Impermanence of Infiltration ?

[johndmuller]

In an PBEM, I infiltrated another human player while we were Pacted. It behaved like one would expect, it asked first whether I wanted a probe action or to just continue; I did the probe action, selected infiltrate and gained the infiltration status (didn't lose my probe either ). As pactmates, I could already see all their stuff, but I could tell infiltration was successful because now their current builds were displayed on the map. A short time later, we unpacted and - surprise - I no longer had infiltration status ! What gives? I admit that it is a little unfair to infiltrate pactmates, but after all . . . . I had to reinfiltrate them (and lost the probe while getting the second infiltration).

If this is standard behavior instead of a fluke of some kind, do you always lose infiltration when you unpact, even if you had originally gotten it the hard way - before you made the pact? If so, that's nasty business .

On a related subject, can you tell if another human player has infiltrated you? If so, how?

[vitamin j]

JDM:

That's weird that you would lose infiltration like that. I'll be sure to keep that in mind.

I don't think there's any way to tell if you've been infiltrated or not, short of "testing" them either through diplomacy or production. Obviously, if they exhibit an unusual amount of knowledge about your faction at the negotiation table you can guess you've been infiltrated. You could deliberately mislead them as to your capabilities, and see how they respond. Also, if a third faction has dealings with the faction you suspect, you might learn from them, for a price, if they have been discussing the intimate details of your activities...

Alternatively, if you have infiltrated them, you could change all your bases to arms or probe manufacture and see if/how their own production changes in response. You might deduce infiltration that way. Even if you haven't infiltrated them, if they seem to have an answer to your every move, like trance defenders everywhere when you've gone for a mind worm force, or ecm units when you've invested heavily in rovers, etc., you might guess you've been infiltrated.

I don't know, just some ideas. One might benefit considerably by playing AS IF everyone has infiltration on you. In the MP environment, if you are infiltrated by only one player, you have to consider that they may be selling your secrets to others...