Covert operation: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 11:14, 17 June 2010

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.

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-== Description ==
+'''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.
-Covert Operations are missions conducted by the underground societies of your planet. Each time you pay them, the cost is 1000 of each [[resources|resource]], per agent sent. Even if the mission is unsuccessful the cost will be deducted from your [[resources]]. Covert operations happen instantaneously with instantaneous results.
+You can only do Covert Operations if both your and the target [[planet]] are out of [[protection]].
-== Mission Success ==
+==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
-A Missions success depends on three things :
+==Stealth==
-* The stealth rating of your planet
+Every mission that is sent lowers your [[planet|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.
-* The alert rating of your target planet
-* The number of agents you send
-The more agents that are sent - the bigger the impact they make.
+==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 [[Structures|Security Centres]], [[population]], choosing a certain [[government]] or by hiring guards.
-== Stealth ==
+===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.
-Every mission that is sent lowers your planets stealth rating. The higher it is, the more likely covert operations will work. If your stealth rating becomes too low, agents may refuse to work for you until it is better. Your stealth rating does improve with time up to a point however.
+==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.
-== Alertness ==
+==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.
-The opposite is true for your [[planet]]s alert rating. This decreases over time to a point. the higher it is, the better chance you have of catching covert operations conducted on your own planet. each mission will raise your alert rating if it has been successful or not. There are other ways to improve your alert rating however, Security centres can be constructed to aid it. and your [[engineers]] can focus on security to help protect against agents.
-There are many different types of covert mission you can send. initially you are restricted to disrupting your targets [[research]]. [[Research]] of your own will allow other missions to be accessed however.
+===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.
-== Mission Types ==
+===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.
-Please note, the more advanced the mission type, the more agents (and hence, higher costs) are required.
+===Exploding Fist===
+Your Agents can plant explosives on [[asteroids]], destroying them in the process.
-===Basic Agent Training=== This operation attempts to disrupt a target [[planet]]'s [[research]] efforts. A successful attempt will set back the research of the target with
+===Sabotage===
-  ceil( agents / 10 )
+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.
-ticks
-===Underground Network Charting=== Train your agents to hack into covert-ops databases to reveal contact networks.
+===Security Guard Poisoning===
-===Portable Earthquake Generators=== Train your Agents to plant small earthquake generators on [[asteroids]], destroying them in the process.
+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.
-===Warp Core sabotage=== Train your Agents to sabotage ships located in an enemy base.
+===Information Black-out===
-===Portable EMP emitters=== Train your Agents to use the Portable EMP emitter to destroy [[waves|Amplifiers and Reflectors]].
+During an operation of this kind, your agents can use a portable EMP emitter to destroy [[waves|Amplifiers and Distorters]]. If the target has both amplifiers and distorters, both are targetted simultaneously.
-===Bank-System hacking=== Train your agents to hack into central banking systems of a target and steal [[resources]]. Each Agent can max steal 7500 of each resource. The target can not lose more than 10% of its resources per operation attempt
-===Structural Integrity=== Train your Agents to take out [[structures]] using explosives.
-=== Note === that you cannot do Covert Operations until your [[planet]] is out of protection, which is 72 ticks from signup, or while ticks are not running.
+===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.
-== Formulas ==
+===Havoc===
+This final operation allows your agents to demolish [[structures]] using explosives. This operation does not target Amplifiers or Distorters.
-Covert op success chance is governed by two factors, stealth and alertness.  They interact according to the formula:
+Not to be confused with [[havoc]].
- random(25) + stealth - target_alertness - engineering_alert_bonus > 1 for success of covert op
-(Whether the greater than 1 aspect is true seems questionable, as there seems little reason to add the 1 to the equation - greater than 0 seems to make more sense).
-Stealth is determined by the planet initiating the covert op.  Alertness is determined by the target of the covert op.
-=== Stealth ===
-The default value of Stealth depends on your [[race]], [[Race#Terran|Terran]], [[Race#Cathaar|Cathaar]], [[Race#Xandathrii|Xandathrii]] and [[Race#Zikonian|Zikonian]] have the relative max-stealth at 85,95,85 and 95. This is the stealth value your stealth will INCREASE TOWARDS every [[tick]]. The amount it increases with is relatively 4, 6, 4 and 6, PLUS 1, 2 or 3 depending on your [[engineering]] setting on Security. So a [[Race#Terran|Terran]] player with Security on third priority, will gain 5 in stealth per tick if his stealth is below 85.
-The maximum possible value for the stealth part of the forumla is the 95 racial base plus a 25 random 'roll', giving a maximum of 120 points.
-=== Alertness ===
-Alertness works a little bit different. All races have a default minimum alertness of 60.  However the default minimum can be raised in two ways:
-[[structures#security_center|Security centers]] will raise the planets minimum alertness by the percentage of [[structures#security_center|security centers]] * 2, so that with 20 % [[structures#security_center|security centers]] , the bonus is 40% of the origonal 60% (this works out at a 1.2% base bonus per security centre). Which means the minimum alertness is
-+ ( 60 * 40 / 100 ) = 84.
-With max bonus
-  (30 % security centers = 60% bonus)
-the minimum alertness is
-(60 + ( 60*60/100 ) )
-The minimum alertness is the number your alertness will DECREASE TOWARDS every tick if it is higher.
-[[Engineering#security|Security engineering]] can give alert bonuses of 30,20,10 or 0 if set to first, second, third or no priority respectivly.  Added to the 96 maximum default available with 30% of your structures means that you can have a maximum alertness of 126.
-So, with 30% [[structures#security_center|security centers]], AND first priority on Security with the [[engineers]], you are immune to covert ops.
-Infact, you don't actually need the maximum 30% bonus in order to be immune:
- max stealth = 120
- max engineering bonus = 30
- -> max required from base + security centres = 120 - 30 = 90
-= 150%*60
-To gain a 50% bonus requires 25% security centres, so this is therefore the minimum you can have and be absolutely safe.  This neglects the fact that your opponent needs to score more than 1 more than you do.  Taking this in to account, the minimum percentage is actually 24 1/6%, however running at this level may incur the wrath of planetarion's rounding errors, so may not be wise.
-=== Warning ===
-The pa manual states that [[Engineering#security|bonuses from engineering to stealth]] are not included in the 95 maximum for ziks/caths.  If this is true the maximum achievable stealth rating is infact 135, which is more than the maximum alertness rating, which therefore means that immunity to covert operations is impossible.  As this is anecdotally not the case it appears that some info somewhere is wrong.
 [[Category:Terminology]]