Possible change to Intel Center

posted on March 18th, 2010, 6:51 pm

I know alot of people hate the intel center because of its suicidal bomber ability so I was thinking of a few changes that could be done to make it more balanced. Instead of blowing up a ship how about it be changed to sabotage so it disrupts the vessel or station:

Station - Shuts down all systems except for shields and halts production/research for X seconds, time increasing as the intel center levels up. If the affected station also has weapon systems maybe it could attack randomly whilst sabotage is active. Once the sabotage time has ended it comsumes the spy onboard.

Ship - Makes the target ship attack randomly (attacking any ship or station in range) and move randomly and not follow commands from the player for X seconds, time increasing as the intel center levels up. Once the sabotage time has ended it comsumes the spy onboard.

Thoughts?

posted on March 18th, 2010, 7:09 pm

That sounds nice . Destroying a random subsystem would also be cool I think. More varied abilities like you suggest would be quite welcome to me. 

posted on March 18th, 2010, 8:39 pm

Same.  I mean, it's a saboteur agent, not a suicide bomber for the Taliban.   I would love to see the intel center have more interesting abilities.

posted on March 18th, 2010, 10:08 pm

I would still prefer that some ships get destroyed, the Tal Shiar isn't above causing Core breaches.

posted on March 18th, 2010, 11:17 pm

Well maybe they can add a low chance of causing the ship to self destruct, maybe 5% or 10%.

posted on March 19th, 2010, 12:00 am

How about giving additional options (for cheaper supply costs) without taking away the "blow up ship" option?

Or...

Minor Sabatoge: 5 supply: 70% chance to disable a subsystem and chance to blow up a small ships.
(normal) Sabatoge: 10 supply: 70% chance to disable a subsystem and chance to blow up a medium or smaller ships. (smaller ships have greater chance to be destoyed)
Major Sabatoge 15 supply: 70% chance to disable a subsystem and chance to blow up a ship. (smaller ships have greater chance to be destoyed)

*chance to blow up small ship with minor sabatoge equal to today's current 'blow up ship' chance
** chance to blow up large ship with major sabatoge equal to today's current 'blow up ship' chance

posted on March 19th, 2010, 2:05 am

How about giving additional options (for cheaper supply costs) without taking away the "blow up ship" option?

Or...

Minor Sabatoge: 5 supply: 70% chance to disable a subsystem and chance to blow up a small ships.
(normal) Sabatoge: 10 supply: 70% chance to disable a subsystem and chance to blow up a medium or smaller ships. (smaller ships have greater chance to be destoyed)
Major Sabatoge 15 supply: 70% chance to disable a subsystem and chance to blow up a ship. (smaller ships have greater chance to be destoyed)

*chance to blow up small ship with minor sabatoge equal to today's current 'blow up ship' chance
** chance to blow up large ship with major sabatoge equal to today's current 'blow up ship' chance

I like the sound of this much better then how it is now. I have suffered alot of losses thanks to that ability, a cloaked ship tailing your fleet and you will lose ships without a fight.

Plus im sure the Tal'Shiar would rather get there hands on a working ship...

Why not instead of blowing it up, vent the oxygen, leaving the ship deralict.

posted on March 19th, 2010, 5:30 am

If I were to change it  I would  have two levels.  Minor sabatoge and Major sabatoge. Minor  Disables (45% chance of disableing) or  destroys a random subsystem on a ship. On a station , the shut down  of the station for lasts for 45 seconds. The affected station  is  totally shut down . Life support, C&C  ,Sheilds , power generation systems and Supply  production will be  off line .  Smaller stations ,  some of the  crew might  die off or  the station has a 5% chance of a Catastrophic  faliure .  Major sabatoge for a  Ship  destroys a major  operating system( sheilds, Engines or weaponds or  Drains Special Energy. On stations  it  Destroys  major systems  causeing  crew deaths at the  rate of 1 per three seconds  with a 20% chance of  anti mater containment. Use of the Major sabatage will take  the ability off line  for three minutes.

posted on March 19th, 2010, 2:21 pm

I know alot of people hate the intel center because of its suicidal bomber ability so I was thinking of a few changes that could be done to make it more balanced. Instead of blowing up a ship how about it be changed to sabotage so it disrupts the vessel or station:

Station - Shuts down all systems except for shields and halts production/research for X seconds, time increasing as the intel center levels up. If the affected station also has weapon systems maybe it could attack randomly whilst sabotage is active. Once the sabotage time has ended it comsumes the spy onboard.

Ship - Makes the target ship attack randomly (attacking any ship or station in range) and move randomly and not follow commands from the player for X seconds, time increasing as the intel center levels up. Once the sabotage time has ended it consumes the spy onboard.

Thoughts?

Those are actually very good ideas. I usually don't even build the intel station until late game, if I'm tying to find pesky stragglers or hidden mining outposts, since the sabotage option for me rarely woks out. these could make things more interesting. Though I would allow the shield drop to be one of the effects, as with other "random disable system" effects.

Or perhaps set the effects to run in line with the level up, perhaps at low levels (or maybe low resource costs instead) it could have the chance to only shut down sensors, but as the level increases more critical systems like life support or shields could be dropped.

posted on March 19th, 2010, 3:44 pm

How about adding the ability to steal supplys from an opponnent?

posted on March 19th, 2010, 3:52 pm

I like this, but how about once it reaches gold bars in experiece it can destroy a ship?

posted on March 21st, 2010, 12:02 am

I love it.  There are so many directions you could go in/new strategies.  Would different abilities be avatar specific?

My 2 Cents:
Computer Override:  Disrupt systems causing random behaviour/result or even takeover ship computer with virus. (inspired by Bigmachk's idea)  Imagine how pissed someone would be if their flagship's impulse drive went into overload and sent it hurtling across the map, into the borg base...
>>>Not to be outdone: The Federation Subspace Holo-projector:
-Duplicate Starship
-Holo-Commandos
(I tacked that on there because I couldn't think of a different intel centre ability.  But there's already a ton of great ones in this thread)

posted on March 21st, 2010, 12:39 am

Actually, the Intelligence center works well at the moment.
The ability of spying and destroying a ship and later getting all ship informations is just believable and suiting to Romulans. I could think of a decrease of the chance of being successful in destroying a ship by 10%.

posted on March 21st, 2010, 12:50 am

Yup, it sure does work well: a few supplies to blow up that constructor, Tactical Cube, Sovereign - you name it - that's why it needs a change. As soon as you get a double gold, there is no time to even react to save any ships. Click thrice for sleeper, click another few times - woot, a few dead ships. Intelligence Center promotes some really nasty unavoidable tactics, as well as being rather boring at the moment.

posted on March 21st, 2010, 12:53 am

very well said redeyedraven, that adjustment would seem very fitting. but of course it should have reduced chance for big ships

EDIT: ninja-ed by dom