Covert operation
Covert Operations are missions conducted by the special agents of your planet against enemy planets. There are many different types of covert mission you can send. Initially you are restricted to disrupting your target's research. Research of your own will allow other missions to be accessed, such as the ability to steal resources or to destroy structures.
You can only do Covert Operations if both your and the target planet are out of protection.
Mission Success
A mission's success depends on three things:
- The higher your stealth rating, the better the chance of success
- The higher the alertness rating of your target, the lower the chance of success
- The higher the number of agents you send, the bigger the impact they make, but the lower the chance of success
Stealth
Every mission that is sent lowers your planet's stealth rating. The higher it is, the more likely covert operations will succeed. For every mission that you attempt, your stealth is dropped by a certain amount. It will then improve by a certain amount every tick, until you reach your limit. Your maximum stealth is dependent on your choice of race and government.
Alertness
The opposite is true for your planet's alert rating: your alert has a minimum towards which it will decrease. The higher it is, the better chance you have of catching covert operations conducted on your own planet. An alert of 100 will provide total immunity. If a mission directed against you is successful, your alert is temporarily raised by 10. Other ways of improving your alert is by using Security Centres, population, choosing a certain government or by hiring guards.
Guards
Guards are the opposite of agents. They protect your planet against covert operations by raising your alert. Each guard costs 200 of each resource to train and additionally require a fee of 2 resources every tick. Agents can kill guards with the Security Guard Poisoning covert operation, but they can also be fired at will by the player.
Agents
You can hire agents for 2000 of each resource. Further, they require an hourly wage of 5 of each resource every tick and agents are each paid 500 of each resource for every operation, regardless of whether it's successful or not. Agents can be reused, provided they survive their operations. Covert operations yield instantaneous results.
Mission Types
There are eight different covert operations. Of these, only 'Hacking: Science Database' is available at the start. The other operations can be researched.
Hacking: Science Database
This operation attempts to disrupt a target planet's research efforts. A successful attempt will set back the research of the target, assuming a research effort is currently underway.
Network Charting
This operation allows your agents to hack into covert-ops databases to reveal contact networks. If it succeeds, the target's stealth is lowered.
Exploding Fist
Your Agents can plant explosives on asteroids, destroying them in the process.
Sabotage
By executing this operation, you can sabotage ships located in an enemy base. This operation only works against ships that are in the base of the opponent. Ships in fleets cannot be targetted, even if they are not out.
Security Guard Poisoning
Your agents will infiltrate your opponent's food processing plants and poison enemy security guards. This is the only action in the game by which you can kill guards.
Information Black-out
During an operation of this kind, your agents can use a portable EMP emitter to destroy Amplifiers and Distorters. If the target has both amplifiers and distorters, both are targetted simultaneously.
Hacking: Resource Transfers
Your agents can attempt to hack into the central banking systems of a target and steal resources. Each Agent can steal 2000 resources, to a maximum of 10% of the total resource balance.
Havoc
This final operation allows your agents to demolish structures using explosives. This operation does not target Amplifiers or Distorters.
Not to be confused with havoc.
