In Beta 6, we will introduce new ways to take actions against a foreign empire. One of them is the introduction of special agents, or more basically spies. So, how is the system going to work?

Special agents are considered as individual characters. Like any individual character, agents have a name and are members of a species. They are recruited on a planet, which is considered to be their planet of origin and which influences their initial loyalty to their empire. Wages are paid to them and after some time they retire from service.

The efficiency of a special agent is determined by several characteristics. While most of these characteristics are static values, they are affected by both the agent’s loyalty to his employer and his experience. Among these characteristics, we can consider abilities (such as stealth, bluff, physical condition, weapons, hacking), loyalty and experience.

A special agent is a powerful tool. It can be used to infiltrate another empire for various purposes or to prevent foreign agents from infiltrating his own; additionally, special agents can help with internal propaganda.

Among the various missions a special agent can perform, are considered training missions (to gain experience), internal missions (counter-intelligence, rebel assassination, etc) and foreign missions (government infiltration, technology theft, sabotage, founds theft, incitement to unrest, etc.).

Each mission implies the use of a set of abilities, lasts for a certain amount of time and might have several kinds of outcomes, depending on the agent’s characteristics compared to the difficulty of the mission: success, partial success, agent spotted, agent captured, agent killed, etc.

What do you think of this special agents concept?

Do you think it can bring new ways to interfere with other empire?

Do you think we should put limits to their use except their wages and availability on various planets?

Do you think it could help smaller players compared to big ones, or that it will make bigger players even more powerful?