EP issues

[euphorion]

So...I'm really punished with Spy Battles in my current game.

Once I had one running for 4+ years - 'til I read here that you should balance EP to avoid it. Found Thuluns to have more than twice the EP of Javat, fixed that and half a year later it was gone.

After a 1-year-break I got a new Spy Battle between Thulun and Cadar now, which again is lastinmg for at least a year now.

So I ran the EP numbers again. For all I can tell they are almost perfectly balanced - so is there another reason for a Spy Battle (beside just bad luck)?

Also: when looking at the different sources for EP in the game, there are some HIGHLY confusing numbers to be found :

#1) Going through the Colonies one by one and adding up the EP numbers there:

Thulun: 48

6+6+6+6+4+4+3+3+3+4+2+1+0

(the last world is a Q4 that was waiting to go to Independent Traders, but at this time it was still a T-colony)

Cadar: 43

6+5+6+4+4+3+5+5+2+1+1+1

Javat: 46

5+5+6+5+4+6+3+4+4+2+1+1

Independent: 5

2+1+1+1

Sum: 137 (142 incl. Indep.) 

#2) The Faction Statistics/summary screens:

The numbers in brackets are the difference in absolute and relative terms to the manually calculated numbers from the individual colonies:

T: 36 (-12/-25%)

C: 31 (-12/-28%)

J: 34 (-12/-26%)

(Sum: 101)

If not for that 13th Thulun colony, we could assume that for whatever reason 1EP is substracted for each colony. Maybe it's -1 for each colony that is producing at least 1 EP or some completly different logic?

#3) The total of the Empire Summary screen:

"Our political efforts generate 191 Espionage Points (EP)"

191?

Now I got 2 Alliances (T+J & C+J) running, which are supposed to add 2 EP per colony (no idea if that would be added at the individual colonies or at the Empire level) - this might be 50 EP there.

-> at least that number also gets added to a new Treaty-project.

- - - - - - - - - -

And actually it might all make sense - if we assume that this EP number that is listed at the Faction Staticics page is simply wrong.

We might have

142 + 50 EP bonus for Alliances, which gets us to 192, which is quite close to 191 after all.

Still - if this would be correct , why the confusing numbers at the Faction Statistics pages?

And could any of those differences in EP (+/-5 or +/-10%) be the reason for a prolonged Spy Battle?

[tenbsmith]

Interesting that the Spy Battle is between Thulun and Cadar who have the greatest difference in EP (5 points). Could that be enough to cause a Spy Battle?

Could TP imbalance play a roll in Spy Battles? Plenty of real world examples of that, like USA vs China in hacking.

euphorion, I agree, there may be an error in the Spy stat on the faction-specific stats screens reached from the Faction List screen. In my current game, the faction-specific-screen Spy stat does not match any other Spy/EP stats. For example, the faction-specific-screen Spy stat does NOT equal the sum of Spy stats from a given Faction's Colonies, AND summing the faction-specific-screen Spy stats is different from the EP shown on the Empire Summary screen.
--HOWEVER, all other Spy/EP stats are consistent. The sum of all Colony Spy stats equals the EP on the Empire Summary screen, which equals the number of EP "Spent" in one turn on the Diplomatic Efforts screen. (Importantly, I have no alliances or conflicts the affect EP.)

I also agree that the alliances in the game euphorion described above probably explain the discrepancies between EP on the Empire Summary screen and the sum of all Colony Spy stats. Keep in mind that politics do NOT stack and take effect at the colony level. As i understand it, the alliance/conflict that affects a given colony is determined by the proximity of colonies of other factions. A given colony is affected by the alliance/conflict with the faction that has the closest colony. So, the 2EP bonus for the alliances only applies to a subset of Colonies.

euphorion, does that make sense? Hard to describe in writing.
__________________

All this made me think...

The proposed "Balance of Power" screen might, ideally have the following columns:
--3 "Raw Faction Stats" columns, one for each faction. The stats in these columns would match sums across colonies of a given faction.
--A Raw Empire Stats column. The stats in this column would match sums across all colonies.
--An Adjusted Empire Stats column. The stats in this column would reflect adjustments made because of morale, alliances/conflicts, etc. Presumably these would be the stats used by the game engine to calculate Profit, to progress Diplomacy, to progress Research, and to affect Politics (e.g., Spy Battle).

This would help players understand the games underlying mechanics without spending too much effort/time on specific calculations.