Destabilizing feedback and mechanics

from Stardock Forums
First up, I have to say I love this game! it's definately a stayer on my HD...
Thumbs up for all the devs at stardock for giving it to the world.

now, as for my question;
Destabilization, how does it work?
Espionage (it's passive brother) works great, and you get report at a frequency that depends on the spending level. But this stops at a certain level though... no problem, just turn the money flow off when you know everything there is to know, right?
Dest. though, is a mystery to me, I never get any feedback from it, about how far it's along, what happened.
It just slurps my money and I don't get any results, at least none that I know of.

Can anyone show me the real mechanics of this, on maybe something deeper for dest. could be in the next patch

Thanks,

Wazzz

~SDC~
2,203 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
I don't know the real mechanics, but the concept is, you spend money, lowering that race's morale. Chances are the AI will simply decrease his taxes to counter it so you won't see an effect, except his economy probably won't be doing as well.

The only time I use it, and it seems to work quite well in this case, is when I am the culturally dominant race in a sector, and I'm waiting for the planets to turn. I pump all the money into destabilization and they tend to jump to my side a lot faster.
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
Destabilization isn't something to be subtle with or long term- You'll want to crank it way up for a little while than leave it moderate or low for a long time. A constant low level of destabilization is only good for giving the enemy a little economy hit, but a massive pulse of it will cause them shorter but much worse problems. If you hit them badly enough (take out or buy a moral resource starbase at the same time you crank destabilization) they will have several planets erupt in outright rebellion. Losing a system hurts far more than any general economic heel-dragging, doubly so if said system joins your side.

~SDC~
Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
So, the key is to have a mix strategy. Keep destabilize on low for the long term. On occaision, hit the enemy with a massive strike for a short duration. After a few turns of this reverse back to low destabilization. I'm guessing that short term is roughly 3 to 5 turns.

Is the above correct?
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
I'm not sure about the whokle "small amounts for a long time" thing. Unlike espionage (which clearly accumulates), I believe destab is all used in the turn you spend it...

So massive for a few turns to freak AI out - AI drops taxes, builds social improvements - then drop it, and let AI suffer having too much social infrastrucutre (ie. high main costs). If you can, monitor the AI's remaining bank balance during this period - should be going down. If you repeat, and it doesn't go down, then the AI is keeping all the social improvs, which is a great outcome.

I tend to use this mainly when the AI I am about to attack (or an ally is attacking) is economically vulnerable - read very little cash reserves. One game play example: (at large/crippling) I caught the Drenin at -200BC, and drove them under -500BC, so construction stopped - and I kept them there while destroying their fleet. Very satisfying!

~SDC~
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
Agree with Ralegh. The most effective destabilization "strategy" is to oscillate - jump to 100% when at war and keep it there as long as the target AI is in debt. Once it "recovers" (by improving morale through social buildings, tax reductions, propaganda, dropping to Republic/Imperium, etc.), reduce it to a marginal rate (to delay/prevent the AI from returning to a higher form of government) and pursue a conventional war.

Espionage reports degrade over time. (Example: An AI has Avatars. Its military strength graph spikes, showing it is building them. However, without espionage spending, your status report will continue to show a Dreadnought as the most powerful ship in its arsenal.) Thus, you must maintain a certain level of spending on espionage if you wish up-to-date information on # of ships destroyed/lost, current tech being researched, stat bounuses, most powerful system/ship, etc.

~SDC~