Dev Diary #41 - Intelligence Programs 🏗️
What's happening / TLDR: Developer diaries introduce details of Espiocracy - Cold War strategy game in which you play as an intelligence agency. You can catch up with the most important dev diary (The Vision) and find out more on Steam page.
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Why do we play video games? David Bellavia, recipient of the Medal of Honor for the Battle of Fallujah, recently wrote that young people are "wasting the treasure of life on games". Players, however, are largely immune even to the most scathing words from the most decorated person because they don't seek validation in the first place - the point, instead, is to pursue any fantasy in the comfort of own screen, regardless of external judgment. Paradoxically, this critique reflects perhaps the most important facet of games: freedom. We play them because we can and want to.
Freedom propels much of the development of Espiocracy. Linear choices, build orders, or rigid rule-based strategies are constantly and iteratively replaced by dialing up player agency, kicking doors between mechanics, and making gameplay more varied.
One of areas that recently received such treatment was spy gear described in DD#24. Today, wiser by a year of development, we'll take a look at its new form.
[h2]Intelligence Programs[/h2]
Instead of choosing the most optimal minor spy gear such as lipstick gun or poison umbrella, you can now launch intelligence programs that significantly influence gameplay. Depending on the size of intelligence community, the player can run in parallel 1 to 5 programs. Some players already start with ongoing or finished programs - for instance, the British player can instantly use the fruits of Bletchley Park, the American player has still active Venona Project, and the Soviet player has active poison laboratory.
Programs are divided into technical and operational.
[h2]Technical Programs[/h2]
Technical programs develop advanced devices or methods, which can be used in operations or rolled out on the map. Examples include:
Their availability depends scientific and technological paradigms mastered by local actors and level of capabilities in the intelligence community. More than pure tech tree, programs follow the path sketched out in DD#24: acquisition of secrets, illegal experiments, interesting contacts, genius inventors, and cooperation with industry/academia. The last point sometimes escalates even to the level of influential actors, where, for instance, developing a spy plane may require convincing local military leader.
[h2]Operational Programs[/h2]
Operational programs are de facto continuous operations without precise target, objective, or location on the map. Categories include:
Ability to launch them is tied not only to technologies and capabilities - some of them depend on external events. Much like Venona Project started to exploit duplicated one-time pads in NKVD, ability to pursue other programs is sometimes creatively tied to arising opportunities (e.g. censorship enabled by a war in the region).
[h2]Standard Development[/h2]
Standard (and less standard) spy gear has been moved to the background where it's now autonomously developed by every intelligence agency. Free program slots contribute to the pace of this process, which means that not running a program for some time is also a decision contributing to gameplay.
Under this umbrella, Espiocracy now can feature many more flavorful tools of espionage. Beyond acoustic kitties and explosive lumps of coal mentioned in DD#24, the menagerie now extends to all staples of spycraft: invisible ink, sophisticated bugs, miniature cameras, ingenious communication devices, even to the point of late-game malware and wipers. Development of spy gear regularly enriches intelligence community with new devices which then can be used in operations or sold to other players. Particular drops in the rain of such item is partially randomized, mirrors technological development from 1946 to 2022, and can be indirectly influenced by capabilities and operations (e.g. conducting assassinations leads to inventing new types of concealed weapons).
[h2]Final Remarks[/h2]
The build undergoes deeper reshuffling work, hence no screenshots this time. The next dev diary, "Reports", will be posted on April 28th.
If you're not already wishlisting Espiocracy, consider doing it
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1670650/Espiocracy/
There is also a small community around Espiocracy:
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"The project was considered fantastic by the realists, unethical by the moralists, and downright ludicrous by the physicians" - Stanley Lovell in a preliminary report on truth drug, 1942
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Why do we play video games? David Bellavia, recipient of the Medal of Honor for the Battle of Fallujah, recently wrote that young people are "wasting the treasure of life on games". Players, however, are largely immune even to the most scathing words from the most decorated person because they don't seek validation in the first place - the point, instead, is to pursue any fantasy in the comfort of own screen, regardless of external judgment. Paradoxically, this critique reflects perhaps the most important facet of games: freedom. We play them because we can and want to.
Freedom propels much of the development of Espiocracy. Linear choices, build orders, or rigid rule-based strategies are constantly and iteratively replaced by dialing up player agency, kicking doors between mechanics, and making gameplay more varied.
One of areas that recently received such treatment was spy gear described in DD#24. Today, wiser by a year of development, we'll take a look at its new form.
[h2]Intelligence Programs[/h2]
Instead of choosing the most optimal minor spy gear such as lipstick gun or poison umbrella, you can now launch intelligence programs that significantly influence gameplay. Depending on the size of intelligence community, the player can run in parallel 1 to 5 programs. Some players already start with ongoing or finished programs - for instance, the British player can instantly use the fruits of Bletchley Park, the American player has still active Venona Project, and the Soviet player has active poison laboratory.
Programs are divided into technical and operational.
[h2]Technical Programs[/h2]
Technical programs develop advanced devices or methods, which can be used in operations or rolled out on the map. Examples include:
- radioactive tracking (such as codename Cloud in Stasi), radioactive lockpicking, nuclear backpacks
- poisons and BCW (currently: mustard gas, tabun, sarin, novichok counterpart, ricin, botulinum, anthrax)
- spy planes (such as U-2 and SR-71), satellites, balloons
- special platforms (such as Glomar Explorer)
Their availability depends scientific and technological paradigms mastered by local actors and level of capabilities in the intelligence community. More than pure tech tree, programs follow the path sketched out in DD#24: acquisition of secrets, illegal experiments, interesting contacts, genius inventors, and cooperation with industry/academia. The last point sometimes escalates even to the level of influential actors, where, for instance, developing a spy plane may require convincing local military leader.
[h2]Operational Programs[/h2]
Operational programs are de facto continuous operations without precise target, objective, or location on the map. Categories include:
- mass surveillance (mail interception, sampling typewriters, tapping telephone switchboards, surveillance state up to Stasi levels of 1 source per 7 citizens, and so on)
- controlling public opinion (from press censorship to great firewall in the late game)
- decryption and interception
- field programs (e.g. systematically breaking into embassies)
Ability to launch them is tied not only to technologies and capabilities - some of them depend on external events. Much like Venona Project started to exploit duplicated one-time pads in NKVD, ability to pursue other programs is sometimes creatively tied to arising opportunities (e.g. censorship enabled by a war in the region).
[h2]Standard Development[/h2]
Standard (and less standard) spy gear has been moved to the background where it's now autonomously developed by every intelligence agency. Free program slots contribute to the pace of this process, which means that not running a program for some time is also a decision contributing to gameplay.
Under this umbrella, Espiocracy now can feature many more flavorful tools of espionage. Beyond acoustic kitties and explosive lumps of coal mentioned in DD#24, the menagerie now extends to all staples of spycraft: invisible ink, sophisticated bugs, miniature cameras, ingenious communication devices, even to the point of late-game malware and wipers. Development of spy gear regularly enriches intelligence community with new devices which then can be used in operations or sold to other players. Particular drops in the rain of such item is partially randomized, mirrors technological development from 1946 to 2022, and can be indirectly influenced by capabilities and operations (e.g. conducting assassinations leads to inventing new types of concealed weapons).
[h2]Final Remarks[/h2]
The build undergoes deeper reshuffling work, hence no screenshots this time. The next dev diary, "Reports", will be posted on April 28th.
If you're not already wishlisting Espiocracy, consider doing it
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1670650/Espiocracy/
There is also a small community around Espiocracy:
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"The project was considered fantastic by the realists, unethical by the moralists, and downright ludicrous by the physicians" - Stanley Lovell in a preliminary report on truth drug, 1942