An idea struck me today. I was going to post it on another thread, but I think it has the potential to be a nice addition to this suggestion:
Be prepared, this is seriously detailed and long. I just couldn't stop myself.
Infiltrators
Description: This is mainly for neutral and individual players who would like to play a game of "cloak and dagger", playing their role in the outcome of wars of "big landlords" or merely making profit by offering their arts of discretion. The only thing they own is, contacts. With those contacts they can do certain things. This is explained more in detail.
Fiefs: Infiltrators can only enter a fief. Raiding and attacking settlements is not an option for them. They can't own them as well. In return, they are invisible to the fief owner once they have entered a fief; though they can be seen under certain circumstances. Explained later.
Production: As infiltrators can not own any fiefs, they can not produce anything since they have no settlements and they will not be able to carry any equipment in their inventories. Instead, they "establish" contacts with their strat tickets. Those contacts will cost upkeep, if not getting paid they will be disbanded. The amount of contacts will be displayed in the inventory and they will not slow the infiltrator on map. They are merely to show what the infiltrator has. Those contacts will make the difference in getting caught or being succesful in the actions.
Trade: To your great surprise, infiltrators also can't trade. However, they have certain weapons at their disposal to be involved with the trading business.
Armies: Infiltrators own no armies.
Map Options: Infiltrators are seen as 1 man armies on the map, if one has the chance get that much close enough to see them on the map. Infiltrators move at great speed on the map, and an army needs to get very close to their party to spot them. That being said, they have the option to hide in friendly parties. Alternatively, infiltrators can try to sneak into a party with some risk involved. Again, this will be explained later in more detail.
The actions infiltrators can do are:
Get caught:
If the infiltrator gets caught, all of his contacts will go to waste and infiltrator will spawn on a random location of the map. It will be as if the infiltrator itself will be executed and the player will start playing with a new life. It also has a cooldown of 7 days, which means if an infeltrator gets caught 2 times in the same day they will have to wait for 7 days to spawn again.
Infiltrate armies: Risk of getting caught ranging from 80% to 0%
Only for parties
Infiltrators can try to sneak through an army. Basically, the more troops that party has and the more contacts the infiltrator has, there is less chance to get caught. If the infiltrator sucessfully sneaks in, then he will see the full inventory of the party. Some further options will be available.
Hide:
Only for parties, by given permissiom
Infiltrators can hide in armies, if they have the permission of the party of course. Maybe the parties might want some payment to hide an infiltrator in their party, as the party inventory will be fully revealed to the infiltrator by default with this option. A party can hide only 1 infiltrator at a time, so it's not possible to send a spy bomb party.
Note: When an infiltrator is travelling with a party, whether it is an enemy or friend; the infiltrator will act as a member of that party. It will not be seen on the map, will travel with that party, will increase the troop number of the party by 1 (temporarily) and if the party gets defeated in battle, the infiltrator will be slain as well.
Gather Information: Risk of getting caught ranging from 60% to 0%, costs an additional 1000 gold
Only for settlements
The inventory will be revealed to the infiltrator once the infiltrator sneaks into an army. This is not the case for settlements. Infiltrators will need to "infiltrate" to see the armory of the settlements. As expected, there is some risk involved as well as bribing a few of the guards. As a result, it reveals the fief inventory for a full day as well as the information of who is stationed within the settlement with how many troops.
Blend into the crowd
For settlements and infiltrated parties
Infiltrators are invisible once they sneaked up into a settlement or infiltrated an army. The fief owners won't be able to see them, and therefore kick them out of their fief. Same goes for the infiltrated armies. They won't even notice that an infiltrator is in the army at the first place. However, each action the infiltrator takes increases the awareness bar. After that bar reaches a certain point, the infiltrator will be spotted and executed automatically. Seperate infiltrators working on the same target does have less effect on causing each other to be spotted.
For example: Lets say if one infiltrator executes 4 actions on the same settlement, he will get caught. And lets say two infiltrators does 5 actions in total. They will attract less attention individually and will not get caught most likely. 6 actions in total however, will cause at one of them to get caught as there will be two infiltrators which executed 3 actions. Guards might will be more on the lookout to catch those pesky infiltrators. Please take note that this is very a rough explenation and that every action will increase the awareness bar by a different amount. This is just a rough idea to prevent certain possible abuses. The details about it should be decided later.
Note: The contacts of the infiltrator, causes the infiltrator to raise more awareness per the activity being made. Although this effect is minimal, the difference might be noticable in very large numbers of contacts. This is to prevent buying dozens of contacts to ensure doing literally everything. Besides, the more contacts you have the easier for your enemies to track you down.
Guard:
For settlements and parties
Infiltrators can also decide to work against other infiltrators, by trying to prohibit their actions on a certain target. It makes every action by other infiltrators to increase the awaraness bar even more (like, multiplies their effect by 1,2). Only 1 infiltrator can guard a settlement or an army.
For armies, this is like the upgraded version of hiding. They are two seperate actions, because guarding a party can be a reason for extra payment.
Bribe: costs 100 to 10 gold per contact bought, depending on the crime rate
Only for settlements
An infiltrator can buy contacts in cities with gold, contacts that will only work on that city. It will look in inventory like "Contacts from Reyvadin" for example. The price is determined by the crime rate. This action also increases the awareness bar, so it is wise to bribe early before you're planning for an action on that settlement. Also, it is a good idea to not bribe too many contacts in a settlement.
Spread Disease: Risk of getting caught ranging from 100% to 10%, costs an additional 10000 gold
For parties:
If the attempt is succesful, the army will begin losing armies until they station themselves in a settlement for 3 days. The army begins losing troops like this: 2% troops the first day, 4% troops the second day, 8% troops the third day, 16% troops the fourth day... This percentage is of the total amount of troops.
For settlements:
If the attempt is succesful, the same effect will be applied to the population only. And the casualty is half of the amount compared to armies (1%, 2%, 4%...) . It is not possible for the disease to be cured in 2 days. After 2 days has passed, there is a 25% cahnce of it to be cured every day.
Increase Crime Rate: Risk of getting caught ranging from 70% to 0%, costs an additional 1000 gold
Only for settlements
This will increase the crime rate by 20% within 3 days. This effect can be stacked as many times as desired, meaning the attempts can be repeated while the previous attempt still takes effect. For example: if it is repeated 3 times, the crime rate will raise by 60% within 3 days.
Note: Higher crime decreases the awareness bar a little bit.
Burn S&D: Risk of getting caught ranging from 80% to 0%, costs an additional 2+ golds per S&D burnt
Only for settlements
If the attempt is sucessful, the effect is instant. For burning 0-99 S&D, it costs 2 gold per S&D burnt; after that 100-199 S&D costs 3 gold per S&D burnt...
Sabotage: Risk of getting caught ranging from 70% to 5%, costs an additional 5000 gold
Sabotages a certain kind of weapon. The number of the weapons is irrelevant, only thing that matters is the type of the weapons. An army is carrying 900 pikes? Take the risk, spend 5k gold and sabotage all of them in a single attempt. It destroys all ranks of an item, broken and masterwork alike.
Note: Also includes goods!
Investigate: Risk of getting caught ranging from 20% to 0%, costs an additional 200 gold
For settlements and parties
Simply, when succesful, it will reveal the awareness bar of the settlement/party. It doesn't show exact numbers, but rather; it reveals a rough picture of the situation. Take note however, this only reveals the latest awareness bar you investigated. This action also increases the awareness bar a little bit, and this is not displayed in the last report you get.
Note1: The chances of success/failure depending on contacts are not linear. Having no contacts will make a great chance of getting caught. As the infiltrator establishes his contacts, it will offer great use at the beginning and after a certain number it will begin to offer diminishing returns.
Note2: Yes there are two seperate factors for getting caught. One is the awareness bar and the second is the risk of getting caught of that specific action. Maybe these two factors can be integrated into 1, but I am too sleepy at the moment.
Poll