type of espionage even if there aren't any units allocated for such?

BTW, had this title for over two weeks now and cannot recall ever playing another title as often and as eagerly as this one. Just having a terrific time with this one. I can honestly say money very well spent...

-Anx

[EricLarsen]

Originally posted by Andrew Ewanchyna
The AI only offers basic coverage for Spies and Informants. This is for the gathering of basic intelligence only. Think of it as training wheels. If you want a spy/informant to do something, then you have to send it on a mission. Only you can decide what you want your spies to do, otherwise, they'll stay in the background.

Andrew,
Anxiety and I are both trying to point out that the human automation of spy coverage is lax in even building basic informants or spies. While the AI spy automation is good at providing an AI player with 100% coverage, not to mention nasty deeds, the human spy automation is broken and does not provide 100% coverage. In my one game against 2 AI opponents I had only 1 informant on one of the 3 alien worlds. That was on the beginner level, a level where you'd think the automation would be the best.
Eric Larsen

[dragoniv]

I've played through four or five games in the three days I've had this game--here's what I've seen regarding spies and informants:

The computer will never build more than one Spy or Informant. As Andrew mentioned, at that point you have 100% basic coverage and no more spies or infomants will be built for that planet.

That being said, the computer is pretty lax about building them at all. Sometimes it builds them in droves, other times it finds other things much more important.

Do as I do--once you get comfortable with the game, don't trust the computer for any important things, like spies and freighters. Kudos to Andrew regarding automatic combat, though--only occasionally do I find it doing weird things, the rest of the time it's brutally efficient.

Actually, on another topic--regarding combat--why do my fighters leave enemies alone once they've disabled their drives? I want to blow them out of the water, but my ships ignore them like they don't exist. Manual control doesn't help either--the game thinks the battle is over. No fair!!

[EricLarsen]

Originally posted by dragoniv
Actually, on another topic--regarding combat--why do my fighters leave enemies alone once they've disabled their drives? I want to blow them out of the water, but my ships ignore them like they don't exist. Manual control doesn't help either--the game thinks the battle is over. No fair!!

dragoniv,
I guess the program considers them as targets for boarding and taking the ship over. But I'm with you, the heck with boarding just let me blow them out of my sky so I never, ever have to deal with them again.
Eric Larsen

[dragoniv]

boarding---ahhhh, that's what those assault shuttles are for!

I'll have to try that one of these days. I don't typically use assault shuttles--they take up room that I could spend on a pair of generators. Nothing better than a ship that NEVER loses its multi-phase shields!

[EricLarsen]

Originally posted by dragoniv
I'll have to try that one of these days. I don't typically use assault shuttles--they take up room that I could spend on a pair of generators. Nothing better than a ship that NEVER loses its multi-phase shields!

dragoniv,
Don't forget to check for the dreaded self-destruct mechanism before trying to board or I guess you'll lose your assualt pod and troopers.
Eric Larsen