Intelligence info from captives

[Durnaug]

How about obtaining some basic information from captives? I am thinking in particular of the aftermath of naval battles. I do not know how Shogun II deals with naval warfare but in RTW mods the AI can be relentless with fleets.

With fog-of-war and numerous ports it can sometimes be hard to tell from which city the fleets set sail. So imagine a captive providing information about such-and-such a port and you aggregate the information and one port in particular seems to be spamming enemy fleets.

Perhaps you expand this mechanic to provide information after land battles.

Just a few thoughts and "doh" if this idea already exists in the new Shogun or is inherently useless anyway

[GideonAI]

Well, they haven't included it in Shogun, but I can imagine if your Champion got hold of a Spy he could squeeze some information out of him. Your idea is good too, but I think it would only happen if you captured a General, as common troops wouldn't usually have global information about their Empire.

[Durnaug]

Well, they haven't included it in Shogun, but I can imagine if your Champion got hold of a Spy he could squeeze some information out of him. Your idea is good too, but I think it would only happen if you captured a General, as common troops wouldn't usually have global information about their Empire.

True. A crewman would not have strategic information. I am thinking along the lines of simple information he would know,e.g from which port he set sail or how many ships being constructed there etc. Simple pieces of data that add up to a bigger picture, e.g. 70% of captive sailors come from Port X.

[biohazardcake]

sounds good very good.lol first post

[Durnaug]

sounds good very good.lol first post

Welcome to the forums!

[nomercysniper]

I like the idea, not sure how it'd be implemented.

Having 0-20% of the enemy fleet captured could give you 50(+- depending on number i.e 1% of prisoners = 5% chance of info, 19% gives 50% chance etc)% chance of obtaining the port location.

20-50% Could tell you some details about the happiness of the region/province, the average amount of trade per nation (i.e - Gaul, low import - Carthage, high import)... In case your planning to raid it. This should be as well as the original % (capped at a certain number i.e 50%)

50% + Should give you both earlier chances of benefit, as well as maybe learning (not researching for yourself) what naval technologies they have (do they have ram? fire arrows?)

[Durnaug]

I like the idea, not sure how it'd be implemented.

Having 0-20% of the enemy fleet captured could give you 50(+- depending on number i.e 1% of prisoners = 5% chance of info, 19% gives 50% chance etc)% chance of obtaining the port location.

20-50% Could tell you some details about the happiness of the region/province, the average amount of trade per nation (i.e - Gaul, low import - Carthage, high import)... In case your planning to raid it. This should be as well as the original % (capped at a certain number i.e 50%)

50% + Should give you both earlier chances of benefit, as well as maybe learning (not researching for yourself) what naval technologies they have (do they have ram? fire arrows?)

Yes, you might get hints of a rival preparing a naval armament for, say, a general location.

[Sir Winston Churchill]

This is BC times we're talking about, if you battle with and capture an enemy at sea, he's not going to know 2 ***** about other fleets more than likely. Especially since most crewmen are, even from these times, uneducated. Same goes for land armies. You'll be lucky if they even speak the same tongue.

[daelin4]

I remember once proposing that line-of-sight mechanics included a flashing trail when the cursor was hovering over an army, so the game remembers the last movements that army took last turn and thus allows the player to have some basic knowledge of where the army came from. This was largely in the context of a watchtower or other means of surveillance that spots and army entering its LOS during the End Turn Phase, so players don't look around and ask themselves whether on earth that random army came from, which can only be one by watching the AI do its slow moves during the End Turn Phase with Skip AI Movement turned off (re boring).

This idea effectively removes the need for players to actively try to extract information and the game needing its own mechanics to make this work. After all the point is to find out were armies are coming from and thus ascertain their motives.

With regards to the OP, this also eliminates the need to obtain this information after a battle, since really there's not much point knowing the origin of a fleet you destroyed. Posting a fleet or other means of scouting near enemy ports can have the game leave "Movement Trails" the next turn to notify the player that a fleet of some size has recently left port.

[Durnaug]

I remember once proposing that line-of-sight mechanics included a flashing trail when the cursor was hovering over an army, so the game remembers the last movements that army took last turn and thus allows the player to have some basic knowledge of where the army came from. This was largely in the context of a watchtower or other means of surveillance that spots and army entering its LOS during the End Turn Phase, so players don't look around and ask themselves whether on earth that random army came from, which can only be one by watching the AI do its slow moves during the End Turn Phase with Skip AI Movement turned off (re boring).

This idea effectively removes the need for players to actively try to extract information and the game needing its own mechanics to make this work. After all the point is to find out were armies are coming from and thus ascertain their motives.

With regards to the OP, this also eliminates the need to obtain this information after a battle, since really there's not much point knowing the origin of a fleet you destroyed. Posting a fleet or other means of scouting near enemy ports can have the game leave "Movement Trails" the next turn to notify the player that a fleet of some size has recently left port.

That could work - a nice, simple and graphical display of such "army intelligence". The information is useful post battle if the AI keeps spamming fleets. Of course you can send out spies and "spy fleets" but I like the idea of getting little nuggets of information from a defeated enemy.