Inspecting enemy ships and countering their loadouts used to be a core part of the strategy of space battles in Stellaris. Unfortunately, 3.0 has killed this part of the game. I'd like to see it return, and I think with a couple tweaks it could, without harming Espionage.
Prior to the introduction of Espionage in 3.0, this was a fundamental tactic that was especially valuable in the early portion of the game, when fleet sizes tend to be very similar, and proper tech counters can make all the difference between victory and defeat. This tactic is also incredibly valuable in the late game, against the Crisis, especially on higher difficulty levels and strengths. Knowing what tech a foe is using, and countering it properly, is smart play. Unfortunately, Espionage has effectively rendered this tactic useless. We're all fighting blind now, and it's dumb.
Espionage is the problem here. But it could be worked around.
Discovering enemy fleet composition and weapon/defense tech through espionage is a slow process bound by artificial limits that prevent detailed analysis from happening quickly, thereby rendering enemy fleet inspection pointless. The player simply can't acquire the intel fast enough for it to matter. Additionally, there are several factions in the game that the player cannot spy on at all, such as Mining Drones, Marauders, and the Crisis itself (this seems like a big oversight by the dev team).
Given that Espionage is probably not going anywhere (oh, how I wish it was part of a DLC I could just uninstall...) there could be other solutions that would make inspecting enemy ships possible, logical, and meaningful.
If Paradox is determined to lock weapon/defense tech discovery behind some sort of progression, then there might be a better choice than Espionage. It makes little sense that ship sensors cannot decipher some of this data. So why not allow ship sensors to gather this data? Why not allow for a new type of Starbase module that can scan up to X systems away, and gather this data as well, pooling all of this data into a central unit (a simple number somewhere on the UI)?
Part of the problem with ship inspection is that it's an all-of-nothing prospect. The button is either grayed out and unusable, or you click on it and see EVERYTHING the enemy ship has - all its shields, weapons, etc.
But what if the display was more granular? What if your fleet had gone through a few battles with an enemy, and now could see part of their loadout? For instance, after a few battles, you knew they were using Disruptors in the Medium Weapon slot on their Cruisers. You might not yet know what they are using in the other weapon slots, but you have *some* idea of what they're using because now you know this one weapon type. And as you battle more, and engage more enemies, your ship sensors acquire more data, until you finally have an accurate and complete loadout reading of the enemy ships.
This sort of mechanic would then work against any enemy - AI empires, Marauders, Fallen Empires, Crisis, you name it.
Espionage could then be used as a secondary data input - filling in gaps as the (slow) intel gathering process finally accumulates enough data. Espionage would still be useful for gathering ship loading intel on peaceful empires, prior to declaring war. But it wouldn't be the only gig in town; it wouldn't be blocking the player from acquiring data and uncovering enemy loadouts as battles rage across the galaxy.
Such a mechanic could affect how fleets are used (at least by human players, if not AI). Factions might send smaller fleets to systems to engage in skirmishes- probing battles - to discover their opponent's tech. Then, when they have the full intel on an enemy, they configure their loadouts on their big battleships and launch their fleets en masse.
There are probably other solutions to this problem as well; probably a lot of creative ways to deal with this, so that the ship inspection button becomes useful again. But as it stands, Espionage has killed this facet of the game. Which, frankly, has left me cold and not wanting to play anymore. Going into wars blind in a strategy game isn't fun.
Prior to the introduction of Espionage in 3.0, this was a fundamental tactic that was especially valuable in the early portion of the game, when fleet sizes tend to be very similar, and proper tech counters can make all the difference between victory and defeat. This tactic is also incredibly valuable in the late game, against the Crisis, especially on higher difficulty levels and strengths. Knowing what tech a foe is using, and countering it properly, is smart play. Unfortunately, Espionage has effectively rendered this tactic useless. We're all fighting blind now, and it's dumb.
Espionage is the problem here. But it could be worked around.
Discovering enemy fleet composition and weapon/defense tech through espionage is a slow process bound by artificial limits that prevent detailed analysis from happening quickly, thereby rendering enemy fleet inspection pointless. The player simply can't acquire the intel fast enough for it to matter. Additionally, there are several factions in the game that the player cannot spy on at all, such as Mining Drones, Marauders, and the Crisis itself (this seems like a big oversight by the dev team).
Given that Espionage is probably not going anywhere (oh, how I wish it was part of a DLC I could just uninstall...) there could be other solutions that would make inspecting enemy ships possible, logical, and meaningful.
If Paradox is determined to lock weapon/defense tech discovery behind some sort of progression, then there might be a better choice than Espionage. It makes little sense that ship sensors cannot decipher some of this data. So why not allow ship sensors to gather this data? Why not allow for a new type of Starbase module that can scan up to X systems away, and gather this data as well, pooling all of this data into a central unit (a simple number somewhere on the UI)?
Part of the problem with ship inspection is that it's an all-of-nothing prospect. The button is either grayed out and unusable, or you click on it and see EVERYTHING the enemy ship has - all its shields, weapons, etc.
But what if the display was more granular? What if your fleet had gone through a few battles with an enemy, and now could see part of their loadout? For instance, after a few battles, you knew they were using Disruptors in the Medium Weapon slot on their Cruisers. You might not yet know what they are using in the other weapon slots, but you have *some* idea of what they're using because now you know this one weapon type. And as you battle more, and engage more enemies, your ship sensors acquire more data, until you finally have an accurate and complete loadout reading of the enemy ships.
This sort of mechanic would then work against any enemy - AI empires, Marauders, Fallen Empires, Crisis, you name it.
Espionage could then be used as a secondary data input - filling in gaps as the (slow) intel gathering process finally accumulates enough data. Espionage would still be useful for gathering ship loading intel on peaceful empires, prior to declaring war. But it wouldn't be the only gig in town; it wouldn't be blocking the player from acquiring data and uncovering enemy loadouts as battles rage across the galaxy.
Such a mechanic could affect how fleets are used (at least by human players, if not AI). Factions might send smaller fleets to systems to engage in skirmishes- probing battles - to discover their opponent's tech. Then, when they have the full intel on an enemy, they configure their loadouts on their big battleships and launch their fleets en masse.
There are probably other solutions to this problem as well; probably a lot of creative ways to deal with this, so that the ship inspection button becomes useful again. But as it stands, Espionage has killed this facet of the game. Which, frankly, has left me cold and not wanting to play anymore. Going into wars blind in a strategy game isn't fun.
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