Covert ops (and SKs) need a change.

[Patrikc]

A term I've encountered in another online game (used by its designers) is "anti-fun". In short, something is anti-fun whenever it causes more grief on the receiving end than it is fun for the one using it. I firmly believe most covert ops and SKs fall into this category.

To 'fix' covops there need to be rewards. Most of the time, taking Science Hack as an example, you just pick a target at random and hack it. Very rarely do you consciously pick someone so that it actually benefits you. You pick it just to cause grief. What could make it work better is basing the amount lost on the target's output and giving you (a part of) that output. For example, with 10 agents you steal 10% of their Research output for the next 4-6 ticks (this also fixes the ridiculous amount of research you can set back if he's researching a 7200RP research rather than a 1600 one). If you get Science hacked again before the duration is over, the reduction doesn't stack but is applied anew.

Other Covert Operations:

Network Charting                  - Rather unsure about this. Perhaps it could steal stealth (from planets with higher than 50 Stealth), so you can recover after a previous one? 
Exploding Fist                    - Another one that's of limited use. Stealing asteroids could work but it'd be funny to see a secret agent with an asteroid on his back on the subway...
Sabotage                          - This one's fine, it has its uses and doesn't cause much rage. It even has counterplay for the target.
Security Guard Poisoning          - Again, fairly useless. Could be changed to incapacitate someone's entire staff of Guards for 2-4 ticks to set up for a new covert op. If you succeed on this one, of course.
Information Blackout              - No comment, it has good uses.  
Hacking : Resource Transfers      - Needs to be less powerful early in the round and scale better. Suggest to be based off of income rather than stock. 
Havoc                             - Remove this or make it targeted towards Factories.

SKs I have no direct solution for. Like Havoc it's hard to just let someone 'steal' Constructions. I just feel they cause way more grief than they're worth. You can kill a hundred ticks' worth of Constructions with too little effort or reward. Honestly I wouldn't mind seeing them removed, but I know a fair amount of people wouldn't agree with me on that front.
Feel free to make suggestions on how to improve them, though.


In conclusion, give Covert Ops rewards to make them actually beneficial, rather than some measly XP.

[eksero]

Havoc does target factories though doesn't it?

[Mzyxptlk]

Originally Posted by Patrikc

A term I've encountered in another online game (used by its designers) is "anti-fun". In short, something is anti-fun whenever it causes more grief on the receiving end than it is fun for the one using it. I firmly believe most covert ops and SKs fall into this category.

To 'fix' covops there need to be rewards. Most of the time, taking Science Hack as an example, you just pick a target at random and hack it. Very rarely do you consciously pick someone so that it actually benefits you. You pick it just to cause grief. What could make it work better is basing the amount lost on the target's output and giving you (a part of) that output. For example, with 10 agents you steal 10% of their Research output for the next 4-6 ticks (this also fixes the ridiculous amount of research you can set back if he's researching a 7200RP research rather than a 1600 one). If you get Science hacked again before the duration is over, the reduction doesn't stack but is applied anew.

In conclusion, give Covert Ops rewards to make them actually beneficial, rather than some measly XP.

I like this. Also agreeing with the concrete changes you proposed.

Originally Posted by eksero

Havoc does target factories though doesn't it?

If I remember correctly, it does have a better chance of hitting factories than other structures, but all except amps and dists are at risk.

[HRH_H_Crab]

The best post I have ever read on the subject of covert ops on this forum.

[DragonKing]

i agree although i say knock sabotage up to 100 ships instead of a mere 10

[eksero]

What difference would it make?

[Linkie]

Personally, I think it should destroy a set value of ships.

[Mzyxptlk]

I don't think that change is significant (nor interesting). The potential information gained is worth an order of magnitude more than any reasonable amount of value destroyed.

[colane]

I' d introduce some new missions like;

"hi-jacking" would result in you stealing some ships from your target
"plant a mole" get reports every tick (for like 5 ticks) on what the target is doing - like a news scan or something
"send a diplomat" - could mess with his alliance settings or screw up his population/goverment settings

if you expand this function it would become a bigger part of gameplay ...

[tokath]

Re-balancing cov ops and removing the ability to be completely immune (no need for it if they're no longer focused on destructive trolling) would go a long way towards making it a way to play for the entire round besides hitting the inactive for res and trolling research early on which seems to be the plan for most.

Making it contribute/be more valuable to ally play would be interesting too.
For example: A mil scan like mission at the end of the tree would make for some interesting tactical uses and would limit the spamming of it since your alert doesn't stay constant.