Espionage missions - Sabotage

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Balthagor
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Espionage missions - Sabotage

Post by Balthagor »

One of the beta testers shared thoughts on Sabotage;
Dawg wrote: Mar 24 2023 ...
sabotage is still completely pointless unless you spam sabotage a country (reason its a problem is if sabotage is suffering
with this issue the other spy options probably are too) recommend switching the missions to do more damage for what they spending
if you actually look at defcons website which I will link "https://www.defconlevel.com/cyber-comma ... 84bhSc92vY"
cyber attacks alone are a deadly attack on a nations infrastructure and cause serious harm infact they said that america/israel have
a cyber attack that could completely wipe 60-70% of irans infrastructure in a matter of hours with a computer virus.
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh-er7BAqVA&t=39s" these types of attacks are normally done by nation states and not small time hackers
hence why the sabotage option would be completely pointless. the new attack america has against iran is called nitro zeus
"Nitro Zeus is the project name for a well-funded comprehensive cyber attack plan created as a mitigation strategy after the Stuxnet malware campaign and its aftermath1. The plan was devised to disable Iran’s air defenses, communications systems, and crucial parts of its power grid.
I'm not sure I agree, but would love insight from the community about SRU experiences with that spy mission. How do people feel about the balance? So far in SR2030 that mission is the same.
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Re: Espionage missions - Sabotage

Post by Dawg »

I always loved the idea of spying in the game but didn't really enjoy the aspect of it enough to want to do it in supreme ruler instead of using that I'd typically avoid it all together because I felt like there was a better way of doing it even though in modern times its actually better to use spies then it is to go down the traditional path and most countries have invested billions into their agencies. So its just a thought I barely ever used it during my 6k hours in supreme ruler other than to test the dynamics of it. :(
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Re: Espionage missions - Sabotage

Post by Dawg »

One mission out of the others I enjoyed was actually using recon I felt that was actually done properly and doesnt need to be reworked, sabotage doesnt do enough damage or is too costly for the damage it causes. Then I haven't done too much actual intelligence stealing mainly because I couldn't even get building to destroy after investing 100s of billions of dollars into destroying one.
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Re: Espionage missions - Sabotage

Post by Tnarg »

The Unit Overhaul Mod for SRU simulates cyber attacks; however, due to mechanics it is very abstract and can only be done when war is declared. IRL, cyber attacks happen all of the time with out a declaration of war, and I could see a major cyber attack hitting a country just before a war kicks off. I could see a whole range of cyber attacks ranging from low to high such as: stealing technology, bankrupting a country, shutting down a power grid, shutting down (any)production, revealing military strength and deployments, disrupting trade deals, disrupting political elections, false flag operations to increase Casus Belli, overloading critical circuits in high tech military equipment like advanced air defense systems, blinding advanced electronic surveillance, shutting down (degrading) complex high tech units and networked units, disruption of command and control (lowering moral and efficiency), too maybe something extreme like launching another countries nukes.

For low tech countries this could be another angle in the modern age. "A group of hackers from Somalia just hacked into the major Command and Control network of the US 3rd Carrier Battle Group operating in the region, effectively handicapping all networked air, naval, and land assets seriously degrading surveillance and efficiency. The Somali Mig-21s armed with 500kg free fall bombs last tracked taking off from Mogadishu all of the sudden became a real threat to the commanding admiral." All this fancy high tech 2030s equipment Achilles' heel is its dependence on hundreds of electronic components. Those thousands of T-55s rusting away in storage might just be the next ace in the hole!

All of this could be done with a research path with various technologies and counter technologies. Like spies and their intelligence academies, is something that could be built up to conduct more and more complex operations.
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Balthagor
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Re: Espionage missions - Sabotage

Post by Balthagor »

I've made note of the suggestion for cyberattacks (ticket 32633) but we'd first like to evaluate the sabotage mission balance. Any comments on that?
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Re: Espionage missions - Sabotage

Post by Tnarg »

I always felt the the sabotage missions in SRU were a little underwhelming for the damage and cost. I liked to use them to take out bridges before DW to delay reinforcements, but those attacks never really did the job unless you use multiple attacks, and still really never did the job completely.

A variety of sabotage missions maybe too, regional, theater, and global missions, with those closer to home requiring less assets, does more damage, and less likely to get caught type of thing.

Also maybe some sort of SOF mission that would place special forces type units behind enemy lines before a war starts. We scripted an event for when China invades Taiwan in our WWIII scenario, that placed a number of special forces units in some surrounding areas of a naval invasion site. They did wonders delaying enemy reinforcements just long enough to give the AI a chance to path naval transports allowing a successful naval invasion.
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Re: Espionage missions - Sabotage

Post by Tnarg »

Also a smuggled nuclear or dirty bomb sabotage mission would be interesting. Super expensive, and highly likely to get caught and have the world want to declare war on said attacker.

Environmental sabotage that could in effect cause issues in a small area (battle zone?) as severe weather would. Like when Iraq lit all of their oil wells making it difficult to conduct air missions. Or degrade food or water production (if water as resources ever comes back).

Trade sabotage that disrupts trade and supply, and takes said commodities or supplies for themselves. Pirates!

Infrastructure Sabotage that disrupts supply in a hex or battle zone.

Sanctions Sabotage, target key hexes that produce food, rubber, metal, ore, oil, uranium, energy, consumer goods, industrial goods, or military goods (and with unit trades now, those too). Targeted commodities can not go to market. The more targeted attacks the higher the effect on a country that makes its cash from said commodity.


Assassination Mission which would remove a leader greatly increasing the likely hood of a country capitulating or government change. Very expensive and decreases world opinion.

Coup or Revolution mission- similar to an assassination mission but during peace time and not such a big hit to world opinion, causes DAR and MAR in targeted country to decrease with each attack.

Loyalty sabotage? A targeted mission that increase loyalty to your country and could possibly result in them leaving their country to join yours. Hex or Battle zone sized attacks. Very expensive to extremely expensive if not located on your border.
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