Making spy info more useful

[- Groucho -]

[Apologies in advance to Diablo if this has already been discussed. ]

A feature i would love to see is something that takes the mountain of information you can get through your spies and make it more digestable. For example, if spies allow you to see all your enemy's city screens, you can get a tremendous amount of info but who has the time to read it all each turn?

I would like to have a Spy Chief, who advises me when there is info coming in from my spies that I should be aware of (i.e. Alert: All Zulu cities along your border have switched to military production. Alert: The English have begun nuclear missle production). The Spy Chief should also be customisable, so if there is something specific that your playing style or the current situation requires you to know, you should be able to add that to the things you will be alerted about (i.e. Alert: The Zulus have given the English [blank] technology. Alert: The French have [amount] dollars in their treasury.) These could work like the rules wizard in Outlook.

Any comments?


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Echinda
"That which does not kill you ... will likely try harder the next time."

[AzNtoccata]

How will you determine how much info you get? do you like "station" a spy in a city until the enemy catches it or something?

[- Groucho -]

You could have permanent spies. Or you could just have your spy chief run through its rules everytime you send a spy into another empire on an info gathering run. So if you send a spy into the Zulu nation and choose a general info mission (as opposed to destroy improvement, bribe city etc.) - the quality of your spy and a randomn chance should determine how much info you gather (like SMAC when you tap into someone else's datalinks). Your spy chief then tells you if your spy found anything that is identified in its rules as "interesting". This saves you having to go through a bunch of city screens and poke through a bunch of production queues to see what is up (unless you wanted to, of course).

On a side note, this issue makes me think that kind of info your spy should be able to turn up by just poking around in one city should probably be limited by the extent of the commmunications system in the subject civ. In SMAC it makes sense that by tappping into the network you can find all sorts of info - the same paradigm probably shouldn't apply in ancient egypt.

[Diablo, Bro. of Mephisto]

[actuall, I have never seen this idea before, ]

THis is a great idea. At the beginning of the game, you should be able to 'design' your spy 'master'. Tipe in what stuff you do and do not want him to inform you on. (inform me on: enemy nuclear build up, enemy unit build up, enemy alliances formed, etc.)

[wittlich]

It is an intriguing idea. I more or less understand the concept of a spy performing its intelligence collection (one time shot), but how would the concept of a "permanent spy" work? Any suggestions?

[Diablo, Bro. of Mephisto]

Since you asked about suggestions...

How about having your 'head spy' be part of the high council. He would inform you of stuff just like your other advisors would. And when something ergent comes up in the middle of your turn, a screen pops up, saying whatever urgent news he has to give you.

[New Yorker]

Diablo, why make the spy chief be an extra advisor on the high council, the spy chief should be a expanded job of the foriegn advisor

to Echinda, great idea , your idea would get rid of the mircomanagement krap i have to go through in SMAC

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