Spy Unit - A PvP incentive

[DeletedUser109227]

Proposal:

Spy unit. A unit that could collect (plunder) from a building if the unit is left in the city after successful attack. I started this idea on Facebook in a question about new unit. I thought I would bring the idea here with more details.

Reason:

Incentive for players to collect their buildings on time AND another nice aspect of the important part of the game that is plundering. Big PvP incentive.

Details:

So, there is a new barrack, one that only produces ONE unit and possibly two if the second slot is unlocked with diamonds (pretty much a cut and paste of the champion barrack, but perhaps of the look of the MI6 building in Bond). The unit: A spy!

This unit is not one that partakes in battles. Once a battle in the neighborhood is finished and successful, it can be <attached> to a specific building into the city for which the defences were breached. If you go in a city to plunder, and the building you would like to plunder is not ready for collection, you can attach a spy unit to it. IF after a determined amount of time (say one hour) after the building production is ready the owner has not collected yet, THEN the attached spy gets the goods/production for the player who attached it to the building. The spy unit is deleted as it fulfilled its mission. A message in the event log states to both parties that the spy mission was accomplished. To the plunder that it was successful at getting X goods, and to the plunderee that they were victim of a spy. If the owner of the city gets to collect the goods/production within the set parameters (say within one hour of the production being ready for collection) then the message is that the spy died/was caught before the end of its mission, and of course the unit is also deleted. To the plunderer: Your spy was caught; to the pluderee: you successfully caught a spy and saved your goods.

Unattached units can also be produced as an yother units and stored like other units if unused. Again only one attached unit per barrack (or a 2nd slot if diamonds unclock a 2nd slot)


Visual Aids:

There could be a spy event in May with the release of the new spy unit/spy barrack, corresponding with the birth date of Ian Flemming, it could also contain a new <spy> avatar resembling James Bond, without being Bond of course so to not infringe copy rights (like the one everyone knows to be Indiana Jones)

Balance:

For ‘balance’ I believe it would be a good incentive for players to log on early to collect. The balance that needs to be achieved is to make sure on one hand it is worth it for players to use that unit, and also fair to the one to collect their own good in time. For instance if you ask “plunderers” they would rather the spy to steal if the goods are not collected by the owner within 15 minutes of the end of production; On the other hand I can see the ‘farmers’ wanting an insane window of time. I personally think that one hour could be a good compromise, OR, the time window for collection could be depending on the length of the production cycle (Ex: If you produce goods over a 2 day period, you would have 6hours grace for collecting before the spy could steal from you, 3 hours for a one day production, 1 hour for a one hour, etc). This would of course be for Inno to determine for a just balance.


Abuse Prevention:

n/a. Not any different than other units being produced and I am unsure how someone could make it auto collect if the set up is to only collect after 1hours of no collection.


Summary:

I guess all is described above. Of course, there would not be any change to the present status where you attack and can plunder immediately or later in the 24th hours. You still have 24hrs to either decide to plunder, OR you can decide to attach one of your spy to a building and take the chance it will succeed. If you attach a spy, you of course cannot also plunder on top of it. It would be just a nice addition to spark more interest in the PvP aspect, and a big incentive to collect in time. You never know after your defences are breach if you will be victim of a spy or not. You only get to know if the spy is successful, OR, if you are collecting on time therefore preventing the spy to finish is mission.
Next step to develop is to add to the spy the possibility of being attached to GB with a 1% chance of being able to steal a BP from that building


I know I am bound to be sent to hell by the ones who plays this game like Farmville, but I would LOVE for Inno to at least have a look at this, again even if very unpopular within the whiner community.

 

[Vesiger]

So you sacrifice one attack slot for the chance to plunder from a building that hasn't finished at the time you attack? I don't see anyone using that unit other than against players very much weaker than themselves - and if it doesn't occupy a slot in your army, that seems a bit unfair...

 

[DeletedUser96901]

+1

nice idea
the spy doesn't actually be in the fight
fighting only with 7 units

I would add
if the attackes has lost (all 7 dead or retreated) the spy will automatically die

I think the retreat and spy will die (unlike the other 7 which could survive) is important to balance it
or else players would attack and retreat until they find an easy victim and place their one (and maybe only) spy

 

[DeletedUser108047]

+1
Interesting idea. Kudos for thinking through the introduction process etc. A bond event and avatar would be kind of cool. Perhaps ***** Galore for the female character? [Wonder if the Inno filters will catch that ][yep they did]
Some questions:
- what happens if the production is cancelled by the city owner?
- should the spy auto collect/plunder or should the spy notify the attacker that there is limited window to collect? This would be a more balanced approach?
- perhaps I missed it but if I win a pvp battle can I place a spy AND plunder?
- is there the opportunity for a 'counter-spy' where a player can instead of placing a spy on someone else's city they can place one on their own city building thus protecting it from a spy? This would add a much more cat and mouse element to pvp
- is the spy a no-ages character like a rogue or an era specific character that can only plunder a specific age building? Thus being similar to the champion in that it can be changed using a one--up or renovation kit

 

[DeletedUser109227]

I see that this has sparked some very nice points/questions.

My first intention was NOT to use this unit in one of the 8 slots for battles. More like an 9th unit, which is NOT use in this play part, but solely for a spy role, in the plundering aspect of the game. I kind of like the idea of using it so the attack would only be fought by 7 units, but this would definitely be in favor of <big> guys over already taxed little players. As the intention is to do the opposite, and give all, including the smaller players, an incentive to play PvP, I was thinking that we keep the 8 units for battle, and once you click on the <plunder> lightning bolt icon, it shows building ready for collection (that you can plunder immediately) with a greed lightening on top, OR, a yellow one that indicates the building is in production and that you can chose to put a spy there instead of an immediate plundering. It would not say what it is producing at that moment, just that is it producing someting and that you can attach ONE spy. You still have a 24hour window to decide to either plunder or put a spy. You cannot do both cause that would be two plundering and no one will buy that lol. Remember that the spy is not 100% sure he will get the mission, only if the owner of the building does not collect within the established period of time after production is ready (ex: one hour window). To answer Dane's question, if the owner cancel the collection, the spy dies and it mission fails. The thing is: The owner has NO WAY of knowing that there is a spy on that specific building! It is a spy! The owner of the building only gets to know either if: The spy is successuf therefore that the owner did not collect in time and goods were stolen by the spy, OR, if the owner collects in time he gets a message: HEY, by the way, you collected in time and good thing cause you ruined the mission of a spy that was attached to your building! Congratulation!

Now, for the purists out there : I used the function of a unit to introduce the "spy" idea. I thought that this new unit could have this special tasks that we never had before, a tasks outside the actions of the 8 battle units that we use in the battle field. I know calling it a unit could become confusing to some, but I thought it would be a fun or good way to compute it or make it work BUT BUT BUT...
It ultimately does not have to be a <unit> as the existing game <units>. It could be calculated or computed merely as the forge points bar. When you have the building (lets call it a Secret Service HQ in lieu of a spy unit barrack), you can set it to produce one spy a day, that will add up to your 10 max spy count bar. If you dont use your spies, you can only have a max of 10 like the fp bar, BUT as the building would be "plunderable" if you have your 10 spies and get to plunder another one, your bar has 11 spies but you cannot produce some more.

Sorry for bringing in this curve ball, but I know that calling this spy function a UNIT, had the potential to be confusing if this unit's function had to be used VERY differently then we do with the war units right now.

Make sense?

 

[DeletedUser109227]

Lastly, if we don't want the male J.Bond persona, we could go Mata Hari, best known female spy of WW1. I dont have a good avatar example for her

 

[DeletedUser111299]

I hate plunderers, but your idea was good (especially with Test Aments thought that you only got 7 units). It would have to be attached units and that you could not get it from Alcatraz, the GE and like that.
But with the increase that you get more and more units and can save them up it just to much to help raiders.

A big -1