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Stellaris Dev Diary #197: Operations and Assets

*** CLASSIFICATION LEVEL A3 - EYES ONLY - DO NOT DISTRIBUTE
NOTE: FIND WHOEVER DID THE POOR JOB OF REDACTING THIS DOCUMENT, RELIEVE THEM OF THEIR DUTIES, AND DELIVER THEM TO DEEP SPACE BLACK SITE X-23 IMMEDIATELY. I WISH TO HAVE A LONG CONVERSATION WITH THEM.
- "GOLD SLUG", PLIFF-PLAFF HEIRARCHY INTELLIGENCE

Hello!

Today we’re going deeper into some of the things you can do with the Spy Networks your envoys carefully built up last week.

As noted there, building up a Spy Network will passively provide Intel on the empire they are in as their Infiltration Level increases. (This was previously called “Spy Network Level” but has been renamed for clarity.) Once they've built up enough strength, you can choose to run Operations within the empire. A strong Spy Network can have sufficient bandwidth to run multiple Operations simultaneously.

Like First Contact, Operations use a variant of the Archaeology system first introduced in Ancient Relics. Unlike Archaeology and First Contact, however, when Operations complete objectives necessary to complete their mission, they usually do not require your intervention unless something important has come up.

When starting an Operation, you have the option of assigning a single Asset to the mission.

Operations have an energy credit cost to initiate as well as energy upkeep while ongoing. Most Operations pause for your final approval before they initiate their final step, but your operatives can be given permission to launch as soon as it is ready in the UI.

Covert missions are a little tricky, and sometimes things are a little unpredictable. If problems arise during the mission, your spymaster may contact you seeking guidance. Do you provide them with additional resources to bribe the problem away, have them dedicate a larger portion of the Spy Network to the mission (assuming they have any unallocated Infiltration available), or do you scrap the mission and leave the Asset assigned to the mission out to dry? Likewise, even when things go according to plan, sometimes your operatives have to take what they can get - while other times they may stumble upon far more than they expected.

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Yes, you can run operations within a hive.

Completing Operations often has an impact on your Infiltration Level - some resources get compromised or otherwise unusable, and depending on the Operation you performed, a hornet’s nest of security may have been stirred. If you had an Asset assigned to the Operation, you will often be given a chance to use them as a scapegoat, burning them to protect the rest of the Network.

Operation Types

We’ve split Operations into four different categories, and here’s a more detailed summary of each type and a few of the Operations we’re planning. (As always with in-development sneak peeks, these are subject to change.)

Subterfuge Operations are common Operations that work to improve the state of the network or do good old fashioned spying on the target empire. Gather Information, Acquire Asset, and Steal Technology are examples of planned Subterfuge Operations.

Sabotage Operations are dedicated to destruction of tangible or intangible things. Sabotage Starbase and Diplomatic Incident are examples of planned Sabotage Operations.

Manipulation Operations twist the truth and replace it with better truths that serve your empire’s needs. Smear Campaign and Extort Favors are examples of planned Manipulation Operations.

Provocations are the most extreme Operations that are almost guaranteed to have blowback. These tend to be relatively difficult to pull off but have major results. Arm Privateers is an example of a Provocation.

Okay, enough of that.

Examples of Operations

Gather Information
(Subterfuge) is one of the simplest Operations, requiring an Infiltration of 20 or higher to initiate. Your spymaster will send their operatives out to, well, covertly gather information. After a relatively short period of time the spymaster will deliver a dossier containing the intelligence to you, which might grant a bonus to current Intel level or provide an Intel Report granting increased Intel on a category for a time period.

It’s not the most glamorous of missions, but should rarely backfire in a spectacular manner. Since Intel decays slowly (currently set to 1 point per year), the Gather Information Operation provides a fairly consistent way to learn more about the galaxy.

Assigning an Asset to the mission will skew the results towards the Asset’s interests, significantly increasing the chance of getting an Intel Report targeting the empire’s Government, Diplomacy, Military, Economy, or Technology.

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Many Jeferians died to bring us this work-in-progress screenshot.

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Operations do not always produce the same results.


Steal Technology (Subterfuge, Technology) is another one that has created a stir on the forums. Through a variety of means, your agents will attempt to gain access to the research databases of the target. Depending on how things go, several outcomes could occur - they might be able to get some hints as to how a technology works (granting it as a research option and providing some progress), they may be able to leave a backdoor (increasing your empire’s research speed for a time), or if things get messy, they could just destroy whatever research they can (inflicting penalties on the target). Your operatives can only take research that your empire has the hope of understanding, so you must meet all appropriate prerequisites.

This leads to an interesting situation where you ideally want to be spying on an empire of greater technological prowess than your own, but that in itself is riskier since they may have a better chance of catching your operatives.


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These blueprints are like an Escher drawing.

The Enigmatic Engineering Ascension Perk will block these attempts, as it makes your technology impossible for other empires to reverse-engineer. The spying empire will not know this, however, until they try.

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The Sensor Range effect has been replaced as well.

Smear Campaign (Manipulation, Diplomacy) is dedicated to working against the relationship two empires may have. After the first chapter completes, you'll have the choice of which relationship you wish your operatives to attempt to diminish. Later, your agents will inform you of the tactics they want to use, with different schemes proposed based on the nature of the selected empires.

In this example, I'm trying to create rifts within a nearby federation by running Smear Campaigns.

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And finally my agents have informed me that they're ready to unleash misinformation upon an unsuspecting foe.

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Meanwhile, over in the Ztrakpor Confederated Domains...
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Since their Counter-Espionage measures did not detect our shenanigans, it seems that our agents chose to kick things up a notch and add sabotage of research facilities to the false charges. They've caught wind of our false-flag operation as if they had actually uncovered an operation being being performed by their so-called ally!

The galaxy shall hear of this!

Assets

Assets have been mentioned a few times now, and the Acquire Asset (Subterfuge, Government) is the most consistent way to gain them. It’s possible to gain Assets through random events during other Operations, but tempting them into your service is much more reliable.

Each Asset has two categories they excel at - one of each from Subterfuge, Sabotage, or Manipulation, and Government, Diplomacy, Military, Economy, or Technology. When an Operation is initiated, you can assign the Asset to be part of it, and for each category that matches, the Asset will make completing the mission easier.

Assets in regular empires are generally everyday people - a disgruntled bureaucrat, an ambitious criminal underling, or a sympathetic pop icon. In gestalt empires, they may be deviant drones that your operatives have found a way to utilize to their advantage, or they might be objects that they have taken control of - a damaged pheromone emitter, a deviant labor drone, a hacked coordination system, or a virus introduced into an engagement protocol.

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Blorg. James Blorg.

Hask'Endek here specializes in Subterfuge and Government related activities, making them especially effective when assigned to the Acquire Asset mission. It turns out that having a bureaucrat able to sift through government records to find other potential marks is incredibly helpful!

If complications arise, having an expendable lackey around to take the fall for your operatives can also be attractive. While you may lure them into service with promises of support and glory, they’re really just pawns in your greater galactic schemes. Often, their true fate is to be "cleaned up" as a loose end to preserve the Spy Network's Infiltration Level after an Operation completes.

That's it for this week. Next week I plan on going over some of the other, nastier Operations.
redacted.png


See you then!
 
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Also, small operation that I would love to see: ghost fleets. Make it look like there's a fleet headed to one of their systems in an effort to pull their own ships out of position.

You're not actually doing anything to their ships. (Personally I think I would hate it if the enemy could actually sabotage my fleet.) You're just sending up the "Fleet Detected" alert and painting something on their map. What they do about that is on them.
 
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Fair point, but I should have the option to start the Space Trojan Wars over a Pop Idol or imperial princess asset. We should have the option of 'using up' an Asset by basically taking them away. Sure it might not have any actual benefit, but I WANT THEM.

If the target nation has any issues with me liberating one of their oppressed citizens from their clutches, they can take issue with my liberty beams.

Rather then liberating assets, why not liberate populations? I could totally see a "rescue populations" operation against slavers, where you try to free a large population and the relocate them to your empire. Whether they remain free depends on your ethics of course, but honestly they should have checked before they left, right? :p I'm not sure if you should be able to "rescue" non-slaves though, maybe with special civics like criminal heritage? I'd love to be a proper people smuggling evil mega-corporation.

Adding an "Extract Asset" button to retire an asset would be fairly simple though. Effectively an [X] button, but for RP those are great.

Might be a little late in development to add/tweak this

Seeing as a normal Megacorp relies entirely on its ability to have good relationships with other empires in the galaxy in order to conduct trade/commerce, could a Criminal Syndicate's play style revolve completely around its ability to infiltrate and spy on other empires? I love playing as Megacorps, but in all honesty Criminal Heritage doesn't change the play style as dramatically as it should (in my opinion). This update would be the perfect time to specialize such a cool civic to actually have a game changing impact. A Megacorp with criminal heritage and gospel of the masses using its cultish devotion of its followers to spy on the internal workings of an empire, slowly deviating its ethics and destroying it from the inside would be such an engaging and different way to play the game. Essentially how a genocidal empire focuses entirely on destroying everyone else thru war and zero diplomacy (drastically different way to play compared to normal empires) a Crime Syndicate could focus on destroying/enslaving/puppeting everyone else by internal means rather than external conquest, while at the same time generating an insane amount of trade value. A waiting game, and not an easy one either, but very rewarding if pulled off. I could see in multi-player games the Crime Corp player being the quite one all game, making side deals with other players to totally screw their enemies homeworlds by increasing crime and ethic deviation.

Ideal set up: Voidborn Megacorp with Criminal Heritage, Gospel of the Masses, and (later in game) Corporate Death Cult

I am 100% down for criminal heritage branch office establishment to be fully through espionage. I think this would make them much more interesting to play around with.
 
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This looks all very cool, I was intially not a fan of the idea of having espionage in this game, but I am pleasently surprised so far.



Does this mean there is finally a possibility to break up federations? Is there a chance that AIs will leave a federation if they are unhappy? That would make the game so much more fun! Currently, the galaxy often turns into a hug box in late game.
At the very least it should hit the federation's cohesion pretty hard.
 
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This sounds fantastic, can't wait for release.

I also think more interaction with pre-FTL planets would be great, especially with this system - anyone else remember the classic Star Trek episode where the Klingons were secretly advancing and arming a particular faction that lived on a strategically convenient world?
I hope there's more of a rework of how pirates and privateers work as well, if they're being roped into Espionage, there could be real story potential in them but not if they're still a randomly-spawning nuisance.
 
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Do you have plans for military intelligence part for spy missions? it seems silly that we know how much fleet strength of hostile empires when our history of warfare are full of military gambits like McClellan believing a whole army of confederates when there was only one brigade or the Imperial Japanese fleet switching their main gun calibers when war broke out. Wars might be more interesting if commanders think their ships are 20% weaker than they actually are due to a failed intelligence gathering.
 
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Might be a little late in development to add/tweak this

Seeing as a normal Megacorp relies entirely on its ability to have good relationships with other empires in the galaxy in order to conduct trade/commerce, could a Criminal Syndicate's play style revolve completely around its ability to infiltrate and spy on other empires? I love playing as Megacorps, but in all honesty Criminal Heritage doesn't change the play style as dramatically as it should (in my opinion). This update would be the perfect time to specialize such a cool civic to actually have a game changing impact. A Megacorp with criminal heritage and gospel of the masses using its cultish devotion of its followers to spy on the internal workings of an empire, slowly deviating its ethics and destroying it from the inside would be such an engaging and different way to play the game. Essentially how a genocidal empire focuses entirely on destroying everyone else thru war and zero diplomacy (drastically different way to play compared to normal empires) a Crime Syndicate could focus on destroying/enslaving/puppeting everyone else by internal means rather than external conquest, while at the same time generating an insane amount of trade value. A waiting game, and not an easy one either, but very rewarding if pulled off. I could see in multi-player games the Crime Corp player being the quite one all game, making side deals with other players to totally screw their enemies homeworlds by increasing crime and ethic deviation.

Ideal set up: Voidborn Megacorp with Criminal Heritage, Gospel of the Masses, and (later in game) Corporate Death Cult

I wholeheartedly agree. This honestly sounds amazing. If we don't see something like this in this patch, maybe a smaller one before the next big update could implement something like this?

The more divergent methods of play and can get, the better. Some of the most unique and interesting additions to the game have come in the form of game changing civics, and wholly different empire types. The Megacorp DLC stands out as an expansion that got *very* close to offering an entirely different way to play, but didn't quite hit the mark. Megacorporations just aren't different enough from regular empires, their incentives and optimal means are just too similar. Imagine an empire that conquers the galaxy not through warfare, but through subtle manipulations. A bribed official here, a favorable law passed there; boom, McDonalds is now the new defacto government. They don't technically own your planet, but the corporate buildings of their local branch office tower over those of the government. *That* sounds like something I'd be willing to pay a lot for. Given the new espionage system, this is closer to being a reality than ever before.

Honestly, I just want to play as space CIA. Even better would be corporate space CIA.

The more divergent methods of play and can get, the better. Some of the most unique and interesting additions to the game have come in the form of game changing civics, and wholly different empire types. The Megacorp DLC stands out as an expansion that got *very* close to offering an entirely different way to play, but didn't quite hit the mark. Megacorporations just aren't different enough from regular empires, their incentives and optimal means are just too similar. Imagine an empire that conquers the galaxy not through warfare, but through subtle manipulations. A bribed official here, a favorable law passed there; boom, McDonalds is now the new defacto government. They don't technically own your planet, but the corporate buildings of their local branch office tower over those of the government. *That* sounds like something I'd be willing to pay a lot for. Given the new espionage system, this is closer to being a reality than ever before.

Honestly, I just want to play as space CIA. Even better would be corporate space CIA.

The way you get something like this is by significantly debuffing typical ways of play, and significantly buffing atypical ways of play and/or providing something wholly unique to the empire type, and forcing to lean on this heavily.

They almost had this with Megacorps. They provided the interesting and unique mechanic of branch offices, and debuffed typical expansion (through an increase to admin cap penalties.) The only thing is, they didn't go far enough in either of these directions. The admin cap penalty isn't significant enough to significantly hinder typical expansion, and branch offices aren't powerful enough to lean on in place of expansion. Make the typical conquering and expanding playstyle much more difficult, and buff branch offices significantly, and you've got a wholly different style of play. An empire like this would focus on staying very small, and simply "expanding" through branch offices in other empires, as well as empire subjugation. As it stands now, from my experience in playing and watching others play, most Megacorps end up looking like their standard empire counterparts. You *could* focus on staying small and opening branches, but this simply isn't incentivised enough in the base game. It's always more optimal to simply eat other empires, just as it honestly is for almost every empire type in the game.

The game has been doing a good job of creating a base upon which a soft power empire could be built in the last few patches. Federations gave the player soft authority over the galaxy through diplomatic weight, and espionage is about to add even more power to that style of play. There's some definite problems with Federations (such as everything involving the galactic community taking far, far too long), but at least we're heading in the right direction here.
 
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So, does this mean that Criminal Syndicates will be able to set up their criminal branches on genocidal empires? If there's a few sympathetic individuals, I'm sure there's a few greedy individuals as well.
Speaking of Criminal Syndicates. I'd argue that those might also have some kind of bonus. If the permanent secretary of the department of labor should have a drug addiction who better to exploit than your favorite Covfefe Consortium of friendly traders?
 
Subversion, sabotage, sedition, incitement to independence, instigation of riots and assassinations are espionage work. The content of the game will be rich.
Meaning we have to learn how to play Stellaris, again.
Gosh Stellaris is the worst offender in the Paradox realms. Evrytime they release a new DLC, all savefiles are nolonger working and you simply have no clue how to play.
I have only one thing to say to you about this.

Thank you.

Rather then liberating assets, why not liberate populations? I could totally see a "rescue populations" operation against slavers, where you try to free a large population and the relocate them to your empire.
In that case I'd like to see 2 parts. One who is selling my species on the market and two, an option to go into this empire and demand a release of all my pops.
 
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To be honest, one of the worries I had was that people would get too attached to their Assets and not want to burn them. You may be part of a Democratic Free Haven with an Idealistic Foundation, but your Spymaster... They're kind of mean. Comes with the job.
Might there be an option to spend an asset on an operation for definite, getting an enhanced bonus? This might allow operations to "bring an asset in from the cold", embarrassing the counter-intelligence of the target empire and maybe allowing a debrief to partially offset the loss. It would also make sense for assets to become more suspected by local counter-intelligence the more they are used, making this sort of extraction mission attractive in the long term - especially if capture of assets can damage the network, which I assume it can.
 
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What about signals intelligence and light speed lag for radio transmission? Sending listening posts to enemy Oort clouds by undetectable sublight speeds seems very reasonable but time consuming.

Why you so slow light speed.
 
Will crime be getting any reworks or new mechanics as part of this expansion, or even as part of the base game that the expansion can build off of?
 
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