I like Intel, but I'm a little nervous about how it will work. Issues:
1. Ignoring all but the largest positive makes the majority of variables pointless (In the example any bonus below 20 is wasted).
2. No ability to include penalties, or even small positives (negative values are below 20, as are small +5 bonuses)
3. Clicking a button to set Intel to fixed values is... misrepresentative of the situation you are trying to simulate and gamey (You shouldn't be able to click a button to just skip normal mechanics. Asking for a report shouldn't let you know the location of all Romulan Military ships and their relative power, merely boost your current information gathering)
4. Stale Intel doesn't show how old it is (minor quibble, but there's a big difference between 1 month stale and 10 years stale).
Depending on things like diplomatic pacts, trust or other things, your Intel will grow over time.
Using the highest of Pacts, Trust and REDACTED means that there isn't room for small bonuses, and also there's no possibility for penalties as anything small will be completely ignored, and obviously +5 or -5 is smaller than +20 coming from Diplomatic Pacts.
I'd rather have a system where your intel level is the sum of variables, so you can stack lots of things to make it harder for enemy empires to be aware of you.
This also makes the Intel Report mechanic less 'gamey'. Intel report could just boost the intel value by a fixed amount, rather than setting it to a fixed number. The difference is that your current design would allow you to know everything about the Romulan Empire's Military for 2 years because you paid for an intel report... that really shouldn't be possible. Paying and getting +80 Intel to combat their -37 giving you +43 and low military intel for the duration would be more thematic and less... 'gamey'.
So what would I like to be included in the intel value?
Intel: 73.12
From Intel Report: 80.00
From Diplomatic Pacts: 20.00
From Trust: 0.12
From REDACTED: 0.00
From Sum of Target Empire Modifiers: -37.00
Breakdown not shown until high intel level, Calculated as the sum of the following:
Ethics (+/- Xenophile/Xenophobe)
Civics (+/- Empathy/Apathy)
Species traits (+/- Shapeshifters/Mysterious)
Traditions (+/- Discovery.Survey Corps/Supremacy.The Great Game)
Ascension Perks (+/- XenoCompatibility/Enigmatic Engineering)
From Sensor Data: -10.00
Sensor Coverage (+/- Full Visibility/No Visibility)
Sensor Jamming (+/- Listening Post/Communications Jammer/Deep Space Black Site)
I think a lot of people are hoping to be able to make a mysterious hidden race that lurks in the shadows. The mechanic shown seems to run counter to that (no penalties to intel a player could use and a button to give max intel)... so I really hope the design isn't final.
Also I made a post about Ship Design Intel before, my very slightly modified Suggestion:
Ship Design Intel
(At Low Military Intel 40)
1. Learn enemy ship designs passively when in sensor range
Keep track of them so you can counter their all-shield designs without having to remember what empire number 15 had when you last saw the patrol fleet pass by your border station. Needs a new tab somewhere to log the information, preferably on the diplomacy screen.
(At High Military Intel 80)
2. Learn weaknesses of enemy ship designs
Passively (and slowly) add bonus damage vs shield/armour/hull, reduce enemy bonus damage, or modify shield/armour bypass amounts (tune your shields to detonate enemy missiles, or time your shots to match the cycle-frequency of enemy shields, spot the weak exhaust ports). If the enemy hasn't changed their ship designs since the last war then with your better intel expect to be able to run rings around their designs thanks to your extensive battle reports (even if they are higher tech like fallen empires, though have less intel generated on designs you can't replicate as you can't fully understand why hitting the shiny bit seems to work, unless you gain debris post-battle and realise the shiny bit was a power cell).
(Counters)
3. Retrofit designs to make enemy Military Intel obsolete
Changing all slots would reduce current enemy design intel to 0, smaller retrofits could have a smaller effect. New ship classes would have a window of opportunity where your equipment and design weaknesses are unknown, especially if these ships are stationed in a hidden nebula system prior to combat. There could be retrofit options that do not change the modules but still cost resources and reduce enemy intel to represent patching of vulnerable systems and incremental design improvements (put a dozen decoy exhaust ports around to distract enemy fire, stick a fake shield generator on the TIE fighter - much to the dismay of the pilot).
4. Sensor Coverage is vitally important. Gain intel on designs in sensor range, bonus for watching battles.
Listening posts/Sentry Array/Tachyon Sensors/Nebula effects/Arcane Engineering/Crystalline Sensors all play into espionage passively, no need for a huge number of additional mechanics and all existing mechanics can be made easily compatible. Watching two enemies fight would provide much more intel than watching their fleets on non-combat patrols.
5. New Role of reducing enemy sensor intel with Counter Espionage/Stealth ship components/Electronic Warfare/Jamming
These could prevent the enemy gaining intel on your ships passively (counter-espionage, stealth components, deep-space black sites) or actively during battle (Electronic Warfare/Jamming), the latter even reducing enemy bonuses and protecting older ship designs by obfuscating their identity.
Positives:
1. Espionage helps you counter enemy ships (increases your fleet power relative to the enemy, the main meat of the game)
2. Espionage is optional (passive effects, active benefits of upgrading and retrofitting designs can be gained by playing normally)
3. Espionage has an economic/tech option to counter it (research new components, paying alloys to retrofit ships renders their intel obsolete)
4. Espionage uses existing mechanics in new ways (Sensors, Retrofitting, Nebula, Black-sites, Arcane Engineering)
5. Espionage is a solid base for new mechanics to sit on top (Stealth Components/Cloaking/Electronic Warfare/Jamming)
I'd still like some active element to espionage, but I think this would be a perfectly reasonable passive backbone to it. But I do struggle to imagine an active element that will satisfy the completely opposing needs that people have... so I'd rather the passive element was the majority of espionage and the active was more minor. A system where investing in espionage can still win battles and the game, but losing in espionage can be countered economically and doesn't involve a death of a thousand alerts from the hostile actions of enemy spies.
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STOP! COOKIE TIME