Covert Operations Guide V1.3.3

###### tags: `Planetarion` # Covert Operations Guide V1.3.3 *Last Update: 18th January 2023 - 11:20* ##### **Note**: I've updated this to please CBA, although he is a bit of a mong. The information within is based on my own experiences and knowledge twinned with information from the Planetarion manual. Comments and feedback are more than welcome. ##### Round 100 had two new races, and Military Scans - These are not included in this guide. #### *Please feel free to post comments/questions or speak to Lee_W_23 on TG. ## Introduction This is a guide to Covert Operations (Cov-Ops) in Planetarion (PA). There are many ways in which to succeed in Cov-Ops this guide is there to either provide some basic knowledge and tips to get you to the basic quests or even to help you maximise the return on investment for Cov-Ops. A word of warning, you will fail some missions, if you are impatient you will fail more. The areas I will cover are: * What are Covert Operations? * What are the pros & cons of cov-ops? * What is success in cov-opping? * How does it work? * Stealth * Alertness * The maths behind the numbers. * What makes a good target and where to find them? * Getting the facts. * Establishing the unknown. * Putting it all together (Calcing) * When to strike. * Tick 24 Madness * Using cov-ops to support your attack/defence. * The missions. * How to stop getting 'cov-opped' * FAQs / Myth Busting * Coming Soon * References * Thanks But before we begin those who are limited in attention span or simply want a short sharp fix of tips look no further It annoys me that no time or effort is ever put in to the development of cov ops, there is simply no interest in making cov ops a bigger or better part of the game. Cov Ops is a part of Planetarion that has not changed for many many rounds, it's unloved, under developed and is seen by the majority as a fucking waste of time and effort. I'd really like PA team to refresh and revisit cov ops to make them more useful, more enjoyable and more interesting. Maybe one day?!?! --- ## 9 Key tips as a noob cov opper! 1. Wait until your stealth is at maximum before initiating a mission. 2. Use missions with lower agent numbers to quickly boost your stealth to maximum bonus. 3. Attack XAN targets for the '*Warp Drive Manipulation*' operation. 4. Have a list of regular targets and check up on them often. 5. Keep your own alert high (between 92 and 95) 6. Initiate missions as soon as possible after the tick. 7. You can have a sucessful mission even if a planet doesn't have any roids (*hint hint*) 9. Don't use more agents than you need (Each mission has an optimal multiplier)** --- ## What are covert operations? Within PA a planet can train Agents and then set them to perform missions against hostile planets. These are instant actions, with instant results. The missions range from destroying asteroids to stealing resources, bribing guards to destroying structures. There is a resource cost to hire agents, their wages and a mission cost. Each agent costs 2,000 of each resource to train, and a further 5 of each resource per tick in wages. Each mission costs 500 of each resource per agent used and depending on the mission can use between 5 and 70 agents. --- ## What are the pros & cons of covert operations? Cov ops is another side of PA, it's almost a different game and adds another dimension. It is however an acquired taste, or a niche area which few, and with each round seemingly fewer players do. The positives: 1. **Quest Bonuses** - Without a doubt the biggest reason to perform cov-ops is the quest bonuses. There is a total of 7.25M of each resource, 5500 CPs, 1500 RPs and 45 of each asteroid type available. (plus 2500 XP if you complete the full tree) 2. **More Game Involvement** - By having cov ops, players have another aspect of the game to play, as because it is instant result, the player can having something between the ticks! 3. **Inside Knowledge** - Cov ops can give you an advantage in attacks and defence, helping work out what ships are at home, or taking out a distorter to allow an I scan, or delaying the production by putting a planet in to Anarchy 4. **Speed Up Research** - By using covert operations to steal research, you can greatly increase the speed which other research for you planet is completed. 5. **Cheaper Guards** - Never have to pay full price for guards again, just steal them from other planets using one of the easiest missions. 6. **XP Gain** - Although very small, the XP gained by doing cov ops is a positive. The arguement I make is that the time and effort doesn't make it very 'cost effective' The negatives: 1. **Time** - You do need to put more time in to cov ops, finding targets, and planning your missions. 2. **Boredom** - Sadly the quests don't go on long enough, once you've done the main quests the reward for cov ops does dwindle. 3. **Annoying** - Cov op missions do rely on guess work, so things are going to fail. You will lose your bonus, you will spend time researching a target only for it to fail because another cov opper beat you to it. It can be very frustrating, you just have to keep with it and accept failures happen. 4. **Risk & Reward** - There is a lot of risk in wasting resources in chase of a slightly bigger reward, sometime spending 2500 resources for 3 RPs just drives you wild, but it happens. You just need to be selective in your targets. --- ## What is success in cov-opping? How do you define if covert operations were worth doing in the round? Is it actually worth the time and effort? Firstly, did/do you enjoy doing it? If not, it's not for you, and perhaps don't bother next round, or just do the basics for quests. Each player will have their own marker for success, for me, when cov opping fully, I like to complete the quest tree and also finish in the top 5 cov opers in the uni with a success rate of above 85%. When I'm having a round off of cov ops I tend to do the 50 ops for the quest, but not research any of the tech tree. Some players like to analyse the exact cost and reward of each RP or structure, this isn't hard to do using the History / Covert Ops section in PA. It's also advisable to keep a log of what planets you've hit, with what settings and the results. PA only holds the last 50 missions. In a round a player can reach over 500 successful covert missions, if they are cheating probably a lot more (EvilMonkey for example) If you enjoy it, it's a success. --- ## How does it work? In simple terms, a planet has a stealth value and an alert value. For a mission to succeed the target planet's alert must be lower than the stealth of the originating planet. The aim for the cov-oper is to try to establish the difference between the alert of the target and thier own stealth value. For there they need to determine how many agents they can use and still succeed. For example: *Planet A* performs a mission using 10 agents on *Planet B* *Planet A* has a stealth value of 90 and *Planet B* has an alert of 70. The operation will **succeed**. *Planet C* performs a mission using 15 agents on *Planet D* *Planet C* has a stealth value of 80 and *Planet D* has an alert of 90. The operation will **fail**. That's it, that is in very simple terms how it works. Of course there are many more variables and formulas involved which we will go in to as we go through this document. But in essence, your number has to be bigger than their number by more than the number of agents you are using. --- ## Stealth Understanding the various components of covert operations is key to success. Stealth is a key number for initiation of covert missions. This numbers is the first part of a large formula. This is a number you want to be as high as possible. Each race has a base stealth value, this will be set out at the round start and detailed in the PA manual. On the whole ETD and ZIK planets have the higher base stealth value. The higher the stealth value the more success you will have. Each tick the stealth grows until it reaches its maximum. The rate in which it grows also depends upon the race of the planet. TER and CAT planets tend to have a fast growth rate. The faster the growth rate the more operations you can perform. A planets government can also affect the stealth value and the stealth growth value. There is a cumulative bonus available for succesful missions, for each success the maximum stealth is raised by 1, with a maximum of 5. Should an operation fail, this resets to zero. The values are calculated using these formulas: *STEALTH=BASE_MAX_STEALTH(1+GOV_BONUS/100)+CUMULATIVE_SUCCESS_BONUS* *STEALTH_INCREASE_RATE=BASE_RECOVERY(1+GOV_BONUS/100)* --- ## Alertness Alertness is the second key number. Each planet has a base alert value, and much like stealth can be affected by the planets selected government. Race does not affect the Alertability (New word I just made up) Alertness is also affected by other factors. 1) Security Guards - The more trained security guards a planet has the higher the alert value is. The maximum effectiveness of security guards is 15:1 in relation to asteroids. 2) Security Centres - These are structures a planet can build to improve security (alertness) 3) Population Settings - By setting up to 50% of the population to security a planet can boost the alert level. 4) Previous Successful Missions - After a successful covert mission the target planet is boosted +20 on their alertness. The alert value is calculated using this formula: *ALERT=(50+5MIN(GUARDS/(ASTEROIDS+1),15))(1+(CENTRES\*2.75+GOV_BONUS+POPULATION)/100)* The alert value also increase or decreases to the maximum value each tick. The rate of this change varies depending upon the security settings above. It lowers by the following if your alertness is too high: *ALERT_DECREASE_RATE=FLOOR(5-MIN(GUARDS/(ROIDS+1),2)\*(1+(POPULATION+GOVBONUS)/100))* The above is a number between 1 and 5. or raises by the following if your alertness is too low: *ALERT_INCREASE_RATE=FLOOR((5+MIN(GUARDS/(ROIDS+1),5))\*(1+(POPULATION+GOVBONUS)/100))* The above is a number between 5 and 17. --- ## The maths behind the numbers Calculating if a covert missions will succeed or fail combines the above Steath and Alert numbers with the amount of agents used. I always associate the number of agents as the risk factor, simply, the more agents used the less likely the mission will succeed. A key point here is to always use the right number of agents on a mission. Each mission has a optimal multiple of agents, by keeping to this your risk level is not higher for no benefit. For example, sending 11 agents on the Exploding Fist Mission will only give you the same result as sending 9 agents. To work out if a mission is a success of failure a 'new stealth' value is calculated. This 'new stealth' number is the existing stealth combined with the number of agents used. Effectively this will the stealth of the planet after the mission if it is a success of failure. This is worked out using this formula *NEW_STEALTH=(STEALTH-5-INT(AGENTS\*0.5))* The new stealth is then used in a formula to establish the success *SUCCESS=RAND(1-9)+NEW_STEALTH-ALERT* This number must be greater than 1 to succeed. **RAND** - A randomly generated number, this element of the equation is small but very powerful, it can be the difference between success and failure, and also if your agents live or die. If you fail a mission, and it is down the the RAND calc, your agents won't die, the mission will just report 'Failed'. If your calculations are way off your agents will be killed. This is a great way to get more information on what a planets alert is for future operations. *(Rand used to be 1-100 in the old days, it's much better now)* ### XP As a side note, with each mission attempted the planet gains XP. This is calculated as such: Each covert mission are in order from 1 to 9 as below: Exploding Fist = 1 Network Defection = 2 Security Defection = 3 and so on (the government subversion covert op being 9). *XP=INT(2\*(MISSION+(AGENTS/5))* ## What makes a good target and where to find them? Using the knowledge of Alertness from above a good target is one with as of an alert value as possible. The easy pickings are vulnerable targets, ones with their guard down. * New Planets - Planets that are fresh out of protection often overlook the importance of guards and security. It's work keeping an eye in KIA to find out what planets will be coming out of protection and when * Successful Planets - Planets that have had a size growth recently are susceptible to not adjusting their security setting accordingly. * Anarchy - Planets in anarchy are -15% alert. Keep an eye on the Universe Feed for planets entering anarchy. But remember you're not the only one going to be keen to pick of these easy targets! In general, you are looking for planets with a low guard to asteroid ratio and/or low numbers of security centers. Performing P and D scans gives a very quick idea of a targets security level and mindset. Use the alliance scans page where possible to save wasted resources on scans that could already exist. A bad target is one which is obviously know by other cov-opers and is getting cov opped successfully regularly. It doesn't particularly matter about race in general we are just interested in the facts. When trying to achieve the quest for Warp Drive Manipulation it is best to target a XAN planet as the value of ships is lower and you can destroy more with fewer agents and operations. Targets can be split in to two categories, One-Offs and Regulars. The holy grail is to find a planet which becomes a regular. These types of planets can be used to quickly boost your stealth bonus or as a steady stream of joy. One-Offs are those targets you hit for a specific reason, such as they are attacking you. Or you deem the risk / success chance to be too close for comfort. These targets are the ones that get the heart beating when you press the initiate button and wait for the result... The mission you choose to perform depends on the target. If you are trying to steal agents or guards, make sure the target has enough home. The same can be said for all the missions, an example is trying to use 20 agents to perform a goverment submission on a planet already in anarchy will return success but won't help your quests and be a waste of time, effort and resources. Recently R88/89 I've been made aware that planets exchange guard swap cov ops to fulfill the quests. A freind either not in an alliance or in a different alliance take it in turn to cov op each other to swap guards and get the bonus rewards. I really don't like this, but there is no way to stop or police it. --- ## Getting the facts. To determine is a planet is a good target you will need to get a three recent, preferably fresh scans. a Planet Scan, Development Scan and a News Scan. For basic information: The Planet scan will tell you the race, total asteroids and number of guards. The Development scan will tell you how many security centres and what population management research has been done. The News scan tells you when the last cov op(s) was attempted and if it failed or succeeded. N.b. News scans do not reveal information about the last three ticks. These scans will tell us much more information that can help is fill in the blanks. We will cover this in a later section. At this point, you now know what cov ops are, how they work, what is needed for success, good targets and how to get the facts from basic scans. With a 88+ stealth there is no reason you cannot be moderately successful using just this information. --- ## Establishing the unknown. The three unknown elements of the cov op calc are numbers which there is no guaranteed way of knowing and you have to guess what they think they are. There are ways to make your guesses more educated and closer to actual numbers. #### Government A planet can have one of 7 government settings, each with its own alert affecting factor. Using these techniques you can gauge which applies to your target planet. * Resource income per tick * Take a P scan just before the tick and one just after. This will can let you see how much resource is being gained. By calculating all the factors around this (Asteroids, FC, Refs, agents, Guards, tax) some governments can be ruled out and the population setting can be established. * Time between construction builds * Using an News scan, you can calculate the ticks between constructions and establish how many CPs the planet makes per tick. This will give a good indication on the government and population setting. Ensure you look for quests which may give bonus CPs that could skew the numbers * Time between research completion * Using an News scan, you can calculate the ticks between research (TECH) and establish how many RPs the planet makes per tick. This will give a good indication on the government and population setting. Ensure you look for quests which may give bonus RPs that could skew the numbers * Anarchy News * Both the planet news scan ad the universe feed will contain notifications of entering / exiting anarchy. It is worth checking this out as it could give you a clue. * If a planet has gone through anarchy it is likely they will be changing to CORP or TOTAL government. * Universe Statistics * The current % of planets with each governments are available in game, this tells you the chance of a planet being a certain government. SOCIAL is by far the most common. #### Population Setting As mentioned previously a planet can assign up to 50% of their population to security. This has a big affect on the alertness of the planet. * Completed Population Management research * Without research the maximum population assignment is 50% in total, with each research level this grows by 10. If a planet does not have the full tech tree complete you can gauge how much of the population is available. I am yet to see a planet that does not have mining at 25% all the time. On this basis it is reasonable to assume when a planet has 60% population available, 25% will be used on mining leaving a maximum of 35% which could be security. * Resource income per tick * Take a P scan just before the tick and one just after. This will can let you see how much resource is being gained. By calculating all the factors around this (Asteroids, FC, Refs, agents, Guards, tax) some governments can be ruled out and the population setting can be established. * Time between construction builds * Using an News scan, you can calculate the ticks between constructions and establish how many CPs the planet makes per tick. This will give a good indication on the government and population setting. Ensure you look for quests which may give bonus CPs that could skew the numbers. * Time between research completion * Using an News scan, you can calculate the ticks between research (TECH) and establish how many RPs the planet makes per tick. This will give a good indication on the government and population setting. Ensure you look for quests which may give bonus RPs that could skew the numbers #### Last Cov Op Success This is by far the most difficult to work out. The 'last 3 ticks' that do not show on the News scan are a mystery, and remain so. Trying to establish changes CT KIA and Bream Tools are superb in their design and features, they give exceptional details on what has happened in PA. Using these tools you can see if any asteroids have been destroyed right up to the current tick. Value and Score changes *may* give you some indication of a successful covert operation in the hidden 3 ticks, but this is exceptionally variable. * Value / Score Changes in KIA/Bream * Asteroid total changes in KIA/Bream * -3 roids is a certain indication of a successful mission on the planet. * Old Planet Scans (Compare Agent / Guard Numbers) * By comparing old scans, you can see any changes in agent or guard numbers. If 50 guards have gone missing between two P scans you can safely say they have been cov opped at some point between the two. * Old Development Scans * Compare structure numbers, if they have been the victim of an INFORMATION BLACKOUT or HAVOC their numbers will have changed * Ask your alliance and covert friends! * Other people getting to your target before you is the most annoying thing. It is even worse when it's your own alliance. * Check the alliance scans list to see if anyone else has requested scans of your intended target. There are logs which HC may let you see that tell you who requested them. A big part of maximising your cov op success is data. Keep a log of the cov ops you do, the settings you calculated and the results. This will allow you to establish patterns and spot changes in regular targets. The more you hit a target the more you know about them. Keeping good logs is vital to getting the extra success rate. Logs also ensure you can see if cover operations are paying off, are you getting the return on time and return on investment? Keeping a log will help you establish this. Learn from the failures and work out why a cov op failed, did you do something wrong? did something change? - Follow up failed missions and learn from them. --- ## Putting it all together (Calcing) I spent a little bit of time creating a calc, just an excel spreadsheet which takes the raw data and gives me the numbers needed to work out the chances of success. --- ## When to strike Many believe that it is irrelevant in terms of when to strike within the hour of a tick. Personally, I recommend initiating the mission as soon as the tick processing finishes. This can be anything from xx:00:20 - xx:02:30 depending on how busy the tick is and how far in to the round it is. The reasons for this: 1) You beat other cov oppers to the target. 2) If stealing resources that have not been spent, or are at maximum. 3) It gives you the rest of the tick to look for your next target. A true cov-op legend has a theory about performing a mission at xx:xx:59 and then another at xx:xx:20 the following tick, this way they get two missions done without wasting time inbetween. I just don't like the unknown of the 59 minutes since the last tick! As for times of the day, it's a fact things are quieter during the early hours (game time) however I have not noticed any particularly good or bad times to cov op. I like to perform a large agent mission (20-50) before logging off for the evening, this was my stealth can re-grow while asleep. During the day I tend to do 15 agent or less missions so more can be completed. As with every part of the game, changes happens throughout the round. Generally covert operations are easiest from tick 24 - 300 and the last 100 ticks. At the start of the round the focus for planets is research, ship building and constructions, security is often overlooked. During the middle of the round most planets will be on the ball, asteroid numbers don't change drastically. Planets will be looking to get the quests done for covert, this means there is much more competition for easy targets. During the middle of the round a cov oppers should be looking to maximise smaller agent missions stealing resources, guards or research to ensure their bonus is kept at maximum. At the end of the round planets are looking to attack and get maximum score. With large lands and asteroid numbers sky rocketing security levels are not changed to meet the needs. With the high agent missions (Havoc & Government) the end of the round is the best time to perform these. --- ## TICK 24 Madness The first chance to cov op means there is a flurry of players doing as many as they can as soon as they can for the quest reward. Players will do between 1 and 3 cov ops in the same tick. Remember you need to get in there first. The planet needs to have low alert, so do your scans and prep well before and have your targets lined up. Scan will be hard to find or get (unless you're playing as a scanner) but don't go in blind... If you're after xx:xx:05 I'd double check for roid loss before triggering. --- ## Using cov-ops to support your attack/defence. By using covert operations to supplement defence and attacks this can help make your battle calcs more accurate and also weed out the fake fleets. When attacking you can potentially use cov ops to: 1) See if the target has ships home and what type using WARP DRIVE MANIPULATION 2) See if the defenders have ships home, and what type using WARP DRIVE MANIPULATION 3) Prevent or slow production on the target planet by using HAVOC or GOVERNMENT SUBVERSION 4) Destroy distorters to enable scans using INFORMATION BLACKOUT 5) Destroy amps to stop a planet from I scanning you with INFORMATION BLACKOUT When defending / under attack you can potentially use cov ops to: 1) See if the attacker has ships home and what type using WARP DRIVE MANIPULATION 2) Destroy distorters to enable scans (I SCAN!) using INFORMATION BLACKOUT --- ## How to stop getting 'cov-opped' No cov opper likes to be cov opped themselves. What is the best way to prevent getting mankad'ed There are two forms of protection, visible and invisible. A cov opper relies on facts, you can either deny them the facts and present the fully so they clearly know you've got yourself covered. Visible Protection 1) Guards 2) Security Centres 3) BreamTools/Kia/News Scans showing previous sucsessful cov ops on the planet. Invisible Protection 1) Population Settings (50%) 2) Government Settings (Nationalism or Totalitarian) 3) Distorters - If they can't scan you, they will be going in blind. 4) Arrange to be cov opped by a friend.... **SEE NOTE** A combination of both is the most common way to have a good level of protection. Personally I use guards only, stealing them as I need them. You want to have an alert of between 93-95, this way you are not over protecting but are immune. Personally I think an alert of 85+ is acceptable/suitable, as the main thing you are trying to stop is HAVOC and Structure Loss... Security Centres are much under rated, there effectiveness is not affected by guards or asteroid numbers. If a planet has 40 or more SCs they are immune regardless of Government. Personally if a planet has more than 30 SCs it is too much of a risk to attempt. By investing the CPs in to SCs you never have to pay wages for guards and remain protected regardless of roid count. The Honey Trap. Some players just ignore cov ops, and have no protection. Allowing their planet to be used and abused. There is an element of protection in this, in the fact of multiple cov opp missions create the alert to rise. I've not done the numbers behind the costs / savings of this method so cannot plausibly say it's beneficial or not. The Random Element. Changing you guard number and population settings regularly is a great way to avoid becoming a repeat or regular target for a cov opper. A planet that remains the same and doesn't respond to successful cov ops make themselves much more likely to get hit again, and again, and again. If these settings do change, a cov opper will more than likely just go elsewhere as they cannot calculate random changes. **NOTE FOR CONTENTION** Some players use getting cov op as their form of protection. Giving up 3 roids for an alert bouns, and a news scan/breamtools/kia record to say you've been hit recently puts people off. I'm also aware that players arange to cov op each other at the 'right' time so they have a "You scratch my back, i'll scratch yours" approach... It's not against the rules, and pretty harmless I guess? --- ## The Missions All planets start with the 1st cov op mission (Exploding Fist) all the others require research before they are available. Some missions are more useful than others, but each has a quest associated with it. The key ones for me are *Security Guard Defection*, *Hacking : Science Database*, *Hacking : Resource Transfers* and *Warp Drive Manipulation*. Each mission has an associated quest and reward for its completion. **Exploding Fist** (Min Agents 9 (use in multiples of 3)) Every 3 agents that get through blow up 1 asteroid. QUEST: Destroy 30 Asteroids REWARD: 150000 of each resource **Agent Defection** (Min 15, RPs 1200 (use in multiples of 1)) Every agent on a successful mission can convince an enemy agent to join your forces. QUEST: Defect 50 Agents REWARD: 300000 of each resource **Security Guard Defection**(Min 5, RPs 1600) Each agent has the ability to bribe 10 security guards. QUEST: Bribe 500 guards REWARD: 450000 of each resource **Hacking : Science Database** (Min 10, RPs 2400 (use in multiples of 4)) Every 4 agents reduces the target's current research points by 1% of the current research points completed on the active research. This would mean that, if a planet had 2000 RP in their current research progress and 10 agents successfully completed a mission, int(2000*int(10*0.25)/100) = 40 RP would be stolen from them and added to your current research. If you do not have an active research, the research points would still be stolen from the target planet but not added to your planet. QUEST: Transfer 500 RPs REWARD: 600000 of each resource Be happy with a sucess even if it's for 4 or 5 rps.... At least your agents didn't did! **EvilMonkey managed to cheat stealling thousands of RPs per mission in a round, he had multi's but didn't get closed himself... I have the screen shot) **Warp Drive Manipulation** (Min 10, RPs 3200 (use in multiples of 1)) Each agent that gets through has the ability to affect between 50 and 100 value's worth of ships. All ships in the home fleet are included as potential targets (whether set to run and hide or stay and fight). Ships in any of the 3 fleets which are not currently under orders (pre launched, launched or returning) will also be included. The precise value is as follows: *DAMAGE_VALUE=INT(50+MIN(TARGET_VALUE/YOUR_VALUE\*10,50))* QUEST: Destroy 500 ships REWARD: 750000 of each resource **Information Black-out** (Min 15, RPs 4000 (use in multiples of 15)) Each multiple of 15 agents has the ability to knock out 1 wave amplifier and 1 wave distorter, if they exist. QUEST: Blackout 7 wave amplifiers and distorters REWARD: 900000 of each resource **Havoc** (Min 20, RPs 4800 (use in multiples of 20)) Each multiple of 20 agents has the ability to destroy a construction that is not a wave amplifier or wave distorter, if one exists. QUEST: Destroy 5 non-wave structures REWARD: 1050000 of each resource **Hacking : Resource Transfers** (Min 20, RPs 5600 (use in multiples of 1)) The maximum amount of resources that can be stolen is calculated using this formula *MAX_STEAL=AGENTS\*2000\*(TARG_VALUE/YOUR_VALUE)* This is capped at 10% of the target's resources per type -or- 8,000 of each resource per agent. QUEST: Steal 1000000 resources REWARD: 1250000 of each resource **Government Subversion** (Min 20, RPs 7200 (use in multiples of 5)) For every 5 agents on a successful mission, if the planet has a government it is set to Anarchy for 1 tick This will only work if the planet has a government and is not currently in anarchy. QUEST: Subvert governments for 20 ticks REWARD: 1500000 of each resource. ## Social Engineering Channel your inner Kevin Mitnik, information you find out in channels and from your gal / alliance friends can be really helpful. Obviosuly a pinch of salt here and there will be needed, but you can sometimes get information that will help you. This could be "I've just stole xx RPs from this planet" or "A guy in my gal is going in to anarchy" etc.. keep your eyes and ears open for info always! ## FAQs / Myth Busting > Do you have to be ZIK or ETD to be successful at cov ops? No, you can be any race and successfully cov op. ETD and ZIK give you higher stealth base levels and but TER and CAT planets have faster re-growth of your stealth. This means you have more chance of success with ZIK or ETD, but it's still possible to cov op with other races XAN is the worst race for cov op missions. > Can you give me a Cov Op target? No, (or if you insist 1:1:1) - I will not give out targets, finding them is part of the hunt. Besides, I cannot gaurentee anything so I'm not going to risk your agents. > Can I get success with an alert of 80? Yes, however it will be much harder to find targets. They will need to have an alert of 74 or less. You would look to target new planets or those who have had big lands recently. > Why do the missions always fail? Mission will fail, that is unavoidable. It's best to take your time, use a calculator and read this guide again! > My mission failed, but my agents were not killed, why? This is an indication that you failed on the RAND. In layman's terms, you were very close to succeeding. I normally take note of these occasions are the predicted planet alert would be only 1 or 2 points higher than this. > Do Cov Ops work in Havoc? No, once the main round is over cov-ops become null and void as all planets are given 50 SCs making them totally immune. First thing to do in havoc, fire your guards and agents! -- Update: Yes... they do technically work... but you will need a planet in anarchy, with demo government, 0 guards, that has had 20 odd SCs destroyed (so less than 25 total left), 0% population on security and about 20000 roids..... Good luck! > Are certain races easier to hit? No, race has no effect on 'Alert'. Government does have an effect, with this in mind you can try to link what government a planet is by the race. A common combination is CAT + DEMO, but this is no gaurentee. --- ## Coming Soon (but probably never) * Cost Analysis on RTI for covert ops. (When is the best time to stop) * What is the most cost effective way of protecting against covert ops * Security Center Cost / Res analysis * Are alliances missing a trick by not harnessing the power of covert ops * Maximising resource/research transfers * The potential future of covert operations * How could cov ops be a game changer. * The DATABASE, how technology could change everything * Using tools and tech to make it simple * New Quests, New Scans and other ideas * The united underworld of allied cov oppers --- ## References: Planetarion Manual: https://game.planetarion.com/manual.pl?page=covertops Bream Tools: http://breampatools.ddns.net/PA/ CT KIA: https://kia.cthq.net/index.php Lee's Calculator: [Click Here](https://1drv.ms/x/s!AvBLhgXv1AhagYACyujayZRPw90xdA?e=a70PAX) (It's an excel book with macros!) ## Thanks Monroe - For being the first person to be nice to me when I starting playing again. Paragon - Helped me with my return to cov oping and was a general legend! Erke - ND's Cov Op king, his original guide was the inspiration behind this (sorry for the stealing) Bream - Your tools and wisdom are nothing short of amazing. Remy - KIA is a wonderful mine of information. ## No Thanks CBA - For being a knob. Ev - For stealing Rocco's heart.