Espionage changes-Stardock are you listening?

from Stardock Forums
While I readily admit that GalCiv is a thoroughly addictive game I have found that its notions of "espionage" are decidedly rough and rather unimpressive-I would go so far as to say it's perhaps the worst aspect of the entire game. It's so bad IMHO, that other than using tech to prevent destabilization on my end I don't even bother with it when I play anymore.

For any future projects with GalCiv I would suggest that the developers at Stardock pick up a copy of a game several years old called BIRTH OF THE FEDERATION. Set in Star Trek's next generation universe, this game was pretty ho-hum but when it came to espionage it beat the pants off what is in GalCiv.

By spending money/ building tech/devoting resources you could "invest" in espionage and internal security. Espionage opened up a realm of "events" that would work wonderfully in Galciv's atmosphere; you could learn about mundane things from you rivals, but you could steal technologies, commit acts of sabotage (imagine destroying someone's shipyard for fun, for instance), steal money (like the idea of draining the Yor's coffers?) and even other race's ships! For fun you even had the opportunity in certain situations to IMPLICATE another race for your actions-imagine how useful this could be for wrecking alliances or creating conflict amongst your adversaries. With the other side of the coin with internal security you could prevent these acts from happening to you; depending on your strength in this area you could stamp out "rebellious influences" in your empire and occasionally even obtain valuable information from captured spies.

Something, anything, would be better than what currently passes for "espionage" in GalCiv.
404 views 10 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
I agree for GalCiv 2 they put a lot more effort into espionage, and something like BIRTH OF THE FEDERATION or even MOO3 will give some ideas on what we want.
CursorFX - Customize your Windows cursor
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
Actually, something like this would probably work really well for GalCiv. IIRC, there are already some aspects of this in the code, as some random events are influenced by your espionage spending on another race.

All that would really be required would be to expand the system with more such events, and put in thresholds where you had to have an espionage level of x against a certain race before the event could occur.

This would not only make spying more interesting, it would also make it less predictable. From a user end, it's dead simple to use, as all the changes are 'behind the scenes'.

You could even simplify the whole thing further by consolidating Espionage and Destabilization into one spending slider per race, and at each new level you get both benefits... more information and a more powerful selection of 'espionage events' available to you.
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
It would be intertesting if you could have more options, maybe kind of like the invasion screen where you pick the way you'll be attacking, (traditional warfare, information warfare, etc.) only instead you pick different ways to target morale, economy, military, or improvements (maybe starbases too?). Each method would have its pros and cons. And your espionage ability could not only effect how likely you are to succeed, but how likely other races are to succed against you. (I'm not really clear on what it does at the moment, so this might be covered already.)

Maybe there could even be a chance that your spies could get caught and give away info (and probably lower your relations with that AI) Of course if your espionage is much higher than theirs you could also catch their spies and maybe get free techs.

I don't know how feasible any of this is, just some stuff off the top of my head :)
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
Pax Imperia: Eminent Domain had a well rounded espionage system. You could select certain events like inciting revolts, or stealing technology or ships. Once a mission was selected, it was funded and took time to be completed like a social or military project in galciv. It required more managing than the current system, but you could also fund anti-espionage programs to minimize the AI's epsionage effect on you.
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
Yawn.

You got to really spend on espionage to be able to "Steal Tech" in GC. However, just a minor amount lets you keep up on basic events... such as who is at war and who isn't.

Frankly, I like GC's system. Being able to "specify" before you "start" just added more micromanagement. The fun of dealing with that goes away quickly.

Having more events could be interesting. But you'd end up with MoO1's system them... the more money you spend, the more events you get. You'd get to occasionally "frame" someone else for it, and get to do things like sabotage production, steal tech, cause rebellions. MoO1's system is about as fleshed out in doing stuff and variety that is all that is needed for GC. It would be in GC's style. But I think GC's system is fine without any changes.
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
The espionage system definately needs to be revamped. You should keep the two sliders, but make one of them "internal security" and one of them "espionage". Depending on what techs you research will not only determine how good your security or espionage is but also where it is directed. For instance if you researched a new tech called "fanatacism" you would get a boost in both security and destructive espionage (suicide bombers), whereas "encryption decoding" would give you a boost only in military inteligence. If you make some of these types of techs expensive to research (and very difficult to trade for) then it adds a whole new spin to the game because we would have to decide if we want to research Battleships to protect our planets or a new security measure to protect ourselves from spies :notsure:
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
If you make some of these types of techs expensive to research (and very difficult to trade for) then it adds a whole new spin to the game because we would have to decide if we want to research Battleships to protect our planets or a new security measure to protect ourselves from spies
End of quote


If espionnage is too complicated, it would be easier to acquire tech by trading or invading planet.
Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
I would like the option of sending spies to steal tech or to destroy facilities that the AI's have in their planets. ;)


***********************************************************

Come and Join the GROSS Empire, we are the best, or something like that

Join us link http://www.galciv.com/metaverse/empires.asp?id=272

[Message Edited]