Greetings,

I would like to 2nd that motion. I miss the slider that would allow you to destabilize an opponent empire.

In Plasma,
Star Dagger

And I vote yay for this as well - and I would like to add that I would like to abe able to actually spy on a minor race (even if they don't do anything other than build on special resource starbases), because the simple fact is that you should be able to.

Yeah this was a great feature in Galciv, I loved being able to get alien moral low then wiping them out. It should just be like a "Destabilise Empire" slider, like the sliders that allow you to adjust military production etc...

Be careful what you ask for. If you can destabilize the AIs, they can presumably do it to you, as well. There is one of you. There are 1-9 of them. And at higher levels, they get a lot more cash than you do.

Personally, I think this would make the game more interesting and I think it should be included as an optional feature.

I say optional because I have seen many posts by people who have trouble with their morale and approval ratings as it is. I'm not calling them whiners; but there would BE an awful lot of whining if people start to lose games because their empire fell apart around them and dissolved in civil war.

i believe destabilization was an option in their original betas. it was removed (presumable for balance), but you can still find it referenced in the (now almost useless) manual.

Frogboy has said the expansion will include an overhaul for espionage. it's coming, but not til winter.

I wouldn't mind the spy action. It also would be great if spying could backfire. Like the race finding out about it, or the destabilized empire's enemy, with them out of the way, sort of, now would become yours since you can't destabilize all of the empires. It'd be nice to have different options of dealing with different races or trying to figure out who to destablize and who not to.

@AntiBody, awesome ideas. I would like to add to that, the ability to plant spies on specific alien planets, on starbases, and even on enemy ships that pass through your space or near your ships/starbases, maybe via trade routes with them. (These would of course requir ea resource expendature and appropriate tech.) Then you could select those enemy "objects" (planet, ship, starbase) and deliver orders to your spies accordingly. Maybe basic spying (info-gathering) would be automatic on the object you've planted a spy in, while more advanced actions (sabotage, tech stealing) require more spies and more research down the Espionage tree. Of course, if you destroy the ship or starbase, you lose those spies -- themselves being a valuable resource -- but such action could turn the tide of war when executed at the proper time.

Maybe for ships and starbases where you've planted a spy, you see what they see, as well as know the details of the object. For planets, you can't (logically anyway) see all the space around the planet in great detail, but you can see details of the planet's surface; view it as you'd view your own.

And of course you'd need counter-intelligence to defend against these actions, essentially planting spies in your own planet populations, starbases, and ships to try and catch enemy spies. Maybe counter-intel could be automatic; if you try to plant a spy in a starbase that has a native spy already there, for ex., your spy is caught, interrogated, and executed (oh crap, you just gave the enemy crucial intel!). Of course, this may depend on reletive espionage/counter-espionage tech levels, and perhaps starbase/ship modules, and planetary improvements, much like weapons-vs-defenses arms races.

The possibilities are hurting my brain. Hopefully someone at Stardock is reading this thread.