Updated POW Mechanics
(Thanks to everyone who posted in the POW thread - that helped a lot)
For v2.6, when you rescue a life pod from one of your own ships, any crew will immediately go into the academy pool (with appropriate adjustment for grade) and any officers become immediately available.
When you rescue life pods from other races, there is no longer an immediate interrogation. Instead, the prisoners remain on board until dropped off at a colony with an Imperial Population of at least 1m or transferred to another ship using a new 'Transfer Prisoners' order. The ‘Unload Survivors’ order has been renamed to ‘Unload Prisoners’. Prisoners will include both enlisted personnel and officers and the latter will be listed separately, including their rank level, on board ships and at populations.
When prisoners are at a colony with an Imperial Population of at least 1m and a naval headquarters, and you have established communication with the prisoner race, they will be interrogated. The enlisted prisoners are ‘processed’ at the rate of 5000 per year per naval headquarters. So a colony with four naval headquarters could process 20,000 per year. Each processed enlisted prisoner generates 0.1 intelligence points, which are combined with ELINT intelligence points for the same race. As in v2.5.1, when the intelligence points for a specific alien race reach 100, an intelligence event is generated and the total is reduced by 100. The total enlisted prisoners for each alien race at a colony are listed separately, along with the percentage that have been processed.
Officer prisoners are treated differently. All officers at a suitable colony are interrogated simultaneously, but it may take some time for them to give up useful intelligence. The percentage chance of ‘processing’ a given officer in any given increment is equal to:
Number of Naval Headquarters * 200 * (Increment Length / Year) * Interrogation Modifier.
So assuming the Interrogation Modifier is 1, the chance of successful interrogation during a 5-day increment on a planet with a single naval headquarters is about 2.75%. On a planet with four naval headquarters over the course of a month, the chance is about 50%. Note this is not simulating getting someone to talk, but rather extracting useful intelligence from that discussion.
The Interrogation Modifier is equal to (Determination + Xenophobia) / (50.0 * Rank Level)
For example, a prisoner of rank level 2 (one above the lowest rank for that race), with determination and xenophobia of 50 each, will have a modifier of 1. Higher rank or higher determination and xenophobia will make the prisoner harder to break down and vice versa.
An officer that is ‘processed’ will generate a base intelligence level equal to (Rank Level + 1)^3. For example, the lowest ranked officer of an alien race will have a base intelligence level of 8. Level 2 officers will have a base intelligence level of 27, level 3 will have 64 and level 4 will have 125. Once that is determined, there will be two random rolls based on a range from 1 to the base intelligence level, which are added together to generate intelligence points. For example, a L2 officer will generate two rolls from 1 to 27 and the results added together will be the resulting number of intelligence points.
It is possible for a L3 officer, and likely for a L4 officer, to generate an intelligence event based on solely on their interrogation. If senior officers are captured, it may be worth transporting them to colonies with multiple naval headquarters if timely intel is required.
Non-hostile ‘prisoners’ may also be interrogated, although the value of intelligence provided is lower because the amount of persuasion involved will be correspondingly lower. Prisoners from neutral races provide 50% of normal intelligence points, friendly provide 20% and allied 10%.
Captured officers and crew will be freed if held at a planet that is subsequently liberated, or on board a ship that is captured. When a ship surrenders, its crew and any officers on board will become prisoners on their own ship.
A new tab on the Economics window shows either the prisoners at the current pop, or all prisoners in the Empire. For each officer prisoner or group of enlisted, the tab shows their current location (population or ship), number of naval headquarters (for populations), system, name and rank (including rank level) for officers or number of enlisted and the processing status.
I will add a picture here of the tab in the future, as at the moment it would have spoilers for my current campaign.
Hostile prisoners may be executed, or spaced depending on their current location, using a button on the new POW tab. Non-hostile prisoners may be released instead. Releasing non-hostile prisoners immediately removes them from their ship or population location and will generate a diplomatic boost (from the perspective of the prisoner race) equal to 10% of their intelligence point value. This diplomacy boost will be reduced by 75% if they have already been processed.
