What's happening / TLDR: Developer diaries introduce details of Espiocracy - Cold War strategy game in which you play as an intelligence agency. You can catch up with the most important dev diary (The Vision) and find out more on Steam page.
New iteration of this set of mechanics was published under: DD#41 Intelligence Programs
As a primer for the summer and incoming dev diaries on wars, today we'll take a short and simple dive into spy equipment.
From time to time, I use the word "simulationist" to hand-wave certain mechanics. What does that exactly mean in Espiocracy? Usually this:
The entire game world in one chart. More than a mere classification exercise, this is the beating heart of simulationist implementation.
Spy gear is the perfect excuse to explain this approach in concrete terms. A lipstick gun is:
- an entity - can be selected, described, created, followed, be a subject of mental concept
- a physical object - occupies space, can be controlled and change hands, physically destructed
- a small item - can be used, moved, concealed, produced, convey intelligence, can malfunction
- a spy gear item - precise modes of use, production, etc
Such accumulation of properties and capabilities creates a game full of open-ended tools. In the previous 23 dev diaries, you may have spotted that we rarely talk about "rules", which is slightly unusual in the context of grand strategy tropes. This is the reason - the game is not exactly sculpted in rigid terms, no one sat down to write a rule that a lipstick gun can be destroyed in a nuclear explosion, it's just an emergent consequence of being a physical object and nukes destroying physical objects. So is the ability to steal your spy gear or said nuclear device!
Inventory
Following this angle, the player essentially has an inventory of espionage equipment:
Transcript: Widget with spy gear abilities, queued spy gear, and available items.
Its contents scale from the smallest intelligence agencies (just one person) to the gargantuan likes of CIA and KGB. In general, there are three tiers of spy gear:
- Standard tools of trade such as handguns, one-time pads, subminiature cameras, listening devices
- Unusual gear such as concealed weapons or inflatable aircraft
- Large projects like U-2 or counterpart of Bletchley Park
Player's attention shifts with the scale. As a group of a few people, you will struggle to procure handguns but not as an established agency. On the other end of the spectrum, largest projects are available only to largest players. Between these two extremes, most players engage with the middle tier of spy gear - interesting enough and not yet prohibitively expensive - which expands player's agency one item at a time.
Crafting (kind of)
Cutting-edge gadgets can be crafted at player's will by operatives, laboratories (including Soviet sharashkas), and contractors:
Transcript: Window with choice of a new gear to develop.
Availability depends on developed capabilities (agency-wide know-how), entity developing the gear (for instance strong local industry), scientific and technological paradigms, policies, willingness to acquire secrets (illegal experiments can enable or accelerate the process), and obviously budget. This is also one of the places where a realistic hero economy can enter the stage - employing a genius can be as impactful as building a large laboratory.
Majority of items do not have to be developed after player's orders - operatives invent devices on their own during operations. In this learning-by-doing mechanic, performing for instance many assassinations can bring in new weapons, built and refined by creative people trying to solve an issue.
Gallery of examples
It's that simple! Focus on the grand scale naturally makes spy gear a non-core part of the game. Such an approach motivates the search for most interesting items out there - fun enough to be worth player's limited attention! Here are a few of the items to be featured in Espiocracy:
-> Single-shot pen gun
Credit: Ahmed Bin Mazhar
-> Umbrella with poison in the tip, also known as Bulgarian umbrella
Credit: ossr.ru
-> Explosive material concealed as a lump of coal
Credit: Nostrifikator
-> Cat with an eavesdropping device, also known as acoustic kitty
Credit: Spycraft (2009)
-> Radioactive equipment used for lock picking (one of the most insane espionage stories of the Cold War! described in an entire book full of interviews and photos from the most secret embassy rooms, unfortunately not available in English)
Credit: Łukasz Karolewski
-> Special Atomic Demolition Munition, or simply - nuclear backpack
Final remarks
For now, we conclude the sequence of dev diaries about espionage. Next up, we will focus on various shades of conflicts, with the first coming on July 8th: "Asymmetric Conflicts I".
If you're not already wishlisting Espiocracy, consider doing it:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1670650/Espiocracy/
There is also a small community around Espiocracy:
---
Banner image: AN/PEQ-1 SOFLAM, laser designator produced by Northrop Grumman and used in Afghanistan by American special forces.
---
"My wife often said I mumble in my sleep, but that I never said anything clearly. Except one night, apparently, I sat up and shouted, ‘Those f*cking batteries!’" - CIA operative from Technical Services Division