Why so few Infiltrators?

[Sacha]

How about this?
Infiltrators can hire hitmen for gold. The more gold spent the better the hitman(there's your goldsink).
Since the hitmen are the ones doing the job there is no risk in the infiltrator getting caught(there's your low risk infiltrator option).

Well, if NPC assassins were to be implemented, there should be a chance of tracing them back to their employers. For instance, King Johnny is attacked by an NPC assassin, but the attempt fails and the assassin is apprehended. Under intense torture, the assassin reveals that he was hired by King Jimmy.

[Dante Silverfire]

I really don't think we need more assassins.

[Sacha]

Not more, per se. Different kind. But medieval politics need hidden daggers.

[Dante Silverfire]

Not more, per se. Different kind. But medieval politics need hidden daggers.

Just an assertion with no evidence.

[Lorgan]

Assassinations are just another way to increase position turnover and political intrigue. So yes, we do need more of them.

[Sacha]

Just an assertion with no evidence.

Evidence of what? Are you saying there's no evidence that assassination was widely used throughout history?

[Anaris]

I agree that assassination needs to stay, in one form or another, and whatever changes to the infiltrator class I end up doing, you can be sure that assassination will be accounted for somewhere. (After all, before the infiltrator class existed, rulers had an one-button option to assassinate other nobles—or maybe just other council members—for a fee...)

[Stabbity]

I agree that assassination needs to stay, in one form or another, and whatever changes to the infiltrator class I end up doing, you can be sure that assassination will be accounted for somewhere. (After all, before the infiltrator class existed, rulers had an one-button option to assassinate other nobles—or maybe just other council members—for a fee...)

I believe it was just council members.

[Vellos]

That makes a lot more sense than simply cashing bonds outside the realm. :)

That was along the lines of what I was thinking.

I was just putting lots of base-level ideas out there.

[Blue Star]

Rulers can't still attempt to assassinate council members? Tyrants and Monarchs should still have that option, else how do they manipulate the nobility?

[Stabbity]

Rulers can't still attempt to assassinate council members? Tyrants and Monarchs should still have that option, else how do they manipulate the nobility?

By actually using their influence and talking to people.

But this is a great idea. Give rulers back the old assassinate option, it could prove pretty hilarious. Imagine a King Kepler and his Rival Relpek are in a region alone, and King Evilstani's spies report this. King Evilstani has Kepler assassinated, and it looks like Relpek did it.

[Vita`]

I would think an infiltrator/spymaster would have limited range, such as only in regions he's in or bordering regions. I do like the idea of spymasters not having to be directly in a region to do something, for reasons of deniability, but it goes against the grain of many other character actions. Perhaps allowing missions by npc agents in other regions, but with increasing risk based on distance from spymaster's location.

[Vellos]

I would think an infiltrator/spymaster would have limited range, such as only in regions he's in or bordering regions. I do like the idea of spymasters not having to be directly in a region to do something, for reasons of deniability, but it goes against the grain of many other character actions. Perhaps allowing missions by npc agents in other regions, but with increasing risk based on distance from spymaster's location.

hm.

Makes me think of an interesting infl vs. infil skill: "recruit rival spy." The chance to make an agent go turncoat could either be done as a simple "you gain that NPC," or maybe just you can semi-control that NPC or influence success rate or something... again, would seem like it'd be hard to code.

This broad idea seems better and better to me.

[Gustav Kuriga]

Joy, we're over-complicating this as usually happens.

What is going on right now is feature-creep. Please, do not come up with overly complex ideas that would be a pain to code. That's just going to increase the workload unbearably for small gains.

[Vita`]

I agree with you, but would note this isn't a fully-fledged feature request thread either. Perhaps someone should summarize the proposed points in a clearly laid out way and distinguish what would be a basic implementation versus additional, down the road improvements? The infiltrator class will probably need overhauled much like the mentor one, the way this conversation is going. The name infiltrator may not even be appropriate anymore.