SPY

[ImperiumLafayette]

Do not think there were spies in the game last time I played.

I only see two orders related to 'Spy'. "Land Spy on Planet" and "Send Message to Your Spy". Do not see anything that would relate to the need to recruit said spy or loading him up to a fleet so assume (be it so dreaded) that is not a requirement.

However I do not understand the action order:

134. Land Spy on Planet

Action Code / Location #1 / Fleet #1 / Location #2
Action Code / Coordinate / Fleet Number / Planet Coordinate

Again I assume (be it so dreaded) that Location#2 is the planet you want to land a spy on. What is location#1?

As there is no mention of SPY or SPYING in the rules (be it so dreaded ) I am wondering if there is a "datasheet" or something explaining spy and spying somewhere?

Speaking of rules:

Rule Book copyright 1999 (c)

Any thoughts as to editing it to make it up to date?

Imperium Lafayette

[ImperiumLafayette]

Ok there is a build code for a Spy Ship. Is this ship needed to land a spy on a planet?

[ImperiumLafayette]

Nevermind, finally found this statement in Tips:

In order to land a Spy on a planet the fleet must be in system orbit or a planet orbit within the system. It can even be the planet orbit of the target planet although if the planet is hostile it probably will shoot first and ask later. The first Location is the coordinate where your fleet will move to. The second Location is the planet where you attempt to land your Spy. Landing a Spy is not automatic. For a Spy to attempt to infiltrate they have an easier time if there is a local Population. Also Spies work with the Guerrillas on the planet as well. So if there are Guerrillas then the spy has a better chance of infiltrating the planet.

Still looking for info on Diplomats.

[CHARON EMPIRE]

Diplomats are the same, you build a diplomatic ship and launch it. Randy did have them disabled to correct some bugs, don't know if they've been reactivated.

[ImperiumLafayette]

hmmm....is the SPY ship (or the Diplomat Ship) used up after it attempts to deliver spy/diplomat to a planet? Like a Fort ship that installs on a planet?

[CHARON EMPIRE]

Yes, you will need to build a new center ship. This one has landed on a planet and established a diplomatic mission, or a spy's lair.

[Thom]

Spies were actually part of the original design way back in the 80's. The code was developed and added to all the programs but as far as I know never actually implemented but I could be wrong. After Randy sold the game Rich might have activated the code but I'm not sure and never asked him. But the spy code as written was never very useful, at least as far as I could decipher from the code. Basically you had to build insurgents on your planet, build a spy ship, load the insurgents on the spy ship, and land them on a planet. The insurgents would fight other insurgents on the planet, the planet owner who also had insurgents on his own planet and up to 3 others empires. If you eliminated an insurgent group the empire that owned the insurgents would be out and would no longer participate or get info on the planet. They acted like guerrillas to a certain extent but I'm not sure what the end game was with them. Maybe you could take over a planet but it looked like they were more information gatherer's than guerrillas. So if you had insurgents on a planet you would get info on the planet, if not you wouldn't. I decided to rewrite the code and just have empires have the ability to land a spy on a planet. When doing that I also thought of diplomats kind of acting similar except they were out in the open but only usable on NPC worlds. Diplomats give you an alliance with a planet so you don't get shot up so corporations can now trade with hostile NPC's for instance. They also at one time allowed you to send foreign aid to a planet and get paid for your services. However several problems arose in that some NPC's rapidly became bankrupt and could not defend themselves. However the AI was also not well received by players who thought that the NPC worlds should not fight back and diplomats and AI were so tied together that we had to disable it all. May take the time to clean it up sometime but really don't see how it will enhance the game having one without the other.

At any rate the way to land spies is to send the fleet to any location within a solar system, Location #1, and use Location #2 to indicate what planet you wish to land the spy on. Action code 134 will do this for you. Spies can be caught landing so it's not 100% and the ship is used up regardless of success or not. To get info on the planet once the spy is landed use action code 50 and special number 1-19 to get info on the planet. Spies can be caught spying too so again not 100%.

Diplomats work similar but you need to send the diplomat ships to the planet location and land the diplomat. Again not 100% as the empire may refuse your diplomat. Also best to send unarmed fleets to the worlds.

Use action code 129 to land a diplomat. You just need to provide Location#1 as the target planet and the fleet location to move to. Use action code 114 to send a message to a diplomat on the planet.

See the posts on using diplomats and spies in the Takamo Playing tips section for more info.

[ImperiumLafayette]

Thanks Thom!

Imperium Lafayette
The Blind Man In A Room Of Rabid Cats
(Ya just know I am going to step on a tail)

[Tregonsee]

The Threshold Blog, found at http://www.takamouniverse.com/blogs/threshold-2/ has links to info and questions about both Spies and Diplomats.

There is also a Stellar Cloud Blog (link on same page) that has info on the new game.



Steve
HMU