I was just wading through the backlog in my inbox and found an interesting suggestion I might like to implement.
A thing you can build or buy, or a racial attribute, that will hide a tech’s level from the other players.
If Scanning was hidden you would not know how far that player can see. Range, how far they can jump.
Weapons would be revealed when they attack but not before. ect ect.
What do you think, yay or nay?
How about a mode where all stats are hidden bar planet number?
Perhaps a research area for intel. Each level either opens up one of the statistics, or makes intel more accurate. Ships 130-190 for instance.
Building on @Rosslessness idea if this was another tech (maybe called counter intelligence) it would serve to mask your own details and to help you see other player details.
The difference between two players scores determining the accuracy of the scan. The player with the higher score would be getting the more accurate details (bigger difference = more accurate scanning), while the player with the lower score would be getting a poor scanning result (again bigger difference = less accurate).
Any pair of players with the same score would be getting equally vague scanning data.
Then, you could trade intel, as well as research!
I’m not sure how well intel trading would work in real life. I’ve been in plenty of games where information was exchanged outside of neptunes pride, eg, through screenshots. So intel trading would be easily defeated.
Would it? I mean, I understand the concern, but it’s usually between allies. Not your opponents.
What I mean is, there is a cost associated with transferring tech, so presumably there would be a cost associated with transferring intel. This cost would then be eliminated if allies share outside of NP.
I very much like the idea of masking player details other than total star count. In my opinion this adds value (and diplomatic impacts) of allied neighbors intel. Or misleading intel. >)
As far a a tech, I could see a research into ‘scanning data accuracy’ having some enjoyable impacts. I would see this more as a niche custom game option though.
One of the things I like about this game is the fact that I can see all the numbers, and I know they are accurate. It makes the game a bit more chess like; you know what the result will be if you move a carrier from star A to star B; such as how many ships will be built at star B in transit, and can calculate how many ships one side or the other will lose by. It is highly tactical that way. Uncertainty comes into play when you don’t know what another player has outside your scanner range, or if they will move to attack you the moment your carrier has left star A. High scanning limits the former, though if multiple-level warp gates are introduced that will extend that some what.
My issue with this idea is that it creates a lot of unknown. You have no idea if your ships will succeed in an attack, or will be utterly decimated. It hardly matters if a person has ships out of range or not. You might think they have far more than they do right in your face. Perhaps you think a would-be ally is planning to move against you as he’s stockpiling dozens/hundreds/thousands/etc of ships at your door when really it’s just your inaccurate intel and his star has produced X number of ships that tick. In the end, it becomes a pretty random guessing game and a total crap shoot to see if your attacks are successful or not, and I think that style of game would lose its luster more quickly than the current more calculating method.
Not to say it shouldn’t be an optional add on to the game, I just would prefer not to see this mandatory in all games.