Hidden capitals Search Gripe

[CosmicWizard]

I want to bring this up for any potential future upgrades to the game. Searching for a hidden pop center you need a level 4 agent to locate the hidden pop center when searching for it. I see people using level one agents and trying to move to locations to see if a pop center is there if not agent doesnt move. so its effectively circumventing the notion of needing a level 4 agent to locate the hidden pop center. Be nice that on an upgrade something could be programmed so if a person tries this even if they happen to locate the pop center it would still say no pop center to relocate to. I know this has been around for years and some people try to use this option to find the hidden pop centers. I personally would never try this as I feel it circumventing the rules. So those who do try this out of honor system maybe not try doing this going forward?  Not sure how others feel about this but I feel its kinda shady to do this even though one can do this currently.

[Strongwill]

I think you can do it with an emmie or agent, basically it just relocated to the pop without it even checking for it being invisible. Been an issue for 8 years or more…

[davekuyk]

This strikes me as a valid action. The description of a hidden pop center does not mention any restriction or special rules regarding relocating to one. The action still requires an order and is very low percentage at the end of the day.

Overall hidden pop centers are problematic. One can pursue a group to a hidden pc but cannot intercept a group which ends movement at one. An agent can attempt espionage missions versus the hidden pop center or characters within the pop center. I've had a particular case where I got an artifact location that was at a hidden pc. There are likely more examples. Overall the design could use a revisit.

[Strongwill]

There are other things you can do too. But I’d rather not post as it might effect games in process…

[CosmicWizard]

This strikes me as a valid action. The description of a hidden pop center does not mention any restriction or special rules regarding relocating to one. The action still requires an order and is very low percentage at the end of the day.

Overall hidden pop centers are problematic. One can pursue a group to a hidden pc but cannot intercept a group which ends movement at one. An agent can attempt espionage missions versus the hidden pop center or characters within the pop center. I've had a particular case where I got an artifact location that was at a hidden pc. There are likely more examples. Overall the design could use a revisit.

I would like to respectfully post reasons why I feel this should not be done as it isnt in the spirit of the rules.
1. The rule says you need a level 4 agent to locate a hidden city or a group ends up there.
2. using a level 1 agent to try and move to a city and yes its using an order but in reality one should have used multiple orders to get an agent up to level 4 so this does save on total overall orders. so that saves effort to locate a hidden capital
3. It also eliminates the risk of losing an agent when on a recon. Anytime an agent level 1 or level 4 there is a small chance of them not returning from a recon, moving it doesnt. Especially when looking for a capital most likely the kingdom may have an counter espionage order in place thus making it harder for the agent to return from a recon. To me this is the biggest advantage that no risk of losing the agent when trying to move to a spot vs a true recon. so to me this is a huge move around the spirit of how the game is set up. Thus I feel people should not do this even though they can until the program can figure out how to not allow this to happen. So its not in the spirit of the rules to use an agent to move to location to find hidden capital. You have no risk and you are saving on total overall orders. This to me is just plain wrong. If one thinks this is ok to do this loophole in the game then the game should change that you only need a level 1 agent to locate a hidden capital which I dont think is right. I feel all kingdoms should be operating based on the spirit of the rules, yes there are loopholes but using them to your advantage ruins the game. we all should be operating on good ethics and not trying to find loopholes to gain an advantage in a game. We all want this game to grow and attract new players as the more people the more fun this game is. Finding ways to get around the rules will hinder us being able to gain more people to play the game. so this is bigger than just the game itself. I would not feel good about winning a game where I used this to gain an advantage. I only want to win based on good gameplay and not finding ways around the spirit of the rules that are set up. Its like cheating on your taxes. Just not cool or ethical.