It sounds similar to Hegemonia, but it's also what made Hegemonia fun. So I'll approve the idea. Maybe with teh espionage, you can send spies to the other side to gain information on the enemy fleet.

hmm i kinda like this idea, but i also think there should be a chance for false/inaccurate info.

Well any options for espionage would be good, right now there are none.

haha kosc, ur unloved!   

A) you should have a %chance to find out who set the bounty depending on 1) the amount of credits and 2) the amount of culture/espionage you have on their planets.

Bounties should also create full-blown wars.

C) The problem is that nobody is really going to be all that loyal to someone from another race, nor are they going to be loyal to someone who practices ways that have been considered mass taboo for thousands of years.

D) That said, to really have spies you should have to research the technology to use them.

E) THAT said, the TEC should be able to easily infiltrate the Advent because they look alike and traders already spy on each other. The Advent should be able to research a technology that allows them to infiltrate the other two races about evently. Finally, the Vasari shouldn't be able to easily infiltrate anyone because any technology they had before they started running, which giving the story wouldn't have been much, they would have lost due to time and having no need to make use of it.

Nonono eetmorsqrls they should all have equal espionage power. Not that it would make the game fair, but it just isin't a crucial part of the game. The only thing I want to know about my enemy is ship movements and MAYBE resource count and credits. They already covered recon well. What else is there? Amount of mouse clicks per game?

I rarely use bounty and thats probably why I'm biast against espionage but I do love it when every time you blow up a gauss turret thats 500 credits in your pocket.

What I need to know is how much my trade ports and refinaries help my total resource count. The stupid number next to your total ships refreshes back to zero after a few minutes. Only in the end of the game can you see how much your trade ships helped (which they do, supplying about a third of my total wealth) but that info needs to be easy to read and at hand. That's crucial for me because my strategy is more of an economical look where you build up resource production to win by massing forces and implementing semi-complicated battle tactics. I only go into a battle with superior firepower and I always go for filtering all invasion towards 2 or 3 planets. I learned well from the total war series   

lol, total war did a really good job at strategy, ill give em that

...Hmmm...wouldn't call this one a kill as it's still moving, but it's not likeing life right now. Half credit this time sniper. Why does it seem he's always taking shots at your threads there KOSC?

 -(OOOoooooh!)