Espionage Teams

[SteveAlt (OP)]

Espionage Rules

In v3.2 the commander Espionage bonus has been reactivated and you can create Espionage Teams. Using the Personnel/Teams sections of the Economics window, you can direct each Espionage team in the currently selected population to conduct operations against a single alien population on the same planet. If you have more than one team they can operate against the same alien Empire or different ones.

A team will generate a number of espionage points equal to its rating each year. If a team is used against a population of a different species, the number of points generated is halved. To avoid a lot of potential complexity, a team's species is based on its commander. If a team is used against a race with which communication has not been established, the number of points generated is reduced by eighty percent. If the target population is less than ten million, the number of points generated is multiplied by (population in millions /10).

When the total espionage point accumulated against an alien race exceeds 100, the total is reduced by 100 and an espionage check is made. A random number is rolled and the check is performed against one of the following areas:

1) Technology: The team attempts to get technical information on an alien background technology. This is handled in the same way as technology found in ruins so for the check to be successful there must be at least one technology  possessed by the alien race for which you have the prerequisites but not the actual tech. If there is more than one eligible tech, a random selection is made. If there are no eligible techs, the check fails and you get nothing.

2) Missile: The team attempts to get technical information on an alien missile. If successful, you can build the missile but you can't duplicate the technology in missiles of your own design. If there is more than one alien missile for which you don't already have technical information, a random selection is made. If there are no eligible missiles, the check fails and you get nothing.

3) Gravitational Survey Data: The team attempts to get complete gravitational survey data for a system. Eligible systems are those of which your Empire and the target Empire both have knowledge but only the target Empire has complete survey data. If there is more than one qualifying system, a random selection is made. If there are no qualifying systems, the check fails and you get nothing. If this is successful, any jump points in the system become charted.

4) Geological Survey Data: The team attempts to get complete geological survey data for a system. Eligible systems are those of which your Empire and the target Empire both have knowledge but only the target Empire has flagged the systems as surveyed. A system will be flagged if all system bodies have been surveyed or is an automated survey fleet could not find a target within ten billion kilometres. If there is more than one qualifying system, a random selection is made. If there are no qualifying systems, the check fails and you get nothing. If this is successful you will receive all geological survey data for system bodies within the system that the target Empire has surveyed.

5) New System: The team attempts to get information on new systems. Eligible systems are those of which your Empire is unaware but the target Empire has located. If there is more than one qualifying system, a random selection is made. If there are no qualifying systems, the check fails and you get nothing. If this is successful, you gain knowledge of the system but no survey data.

6) Class Summary. The team attempts to get summary information on an alien ship design. The information provided is the class summary page from the Class Design window. Eligible classes are non-Obsolete designs for which you don't already have the summary information. If there are no eligible classes, the check fails and you get nothing. If you are successful, the summary will be shown for the appropriate class on the tactical intelligence window using a new third tab. If you already have some information on the class due to sensors but don't already have the correct class name, this will be updated and you will be informed about it. If you have no existing information, a new alien class record will be created.

There is a chance an espionage team will be captured or killed. This annual chance of this happening is equal to (150 - Team Skill)/2, with a minimum chance of 10%. If a team is killed, you lose the team but suffer no further penalty. If a team is captured (one third chance), the capturing Empire gains from 1-100 espionage points against your Empire.

Additional areas will be added over time and suggestions for new areas are very welcome.

Steve

[Erik L]

Known alien contacts.

If the race has any diplomatic contacts with a third race, that should be able to be gotten.

[Steve Walmsley]

In addition to the Espionage Points generated by teams, you can also gain Espionage points by interogating captured prisoners. For every ten crew you rescue from life pods you get one Espionage Point. Every captured officer will generate a number of Espionage Points equal to his rank cubed. So if the lowest rank is lieutenant commander, he will only be worth 1 Espionage Point (1x1x1). A commander would be worth 8 Espionage points (2x2x2) while a captain would be worth 27 Espionage points and a Commodore 64 (no computer pun intended ) Espionage points, etc. With this rule, sending a Vice Admiral (216 EP) into harms way because he has a high crew training attribute may not be a great idea. It will also become very worthwhile to rescue your crews to avoid them being captured by the enemy.

Unlike teams, there is no penalty for different species. The penalty with teams is due to the fact they cannot blend in with the target population. With the interrogation of prisoners that is no longer a concern. The 80% penalty for lack of comms still applies.

Steve

[Erik L]

In addition to the Espionage Points generated by teams, you can also gain Espionage points by interogating captured prisoners. For every ten crew you rescue from life pods you get one Espionage Point. Every captured officer will generate a number of Espionage Points equal to his rank cubed. So if the lowest rank is lieutenant commander, he will only be worth 1 Espionage Point (1x1x1). A commander would be worth 8 Espionage points (2x2x2) while a captain would be worth 27 Espionage points and a Commodore 64 (no computer pun intended ) Espionage points, etc. With this rule, sending a Vice Admiral (216 EP) into harms way because he has a high crew training attribute may not be a great idea. It will also become very worthwhile to rescue your crews to avoid them being captured by the enemy.

Unlike teams, there is no penalty for different species. The penalty with teams is due to the fact they cannot blend in with the target population. With the interrogation of prisoners that is no longer a concern. The 80% penalty for lack of comms still applies.

Steve

There should be some negative diplomatic adjustment IF the race with the prisoners being taken is aware of the fact.

[Steve Walmsley]

There should be some negative diplomatic adjustment IF the race with the prisoners being taken is aware of the fact.

Yes, I was considering that. The officer information already states "Suspected POW held by Race X" if an officer is captured, but its very difficult to know (in programming terms) if one race knows if another race captured its officers or crew. Even if you saw hostile warships capturing your crew, how would you know if they were going to be interrogated and even if you did, blowing up your ship in the first place is probably more of a cause for a negative diplomatic impact even if the two nations are not already at war. If they are at war then I think both sides would interrogate prisoners as a matter of course without any negative diplomatic impact beyond that caused by the war. Also, would not rescuing the crew be worse than rescuing them (in diplomatic terms)? It's not a straightforward area.

Steve

[Charlie Beeler]

Hmmm,  Are you planning a counter espionage team or mission for the existing team?  

Race A emplaces a team to gather intel on Race B.  Race B wishing to hide something has tasked a team to perform a counter intel mission.  At some level the skill level of the counter team reduces the effectiveness of the gathering team.  Possibly even a chance of the counter team "capturing" the gathering team.

[Doug Olchefske]

Hmmm,  Are you planning a counter espionage team or mission for the existing team?  

Race A emplaces a team to gather intel on Race B.  Race B wishing to hide something has tasked a team to perform a counter intel mission.  At some level the skill level of the counter team reduces the effectiveness of the gathering team.  Possibly even a chance of the counter team "capturing" the gathering team.

Ditto.
If there is no such counter-intelligence, please let them be an optional feature.

[SteveAlt (OP)]

At the moment there are no counter-espionage teams, although I am open to being persuaded otherwise. The two main reasons are:

1) Espionage teams, like tech scanning, are a way for weaker empires to catch up a little to stronger empires and also to throw a little more uncertaintly into the mix. A stronger empire can probably build more teams than a weaker empire and will gain more intelligence in terms of enemy systems and class data but in terms of technology there is probably less for them to learn. If the greater number of teams from a stronger empire were used in a counter-espionage role then it would likely prevent the weaker empire from gaining any knowledge, which would defeat my intent in creating the espionage rules.

2) Espionage in this context represents more than sneaking into hostile countries. It also includes signals intelligence and perhaps doing something as simple as watching news reports or buying consumer goods and taking them apart to learn about their underlying tech. In real world terms, weaker nations have a great deal of technology invented in stronger nations and most of it is effectively given away. They can also often gain useful intelligence by watching CNN. None of this can be prevented by counter-espionage. Or put another way, if an alien race sneaked agents on to Earth, how much do you think they could learn about the planet and its defences without ever leaving their apartment?

In terms of teams (of any type) being optional, they are optional in the sense that you can choose not to build them, either playing solo or as an agreement between players.

Steve

[Charlie Beeler]

Counter teams could represent dis-information being distributed to the press as well.  etc etc etc