OPEN PROJECT: Starfleet/KDF Intelligence & Section 31

[Darren_Kitlor]

PROJECT: Starfleet & KDF Intelligence versus Section 31 and other Fringe Groups

Background:
While the military and diplomatic corps gets the bulk of attention from Starfleet and KDF forces, there are other organizations that go where wordss and brute force cannot.

Though rarely seen (as they should be), Starfleet and KDF intelligence forces have contributed to some of the pivotal moments in Star Trek canon.

There are intelligence agencies within various Empires, Coalitions, and even sub-factions across the galaxy.

Notable Background Reading:

• Starfleet Intelligence ( - click here - )
  • V'Shar (Vulcan Intelligence) (- click here - )
  • Bajoran Intelligence ( - click here - )
• Klingon Intelligence ( - click here - )
• Tal Shiar (Romulan Security) ( - click here - )
• Obsidian Order (Cardassian Intelligence) ( - click here - )

Federation Organizational Structure: (special thanks Matt_Dravis)

• United Federation of Planets ('supra-state', 'inter-state', 'inter-governmental')
  • Federation Council (government)
    • Starfleet (military)
      • Starfleet Command, Starfleet Operations, etc. (military 'government', covert action)
      • Starfleet Security (domestic intelligence, domestic counter-intelligence, internal counter-intelligence)
      • Starfleet Diplomatic Corps (includes foreign intelligence, internal security)
      • Starfleet Intelligence (foreign intelligence, foreign counter-intelligence, internal counter-intelligence)
    • Federation Security Service (domestic intelligence, domestic counter-intelligence, internal counter-intelligence)
    • Federation Diplomatic Service (includes foreign intelligence, internal security)
    • Federation Intelligence Service (foreign intelligence, foreign counter-intelligence, internal counter-intelligence)
  • Member worlds (constituent 'states'):
    • Vulcan ('state')
      • Vulcan government
        • Vulcan Military
          • Military Security
          • Military Intelligence
          • etc.
        • V'Shar (security)
        • Vulcan Diplomatic Service
        • Vulcan Intelligence
    • Bajor ('state')
      • Bajoran government
        • Bajoran Militia (military)
          • Military Security
          • Military Intelligence
          • etc.
        • Bajoran Security
        • Bajoran Diplomatic Service
        • Bajoran Intelligence
    • etc.

==============================

Table of Contents:

1) Urban Environments
2) Espionage Mission Archetypes (to include Co-Op and Solo)
3) Faction Cities
4) Intelligence Agencies as an alternative path to advancement
5) Nemeses Every Faction Can Despise, Missions Anyone Can Enjoy
6) What we mean by Starfleet/Klingon Intelligence

===============================

1) Urban Environments

Urban landscapes (while not the final frontier) are curiously absent in Star Trek Online. These environments would be remarkably suited for diplomatic and intelligence matters (and such environments exist in Champions Online). A solid question exists - how do you create a city at random?

A temporay solution, until the community finds something better, are developing an array of tilesets for major factions (i.e. Klingon Buildings, Romulan Buildings, Federation Buildings, Cardassian Buildings). Assets already exist in the game for many exterior building structures.

The trick with Ubran environments is that they are both horizontal AND vertical spaces.

To add building diversity, structures could have catwalks and stairs, allowing players to move between them (and possibly avoiding detection, i.e. aggro distance).

[needs player feedback & expansion]

2) Espionage Mission Archetypes (to include Co-Op and Solo)

There are a number of missions that could fall under the umbrella of intelligence/espionage: from sabotage/theft/hacking, to convincing contacts, to personal level intelligence gathering.

How can multiplayer be implemented?

Missions objectives could require multiple participants.

For example, in stealing a piece of Romulan technology:

• Player 1 hacks a terminal to open secured doors at a building.
• Player 2 must distract guards (nonlethally)
• Player 3 must sneak into the secured building (which allows everyone to transfer maps,i.e. let everyone in from the inside - or complete the objectives)

[needs community feedback & expansion]

3) Faction Cities

Using art assets already in-game or developed in part 1 (and developing just enough to give the "feel" of iconic cities in Star Trek), the developers could quickly roll-out iconic cities from the series.

Examples of canon Capital City Layouts:

• Old Quarter - Qo'noS - Klingon ( - see here - )
• Administrative District - Romulus - Romulan ( - see here - )
• Capital City - Bajor - Bajor ( - see here - )

Many development concerns exist: in-game performance issues, lengthy development time, and whether it'd actually be useful to gameplay/socialization/etc. Here's some ideas (whether used already or not - just as background).

Performance &/or Development Time Tricks:

• Occlusion - hiding objects behind other ones (fencing/siderails as in Qo'noS).
• Skybox - using a pre-rendered texture box to give the illusion of depth.
• "Invisible" walls - used to prevent access to unfinished areas.
• LoD buildings - used in conjunction with 3, LoD can give the appearance

Note: Using existing assets will help speed up city development.

Suggested wards, burroughs, or cantons to each city:

• Trade Ward: (culture specific and faction-common items, exchange)
• Bars/Clubs: (social hubs)
• Embassy Row: diplomatic missions from your faction (also where intelligence assignments can be given by factions).
• Starport: (ship items, courier/dignitary transport from faction official)
• Instanced housing: players could have a private (on planet) meeting place, perhaps with a pre-rendered skybox of the city out the window, assuming the faction has property laws.

4) Intelligence Agencies as an alternative path to advancement

Players could earn experience (maybe even unique rewards and titles) from these missions - even improve relations between factions.

[needs community feedback and expansion]

5) Nemeses Every Faction Can Despise, Missions Anyone Can Enjoy

Covert organizations (like Section 31) and even overt revolutionary groups could be trying to undermine various factions (or even prolong and exacerbate the war) - both Starfelet and the KDF might want to stop and dismantle these groups. Content in this regard could be even be created faction-neutrally - that is to say that mechanics could be put in place to allow any current or future faction to enjoy the same content.

For example, Starfleet and the KDF have monitored their Captains to make sure they aren't defecting or are compromised (especially during a time of open war).

[Threather]

Originally Posted by Darren_Kitlor

PROJECT: Starfleet & KDF Intelligence / Section 31

1) Urban Environments

Urban landscapes (while not the final frontier) are curiously absent in Star Trek Online. These environments would be remarkably suited for diplomatic and intelligence matters (and such environments exist in Champions Online). A solid question exists - how do you create a city at random?

A temporay solution, until the community finds something better, are developing an array of tilesets for major factions (i.e. Klingon Buildings, Romulan Buildings, Federation Buildings, Cardassian Buildings). Assets already exist in the game for many exterior building structures.

The trick with Ubran environments is that they are both horizontal AND vertical spaces.

To add building diversity, structures could have catwalks and stairs, allowing players to move between them (and possibly avoiding detection, i.e. aggro distance).

[needs player feedback & expansion]

I think Urban environments would be a great idea. However; Urban environments as a randomly generated, instanced mission element would not be a good idea in my opinion. I think Urban environments should be persistent, much like stations; with a 100 player cap in a much larger zone. There should be merchants, clubs, mini-games and other features included in urban environments (including Earth based player housing).

Section 31 missions, since they are a rare occurrence, should be stumbled upon or randomly assigned to your Captain. Further, you can talk to NPCs, gather clues and investigate leads which may thrust your Captain into the middle of a Section 31 Mission Line. Mission lines should include Ground Based (without your Away Team) missions, diplomacy, decision making and conventional ship missions. As another suggestion, your Captain should have various faction rating with different groups. Section 31 should be one of them.

Urban environments strictly for the use of Section 31, Intelligence based missions is not enough to keep the player interested in my opinion. Here is a list of features I would like to see in these urban environments

1. Exotic Item Merchants
2. Clubs
3. Mini-Games
4. Facilities for UGC (User Generated Content)
5. Ground Missions (without your away team)
6. Various Social Venues
7. Player Housing

:

Those are my suggestions at least.

[Darren_Kitlor]

6) What We Mean by Starfleet/KDF Intelligence (special thanks Matt_Dravis)

Originally Posted by Matt_Dravis

• 'Intelligence' is defined as refined information, or the product of the 'intelligence cycle' process (i.e., tasking, collection, analysis/processing, dissemination), for use by government policy-makers. By definition, 'intelligence operations' refer to methods of conducting the intelligence cycle.
  
  
• 'Espionage' is the umbrella term for methods of intelligence collection. This includes reconnaissance.
  
  
• 'Counter-intelligence' is the umbrella term for preventing, deterring, or actively combating enemy intelligence operations. Active methods target enemy intelligence organisations, most notably using infiltration (friendly double agents). Passive methods involve rigorous internal security, such as searches for enemy double agents within the home organisation.
  
  
• 'Counter-espionage' refers to methods of counter-intelligence that deal specifically with enemy espionage (intelligence collection). This includes sabotage (of enemy intelligence).
  
  
• 'Covert action' refers to direct, but secret (or 'plausibly deniable') action taken against an enemy (and not their intelligence organisations or members). This includes political warfare (soft regime change), abduction/assassination (hard regime change), sabotage (of enemy integrity, not intelligence).
  
  
• 'Security' is defined as the absence of threat to the integrity of: the state/government and its institutions (political), territory (physical), economic institutions (economic), educational/scientific institutions and development (scientific/technological), nation/national identity and values (social/cultural). Methods of ensuring security involve the above, most especially counter-intelligence operations (passive at the very least).
  
  
• INFOSEC (Information Security) refers to the methods of securing communications, including cryptology (encryption and decryption).

===

Now, my proposed acronym 'upgrades' for Star Trek (in general):

• HUMINT (Human Intelligence) becomes LIVINT (Living Intelligence) or SENTINT (Sentient Intelligence). Take your pick. Less than 50% of all intelligence products, for all organisations in Star Trek, is composed of LIVINT (or SENTINT, whichever term you prefer).
  
  
• TECHINT (Technical Intelligence) becomes the prominent umbrella for everything else. No need to categorise further, for simplicity. More than 50% of all intelligence products in Star Trek is composed of TECHINT.
  
  
• INFOSEC (Information Security) now encompasses IA (Information Assurance), and primarily deals with cryptology. INFOSEC is fundamentally critical to everything in Star Trek.

========================================

Creating a city might warrant an entirely separate thread. I'd love to visit the Federation's capital (Paris) in the 25th century!

That said, what about developing other aspects.

II had thought Section 31's aggressive and paranoid culture might serve as an internal enemy of the Federation - they already proved xenophobic with the genocide they started in DS9 - morally dubious Section 31 (the Cerberus of the 25th century).

[Darren_Kitlor]

Updated with City Generation Ideas, Table of Contents, links to Memory Alpha's articles on various planets.

[felisdraconius]

honestly I only glanced at your idea, but it seems like it would be quite an interesting thing to add

[Duganson]

Some interesting ideas but you need to encorporate the ship-side aspects of the game into your proposal or it would never fly (pardon the pun). I suggest integrating a fully functional stealth-recon ship to each faction at each command level and create the skeletal structure for a Diplomacy/Spy class....

Also I think that, considering the Undine can shapeshift to the DNA level, the shared nemesis for this system should be them. Their attributes as fully embided agents makes the idea of counter espionage almost compulsory.

[Matt_Dravis]

First, just a comment about Section 31. It is a rogue organisation that has no legitimate ties to the Federation government or Starfleet. The DS9 writers even stated that Section 31 are villains using the Federation as their guise, shield, and self-appointed legitimacy (or justification). So they must necessarily remain a 3rd-party (NPC) faction that players can interact with (even co-operate with) but never join.

===

Having previously attempted to develop and roleplay Star Trek intelligence and espionage organisations and operations, I can highlight some inherent problems with the concept.

Star Trek is particularly unconducive to intelligence operations of all types and scopes, due to its inconsistent portrayal of biology and technology.

HUMINT (which some roleplayers re-named to LIVINT) operations seem obsolete in light of intrusive telepathy, 100% effective truth drugs, and memory erasure. We have seen that mental conditioning can counter telepathy, but otherwise there is no reason not to ensure that all employees are telepathic. (So much for 'equal opportunity' employment when telepathy is species-specific!) Furthermore, with memory-erasing technology, there is less need for rigorous HUMINT/LIVINT when an organisation can merely abduct, interrogate, and then return a target with few repercussions.

TECHINT (which primarily includes SIGINT, COMINT, IMINT, and ELINT; also includes MASINT and TELINT), INFOSEC, and cryptology are agreed to be the crux of intelligence operations of the future, at least in Star Trek. However, we have seen many inconsistent sensor ('listening') ranges throughout Star Trek, which beg the question of exactly what can -not- be seen, heard, intercepted, and decrypted.

With all of these inconsistencies and self-contradictions, it is clear that intelligence and espionage operations in Star Trek were used solely as plot devices, and can therefore not be easily adapted (in a playable format) to a Star Trek game.

In order to adapt intelligence and espionage to Star Trek (in a form that players can actively use), Star Trek would need to be adapted first. Clear lines would need to be drawn, which would necessarily conflict with canon (especially what we have seen on-screen), in order to make it feasible, realistic, and playable.

===

I can offer the solutions that I have created, with collaboration from other RPG GMs over the years. But, in all honesty, it seems like it would not be worth thinking about at this point in STO's development cycle.

I can post them if you wish, however, so let me know.

[Darren_Kitlor]

Originally Posted by Matt_Dravis

First, just a comment about Section 31. It is a rogue organisation that has no legitimate ties to the Federation government or Starfleet. The DS9 writers even stated that Section 31 are villains using the Federation as their guise, shield, and self-appointed legitimacy (or justification). So they must necessarily remain a 3rd-party (NPC) faction that players can interact with (even co-operate with) but never join.

I agree - I actually listed Section 31 under the Nemesis section (Nemeses is the plural form). I think they could be viewed as terrorist organization and something Starfleet would want to take down if they ever wanted peace with various factions across the Galaxy.

Star Trek is particularly unconducive to intelligence operations of all types and scopes, due to its inconsistent portrayal of biology and technology.

HUMINT (which some roleplayers re-named to LIVINT) operations seem obsolete in light of intrusive telepathy, 100% effective truth drugs, and memory erasure. We have seen that mental conditioning can counter telepathy, but otherwise there is no reason not to ensure that all employees are telepathic. (So much for 'equal opportunity' employment when telepathy is species-specific!) Furthermore, with memory-erasing technology, there is less need for rigorous HUMINT/LIVINT when an organisation can merely abduct, interrogate, and then return a target with few repercussions.

TECHINT (which primarily includes SIGINT, COMINT, IMINT, and ELINT; also includes MASINT and TELINT), INFOSEC, and cryptology are agreed to be the crux of intelligence operations of the future, at least in Star Trek. However, we have seen many inconsistent sensor ('listening') ranges throughout Star Trek, which beg the question of exactly what can -not- be seen, heard, intercepted, and decrypted.

With all of these inconsistencies and self-contradictions, it is clear that intelligence and espionage operations in Star Trek were used solely as plot devices, and can therefore not be easily adapted (in a playable format) to a Star Trek game.

However, intelligence operations (as described in the OP) could go beyond gathering. I included sabotage and technology theft as possible missions (seems canon-friendly, happened a lot during DS9, for example).

Intelligence, counter-espionage, and reconnaissance could go hand-in-hand - you could be tasked with tracking down a shipment in space - leading to a well-defended base (which would then turn into military action).

That said, I dealt most COUNTSIG/CRYPSEC in the military as a radio operator. Stealing a cryptographic device without risky, full confrontation seems like an exciting idea - and a different play-style than combat/diplomacy/exploration.

In order to adapt intelligence and espionage to Star Trek (in a form that players can actively use), Star Trek would need to be adapted first. Clear lines would need to be drawn, which would necessarily conflict with canon (especially what we have seen on-screen), in order to make it feasible, realistic, and playable.

Well, I agree that HUMINT is the hardest part to implement - telepaths/empaths could be noticeably rarer (after Betazed's fall during the Dominion Wars in DS9). That's not necessarily changing canon.

I can offer the solutions that I have created, with collaboration from other RPG GMs over the years. But, in all honesty, it seems like it would not be worth thinking about at this point in STO's development cycle.
I can post them if you wish, however, so let me know.

I'd be happy to hear contributions - that's the idea behind the thread!

This would fall lower in the priority list, naturally. It'd be ambitious but many ideas here (like iconic cities) would do wonders, if implemented with enough gameplay features to make them viable.

[marulvane]

do you guys know if they might make big bosses or any kind of rare mobs in STO? something like big ships for space or bunkers/complexes for ground?

[Darren_Kitlor]

Originally Posted by marulvane

do you guys know if they might make big bosses or any kind of rare mobs in STO? something like big ships for space or bunkers/complexes for ground?

They have a few already - they will probably make more as time goes on.

However, what does that have to do with Vietnam, man?