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Spies and sabatoge for sieges, politics, etc.
When sieging a castle, metropolis, etc, do we know if there are any mechanics in place that support/deter setting up spies within that castle? I believe spies would be a very interesting part of the game that would expand upon the concept of political rivalries and interactive sieges. You could get accurate information on caravan schedules/routes, find out when a major guild within the city might be absent on a raid, learn about potential rivalries or trade deals between cities and try to influence them before they even happen. However it would be incredibly difficult to implement the mechanics necessary to make spies work.
Unless you are able to disguise both your character and your in game character name, after you are a spy once and get caught then that's really all you get. I'm sure characters wont be able to be imprisoned or actually killed, so you're just left being forever known as that spy. Coupled with the threat of meta gaming, knowing the person in real life and what they like to do with their characters, things they've posted on the forums, it might actually be near impossible to even infiltrate in the first place. In addition I'm sure that only residents of a city, and even then only influential ones, would be able to gain access to important enough areas where spying would be relevant. Maybe spies could be some kind of NPC that your more wealthy residents/rulers could buy and send to other cities (though that's not as fun from a player/RP perspective).
In terms of infiltrating sieges the way I currently envision it is I would assume that you would have Group A defending their castle, while Group B assaults it. Group A is in open PvP with Group B and they can freely attack one another without consequence. If Group B has players "stationed" within Group A's forces (lets say you have 5 players who you told to gain residence in the castle/city and 'volunteer' to fight for it), would said players be able to leave Group A mid fight and rejoin Group B? This would also be incredibly easy to prevent from happening, but I feel might be another interesting aspect of large scale warfare. If you want to prevent it, just put in place a system that punishes players who leave their Group mid fight, maybe with a temp ban to joining groups.
Do you think spies/infiltrators could be a part of this game while retaining balance and fun factor? Or maybe I'm just running away with ideas of "realism" that cant really fit in with video game mechanics.
Comments
Territory control sandbox games do have spy activities. Well, the most ambitious and forward thinking groups do at the very least. It is much more easy if the player base is large and we are allowed several Alts. Often a spy will actually have to be a character that is unknown as one of your main's Alts.
He/She will have to spend whatever time it takes to get into a good position, probably having to spend much time playing and acting a part. That is how they get trusted with more and more access to sensitive things. Only a short time would be needed to, say be able to give info on troop disposition, etc...
And yeah, unless there is some way to disguise your name, you will be a one-major-trick-pony. You might be able to get away with a slow info leak for a while though.
My name is Karthos... just Karthos. I'd like a vodka martini, poured, not stirred, poured right into my mouth.