MoO2 had an effective if simplistic espionage system. You built spies as if they were ships or buildings, paid maintenance every turn, and could assign them to various abstract tasks. Occasionally you hired a leader that acted as a bonus to your espionage capabilities and possibly conducted some research as well to the same effect. It was a good system and worked well but it left a lot of room for improvement. I spent time thinking about how we could expand and add more fun and immersion to this system without making it seem like extra work for the player and the answer was staring at me right from the start. This game is about ships, at the end of the day, you will win or lose because of them, so… why don’t we consider introducing a new class of vessel, the spy ship. This vessel would be unique in that it could enter space controlled by another empire (provided range allows it), and sent to conduct specific missions such as sabotage, intelligence gathering, assassinations etc. Specific leaders with the spy trait could be assigned to this vessel which would need to spend a number of turns to complete its mission. The number of turns required to complete a mission could be dependent on the mission itself, the skill of the leader as well as tech upgrades. Conversely, the defending empire would have a chance to disrupt the mission dependent on tech, forces present, (Militia vs. Marines etc) and any patrols in space. Spy ships could be lightly armed and inherently stealthy but could be destroyed if detected by space-borne vessels via a standard battle (meaning they would still have the chance to escape) Basically gents, I am all for using the Millennium Falcon, (or something quite similar), to carry out spy missions versus the abstract system of MoO2. Spy ships could require Ship Support Points like other vessels do, and this would insure that a player only keeps one or two active instead of spamming them. Add to that the new upgrade mechanic which will keep ship crew experience intact, and it may be something worth looking into.
