The credits thing I get(I was oringinally going to say metal/crystal instead of resources.).  The thing is, the US can't electronically transfer itself oil it simply does not have.  You still need physical shipments to get it to your ports.  I think that's where the devs are going with it in Sins.  That is what I'd bet on the reaseach being.  Setting up behind the scenes distrubution networks.  Or some such/

yeah, but then what we see in the resources/credits bars does not necessarily indicate all the resources within an empire. the empire has coffers, and within those coffers there is a certain amount of resources.

however, when tributed, while the resources arrive, the government could use resources owned by private organisations, which would then be repayed with the resources from the other empire...

Like the others, I also hope there's a way for Envoy Cruisers to be attacked.  NOT a way to suddenly get hostile on a single empire's envoys, I mean a sort of declared "Closed Borders" option where you flat out refuse to give diplomatic immunity to any other empires; diplomats don't get immunity just because they're diplomats, they're immune because the country they're going TO has agreed to give them immunity beforehand (revokable only by Danny Glover).

The downside would be that your friends wouldn't be able to send their own envoys for legitimate purposes, and you wouldn't be able to send out envoys of your own.  But when I'm in flat-out war mode, with every other empire hostile, I should be able to reject ANY of their ships in my borders, because in that situation, I have no reason to give immunity to an enemy nation's personnel.

What I really want is just a bit more complexity.  I want propaganda missions, to change the threshold where the other faction capitulates (and I mean actual surrender, where their planets become yours, NOT just a "they stop fighting back as hard" cutoff), probably based on culture.   I want a better pirate system, not this once-per-15-minutes thing, and using pirate capital ships.  I want one-note vessels (the minelayers, and siege frigates) to have more abilities so that you have reason to bring them along with a fleet, in the same way that scouts gained their minespotting ability in Entrenchment.  And I want a pony.

I think the Vas would have an advantage now.  Those phase gates will make trade soooo much faster and may make them a rival for the Tec's econ advantage

Well hopefully with Diplomacy, the TEC is given more emphasis when it comes to espionage. To balance it out. The TEC's can only count on their sheer numbers right now. And if the Vasari become a formidable foe when it comes to econ. Then the TEC are back to squeare one with two SuperPowers bearing down on them.

While the TEC might have to use other courses of espionage on the Vasari considering. a spy in the Vasari would have to be a Vasari themselves. Maybe being able to pay off a top official in the Vasari government will get the job done. And for the Advent well, it be easy for a TEC to slap on a PsiTech gadget and walk around with some contacts in and fit right in with the Advent. Who knows maybe the TEC have some psychic people as well just not as skilled as the Advent. Theyd make perfect spies. The Advent on the other hand would have to use a different approach just like the Vasari. Using money to get what they want.

Hopefully there is a way for each faction to foil any espionage attempts. Maybe a Tech Tree option to send out coded messages that give off false info misleading the other Factions. Atleast for the TEC it could give misguided readings on their PSIDAR showing incoming enemy at a location where there isnt an actual enemy fleet.

Oh. My. God.

I love this idea. Ha, if there isn't a research in Diplomancy that allows you to broadcast false deployments to your enemies or to fool spies, I will cry.

For a long time.

Make this happen.

definitely some karma earned here.

EDIT: except its not letting me giv u karma right now, allegiance, so take it in a doggy bag. ill giv it later, for sure.

EDIT EDIT:

10 Vasari and one Human in the high council chambers... one of these things does not belong, do YOU know which one it is? =P

AWESOME idea!!!!  I wouldn't think it would be too hard, nor would it be too imbalancing - no damage is done, it just slows down enemy movements because it has to compensate for a perceived risk.  Each race has some sort of incoming enemy travel alert, so it could be applied evenly.  Excellent, excellent idea.

i just hope that they created a good espionage system here, because it was the one thing that this game was missing

i just hope that they created a good espionage system here, because it was the one thing that this game was missing

Forums go boom! egads!