Khan Quest
Prince
This may be too long and complicated, but I feel its it better to provide too much info and have the worst ideas weeded out, rather than risking the opportunity to miss a good idea.
I miss the diplomats and spies from the ancient Civilization games. I'd like to see them returned, but functioning in a different way.
But first I need to talk about cities and intelligence. I'd like to be able to right-click on any known city and have a screen pop-up that has all the info I know about that civ. Even if I established an embassy in Berlin in 800 BC and its now 1800 AD and full of Riflemen and when I open the window I see a couple of spearmen, thats better than nothing at all. This screen would also show me the year I learned the info. It should still show whatever production was in progress, and what tiles were being worked, even though the production is long finished and the city twice the size.
Spies would be "built" like any other unit. Upkeep must be paid for spies, planted or not. Graphically, they could appear transparent. Travel must on roaded/railed land tiles. If on a unroaded tile, the spy may move to a roaded/railed tile ASAP or be lost. This isn't a huge expeditionary force; its a handful of ordinary-looking citizens. They could travel on any roaded/railed land tile, whether it has a city or foreign troops, since it won't interact directly with troops.
You could have multiple spies, both in the same city and in different cities. The cost of placing the spy would be determined by a number of factors including city size and cultural level difference (they have to blend in after all). The spy could move freely within the cities boundaries as desired each turn, taking advantage of any roads or rails. Moving a spy out of a cities' radius creates a chance the spy will be revealed. Each tile traveled in the same turn increases the chance of being caught. A spy may be moved from city to city in this manner. A spy can be A spy can not move the turn it is purchased. For a spy to establish residence in another city, it would either be recalled then placed on the following turn (paying the required cost) or moved to a city and the new payment made.
I propose there be five different skill levels of spies. This could be conveniently represented by a health bar (It'll save a little bit of programming anyway). The levels would be Secret Agent, Spy, Veteran Spy, Master Spy and Mole. The higher the spy's skill, the more movement it has.
Level.........Move
Secret Agent..1
Spy...........2
Veteran Spy...3
Master Spy....4
Mole..........5
Tech level and certain improvements will determine what skill level of spy is available.
Level.........Tech Req'd..........City Imp Req'd
Secret Agent..Writing.............NA
Spy...........Map Making & Math...NA
Veteran Spy...NA..................Intel. Agency
Master Spy....Radio...............Intel. Agency
Mole..........(special)...........Intel. Agency
Following a successful mission, a spy has a chance to promote to the next higher skill level. One single spy per adversarial civ may be promoted beyond the maximum level limited by unmet tech/City Improvement requirements. Each civ may have only one mole per adversarial civ.
The skill level of the spy affects what acts they may perform, risk and chance of success. Higher level spies have decreased exposure risk and higher probability of success. A spy may perform a single act per turn. A spy may be recalled instead of performing an act. It will appear in your capital city and may not move or perform any other action for the rest of the turn.
Level.........Action.......................Exposure Risk....Prob of Success
Secret Agent..Investigate City.............Low..............High
..............Hinder Defense...............Moderate.........High
Spy...........Steal Map....................Low..............High
..............Steal Military Plans.........High.............Moderate
..............Expose Enemy Spy.............Low..............Low
Veteran Spy...Steal Technology.............Moderate.........Moderate
..............Propaganda...................Moderate.........Moderate
..............Sabotage Production..........Low..............Moderate
Master Spy....Sabotage City Improvement....Moderate*........Moderate*
..............Hinder production............Low..............High
..............Pillage......................Moderate.........High
..............Reduce Population............Moderate.........Low.
Mole..........Disable Wonder...............Moderate.........Moderate
..............Sabotage Space Ship..........High.............High
Level.........Action.......................$ Cost.....World Opinion
Secret Agent..Investigate City.............Low........BAU
..............Hinder Defense...............Moderate...BAU
Spy...........Steal Map....................Low........BAU
..............Steal Military Plans.........High.......BAU
..............Expose Enemy Spy.............High.......BAU
Veteran Spy...Steal Technology.............High.......Int'l Incident
..............Propaganda...................High.......Int'l Incident
..............Sabotage Production..........High.......Criminal Act
Master Spy....Sabotage City Improvement....High*......Criminal Act*
..............Hinder production............Low........Int'l Incident
..............Pillage......................Low........Criminal Act
..............Reduce Population............Moderate...Henious Crime
Mole..........Disable Wonder...............Moderate...Henious Crime
..............Sabotage Space Ship..........High.......Int'l Incident
BAU - Business as usual (yawn)
Hinder Defense: The cities current defending unit is denied any fortification, city wall or city size bonus (the spy reveals troop placement, access through walls, etc.)
Expose Enemy Spy: This involves counter-espionage and will be discussed later.
Sabotage City Improvement: Any standard city improvement may be destroyed. Exposure risk is high on military improvements is high and probability of success is low. The least outrage of world opinion is on military, commercial and industrial targets, more for educational and extreme outrage for religious targets.
Hinder Production: The spy must be move to the tile. The tile produces the minimum output (as it would during anarchy)
Pillage: As troops can do. The spy must be move to the tile.
Reduce Population: A heinous act indeed.
Disable Wonder: A small wonder's benefits temporarily cease for four turns; A great wonder's benefits temporarily cease for two.
Sabotage Space Ship: A single component may be destroyed.
All four combinations of exposure and mission success are possible. i.e., Not exposed and successful, exposed but successful, exposed and failed, and not exposed but failed. The nationality of an exposed spy has chance of being undiscovered. An exposed spy may not realize it has been exposed.
The target civ may decide what to do with an exposed spy - kill the spy, hold for ransom (I suggested ransom and earlier posts), attempt to turn the spy. A civ that has a turned spy has a chance every turn of uncovering other spies. A turned spy can increase the probability of mission success (with out additional cost) when collaborating, see below. Exposed spies have a chance of escaping (returning to the capital). The chance return is high for a mole. A captured mole appears as some lower level spy. A captured mole has a chance of escaping to it parent civ each turn. Moles can not be turned.
Collaboration - Any number of spies within an adversarial civ may join forces to perform an act. This will increase the probability of success, but cost more - the price for each spy to perform the act must be paid. The chance for exposure is first determined for the highest skilled spy. If exposed, so are all spies of lower skill levels. This process continues for all spies.
A spy who performs an act of espionage has its exposure risk rise dramatically for two turns, before tapering off in two more turns. All spies within that same city have a significantly increased risk of exposure for the remainder of the turn. All other spies within that same civ have a slightly increased risk of exposure for the remainder of the turn.
Spies may be stationed in your own civ for counter-espionage. These spies may be assigned a mission of counter-espionage (for a fee). Each spy increases the chance of exposure of enemy missions, and reduces the probability of success. If a your own spy is in the targeted city, the the chance of exposing the enemy spy, and thwarting its mission is significantly increased. Exposing enemy spies will also be on the counter espionage menu. Of course collaboration applies.
Misinformation - Some of the gathered intelligence may be inaccurate. An investigation of a city, for example, may miss a certain improvement or reveal one that is not there. The misinformation has to be consistent from turn to turn to prevent an exploit, not seeing a temple 3 of 4 times won't fool anyone. Troop strength will appear as a range of +/- 4 troops or +/- 25%, which ever is greater. This applies to troops within a city and tiles not adjacent to the one the spy is in.
One more thing...
Establishing an embassy would remain unchanged. You still get to see the city if you establish an embassy. The ruler is happy to provide a tour of the city (improvements) and countryside (worked tiles) and put all the military in the city on parade.
I miss the diplomats and spies from the ancient Civilization games. I'd like to see them returned, but functioning in a different way.
But first I need to talk about cities and intelligence. I'd like to be able to right-click on any known city and have a screen pop-up that has all the info I know about that civ. Even if I established an embassy in Berlin in 800 BC and its now 1800 AD and full of Riflemen and when I open the window I see a couple of spearmen, thats better than nothing at all. This screen would also show me the year I learned the info. It should still show whatever production was in progress, and what tiles were being worked, even though the production is long finished and the city twice the size.
Spies would be "built" like any other unit. Upkeep must be paid for spies, planted or not. Graphically, they could appear transparent. Travel must on roaded/railed land tiles. If on a unroaded tile, the spy may move to a roaded/railed tile ASAP or be lost. This isn't a huge expeditionary force; its a handful of ordinary-looking citizens. They could travel on any roaded/railed land tile, whether it has a city or foreign troops, since it won't interact directly with troops.
You could have multiple spies, both in the same city and in different cities. The cost of placing the spy would be determined by a number of factors including city size and cultural level difference (they have to blend in after all). The spy could move freely within the cities boundaries as desired each turn, taking advantage of any roads or rails. Moving a spy out of a cities' radius creates a chance the spy will be revealed. Each tile traveled in the same turn increases the chance of being caught. A spy may be moved from city to city in this manner. A spy can be A spy can not move the turn it is purchased. For a spy to establish residence in another city, it would either be recalled then placed on the following turn (paying the required cost) or moved to a city and the new payment made.
I propose there be five different skill levels of spies. This could be conveniently represented by a health bar (It'll save a little bit of programming anyway). The levels would be Secret Agent, Spy, Veteran Spy, Master Spy and Mole. The higher the spy's skill, the more movement it has.
Level.........Move
Secret Agent..1
Spy...........2
Veteran Spy...3
Master Spy....4
Mole..........5
Tech level and certain improvements will determine what skill level of spy is available.
Level.........Tech Req'd..........City Imp Req'd
Secret Agent..Writing.............NA
Spy...........Map Making & Math...NA
Veteran Spy...NA..................Intel. Agency
Master Spy....Radio...............Intel. Agency
Mole..........(special)...........Intel. Agency
Following a successful mission, a spy has a chance to promote to the next higher skill level. One single spy per adversarial civ may be promoted beyond the maximum level limited by unmet tech/City Improvement requirements. Each civ may have only one mole per adversarial civ.
The skill level of the spy affects what acts they may perform, risk and chance of success. Higher level spies have decreased exposure risk and higher probability of success. A spy may perform a single act per turn. A spy may be recalled instead of performing an act. It will appear in your capital city and may not move or perform any other action for the rest of the turn.
Level.........Action.......................Exposure Risk....Prob of Success
Secret Agent..Investigate City.............Low..............High
..............Hinder Defense...............Moderate.........High
Spy...........Steal Map....................Low..............High
..............Steal Military Plans.........High.............Moderate
..............Expose Enemy Spy.............Low..............Low
Veteran Spy...Steal Technology.............Moderate.........Moderate
..............Propaganda...................Moderate.........Moderate
..............Sabotage Production..........Low..............Moderate
Master Spy....Sabotage City Improvement....Moderate*........Moderate*
..............Hinder production............Low..............High
..............Pillage......................Moderate.........High
..............Reduce Population............Moderate.........Low.
Mole..........Disable Wonder...............Moderate.........Moderate
..............Sabotage Space Ship..........High.............High
Level.........Action.......................$ Cost.....World Opinion
Secret Agent..Investigate City.............Low........BAU
..............Hinder Defense...............Moderate...BAU
Spy...........Steal Map....................Low........BAU
..............Steal Military Plans.........High.......BAU
..............Expose Enemy Spy.............High.......BAU
Veteran Spy...Steal Technology.............High.......Int'l Incident
..............Propaganda...................High.......Int'l Incident
..............Sabotage Production..........High.......Criminal Act
Master Spy....Sabotage City Improvement....High*......Criminal Act*
..............Hinder production............Low........Int'l Incident
..............Pillage......................Low........Criminal Act
..............Reduce Population............Moderate...Henious Crime
Mole..........Disable Wonder...............Moderate...Henious Crime
..............Sabotage Space Ship..........High.......Int'l Incident
BAU - Business as usual (yawn)
Hinder Defense: The cities current defending unit is denied any fortification, city wall or city size bonus (the spy reveals troop placement, access through walls, etc.)
Expose Enemy Spy: This involves counter-espionage and will be discussed later.
Sabotage City Improvement: Any standard city improvement may be destroyed. Exposure risk is high on military improvements is high and probability of success is low. The least outrage of world opinion is on military, commercial and industrial targets, more for educational and extreme outrage for religious targets.
Hinder Production: The spy must be move to the tile. The tile produces the minimum output (as it would during anarchy)
Pillage: As troops can do. The spy must be move to the tile.
Reduce Population: A heinous act indeed.
Disable Wonder: A small wonder's benefits temporarily cease for four turns; A great wonder's benefits temporarily cease for two.
Sabotage Space Ship: A single component may be destroyed.
All four combinations of exposure and mission success are possible. i.e., Not exposed and successful, exposed but successful, exposed and failed, and not exposed but failed. The nationality of an exposed spy has chance of being undiscovered. An exposed spy may not realize it has been exposed.
The target civ may decide what to do with an exposed spy - kill the spy, hold for ransom (I suggested ransom and earlier posts), attempt to turn the spy. A civ that has a turned spy has a chance every turn of uncovering other spies. A turned spy can increase the probability of mission success (with out additional cost) when collaborating, see below. Exposed spies have a chance of escaping (returning to the capital). The chance return is high for a mole. A captured mole appears as some lower level spy. A captured mole has a chance of escaping to it parent civ each turn. Moles can not be turned.
Collaboration - Any number of spies within an adversarial civ may join forces to perform an act. This will increase the probability of success, but cost more - the price for each spy to perform the act must be paid. The chance for exposure is first determined for the highest skilled spy. If exposed, so are all spies of lower skill levels. This process continues for all spies.
A spy who performs an act of espionage has its exposure risk rise dramatically for two turns, before tapering off in two more turns. All spies within that same city have a significantly increased risk of exposure for the remainder of the turn. All other spies within that same civ have a slightly increased risk of exposure for the remainder of the turn.
Spies may be stationed in your own civ for counter-espionage. These spies may be assigned a mission of counter-espionage (for a fee). Each spy increases the chance of exposure of enemy missions, and reduces the probability of success. If a your own spy is in the targeted city, the the chance of exposing the enemy spy, and thwarting its mission is significantly increased. Exposing enemy spies will also be on the counter espionage menu. Of course collaboration applies.
Misinformation - Some of the gathered intelligence may be inaccurate. An investigation of a city, for example, may miss a certain improvement or reveal one that is not there. The misinformation has to be consistent from turn to turn to prevent an exploit, not seeing a temple 3 of 4 times won't fool anyone. Troop strength will appear as a range of +/- 4 troops or +/- 25%, which ever is greater. This applies to troops within a city and tiles not adjacent to the one the spy is in.
One more thing...
Establishing an embassy would remain unchanged. You still get to see the city if you establish an embassy. The ruler is happy to provide a tour of the city (improvements) and countryside (worked tiles) and put all the military in the city on parade.
!)
