Counter-Intelligence Ineffective?

[Slick]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:

quote:

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Originally posted by Slick:
While we are on the subject of Intel, I have a burning question that I never got a good answer for.

How is it determined if the attackee (empire being attacked) knows who the attacker is?

Slick.

I think that is determined by the message given for the project. Some have source empire in them, so it tells you who did the attack. Others do not tell you, so you don't know.

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Thanks! So if I were to edit each intel attack to specify the attacker, this would work 100% or the time? I was somehow under the impression that the attacker was only identified under certain circumstances. I guess that circumstance is how the message is set up in the intelprojects file. Learn something new every day...

Slick.

[Fyron]

I don't have access to the data files at the moment (no SE4 on this comp), but I am pretty sure that should work. It would be very easy to test.

But, a more interesting system is when some (or all) events and intel projects that do the same things have the same Messages, so you never know if it was intel or an event. Why should you get to know if sabotage blew your ship up? It wouldn't be very good sabotage if you could always find that out.

[Pablo]

Talking about intel... In one game I am attacking one empire with 250k of offencive intel points every turn for about 10 turns already and never get through. AFAIK counter intel must have some points stored in it to work but how can it store points if I am all the time attacking. I think CI stores points when it is idle. In this case it is not.
To counter 250k of offencive intel you need ~70k of CI. Is it the case that he has for example 100k of intel points, blocks my attacks with 70k and the remaining 30k is then stored in CI? Will I ever succeed in this case? I mean without destroying his intel facilities?

[Slick]

Originally posted by Pablo:
Talking about intel... In one game I am attacking one empire with 250k of offencive intel points every turn for about 10 turns already and never get through. AFAIK counter intel must have some points stored in it to work but how can it store points if I am all the time attacking. I think CI stores points when it is idle. In this case it is not.
To counter 250k of offencive intel you need ~70k of CI. Is it the case that he has for example 100k of intel points, blocks my attacks with 70k and the remaining 30k is then stored in CI? Will I ever succeed in this case? I mean without destroying his intel facilities?

CI is like a bank account. He puts points in, your attacks take points out. This exchange happens each turn and I *think* his new points go into the CI project before your attacks come in.

If he has a CI3 project running, it is 3.6:1 effective at blocking attacks (see Newbie FAQ for how I got that number) so he only needs to be putting in 69,445 points per turn to counter your 250,000. 250,000 / 3.6 = 69,445. As you can see, it is much easier to defend than to attack. So in your example, he is making 100,000 intel points. He could be using that extra 30,000 to make even more CI or using them on offensive attacks. If I was blocking 250k per turn and only making 100k, I would definitely be putting all my points into CI3 projects because I could get attacked by someone else very soon.

BTW, that extra 30,000 points could block 30,000 * 3.6 = 108,000 points of attacks.

Slick.

[ April 19, 2003, 16:56: Message edited by: Slick ]

[Fyron]

CI is like a bank account. He puts points in, your attacks take points out. This exchange happens each turn and I *think* his new points go into the CI project before your attacks come in.

This is correct. Points added to CI in a turn are indeed used for defense in that turn if necessary.