Stars!-R-Us Article

Diplomacy and Super-Stealth : Trading Knowledge
By : Mathias Dellaert

If you, or a player you know of, has the Super-Stealth (SS) Primary Racial Treat (PRT) a whole area of Diplomacy opens to you. You can Trade Knowledge. Not the regular kind of knowledhe (technology) but information about other players or teams.

Due to the magnificent spying capabillity's of the SS races, they can get information about other players positions and estimates of other players technology and power without the risc of being detected and destroyed.

The information requester's point

Imagine this : You are a very powerfull race, youhave lots of planets and even more warships. Though the score dialog tell's you that you are still not the most powerfull race in the galaxy. You decide to make a big suprise strike at the Number one and take over his place at the lead.

That's where the problems start. Which is the most powerfull race in the galaxy ? Are they those pescy neighbours or is it some race in a distant part of the galaxy. And where do they have their main bases ? What level is their teechnology ? What kind of warships do they have ? ...

You could go out and conduct a research for yourself. Start building long-range scouts and investigate. The problem is that it will take a very long time to find these things out. For yourself and your scouts might get intercepted and even traced back to your planet. Also, by exploring the universe like this, you show other races your intentions and it's ByeBye to your suprise strike.

You need to find somebody that can provide you with such information.

The information provider

As an SS race, you should (if you plan to sell info) research energy (for Cloaking) and electrical (for scanners). In the beginning of the game, you should build a fleet of scout's and send them to explore the universe ( you should change your scout's desing to replace the cloak with a fuel tank, you have 75% cloaking build-in so you don't need any extra units ). By doing so, you get a rough idea of player positions and later, when you've got more tech, you can send spy's at important points.

Spy's

Spy's are ships with high cloaking ( at least 90 % ) and good scanners (penetrating). They need to have engines which use almost no fuel (ramscoops). In my opinon, you're best choice would be a frigate with 1 or 2 Ultra-Stealths and 1 or 2 Dolphin scanners. This gives you the following specifics : 91 (97) % cloaked, scanner range : 220 (262) ly, penetrating scanner range : 100 (119) ly.

You should place this spy's on important points between planets or orbiting an unhabited planet close to an other planet ( make sure there are no enemy ships orbitting this planet, if so, you better stay in deep space ).

Negotiating

If you have a good intelligence system, you can start selling your information by sending a message like this to what you believe are interested parties.

Dear sirs,
I am in the possesion of information about your most important rivals in this part of the galaxy. If you are interested, please send a fleet carrying 1000 Kt of minerals in unarmed ships to rendevu with mine at La Te Da in the year 2560.
The shadows.

Make sure you choose the right planet ( far enough from your planets ) for the rendevu and go there with a cloaked ship (rogue or Gelleon hull based) with some pick pocket or robber barron scanners.After you took his cargo, give him his information ( to ensure future cooperation ). Before you rendevu with him, set the planet relations for that player to friend, (or you will destroy him) and check wether he didn't send any warships. In any case add some weapons to your fleet, in case of a trap.

Further reading :

The Super Stealth PRT - by Robert Lee

Mathias Dellaert

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