Snitches & informants¶
Snitch is a minor trait with an unusual job description:
instead of making a merc shoot or patch wounds better, it turns him into your ears on
the team and among the Arulcan population. Snitches report team gossip to you at
midnight, keep problem mercs from misbehaving, spread propaganda in towns, pick up
rumours about enemy movements, and can even go undercover among prisoners of war. The
feature was written by anv and merged into the trunk in early 2014; it exists only
under the new trait system (the default), and every number below can be tuned in the
[Snitch] section of Data-1.13\Skills_Settings.INI.
Who has the trait¶
You cannot give the Snitch trait to an IMP — the IMP minor-trait page offers
every other minor trait, but not this one. Ten hireable mercs have it in the current
MercProfiles.xml; only Buzz is from the vanilla A.I.M. roster, the rest are mercs
1.13 added to the hiring sites:
| Merc | Site | Other traits |
|---|---|---|
| Louisa "Buzz" Garneau | A.I.M. | Auto Weapons, Heavy Weapons, Athletics |
| Howard "Carp" Melfield | A.I.M. | Teaching |
| Gary Roachburn | A.I.M. | Heavy Weapons, Bodybuilding, Demolitions |
| Lt. Bud Hellar | A.I.M. | Marksman, Night Ops |
| Willy "Weasel" Augustin | M.E.R.C. | Radio Operator |
| Lance Fisher | M.E.R.C. | Teaching |
| Col. Leon Roachburn | M.E.R.C. | Squadleader (expert), Teaching |
| Mary Beth Wilkens | M.E.R.C. | Paramedic, Teaching |
| Hurl E. Cutter | M.E.R.C. | Athletics, Paramedic |
| Edward "Ears" Stockwell | M.E.R.C. | Scouting, Radio Operator |
Besides everything on this page, a snitch also gets +1 hearing range at all times (it stacks with the Night Ops bonus), and the trait boosts the intel a disguised spy gathers on the Get Intel assignment — see Covert operations — and improves a couple of Rebel Command agent missions.
Midnight reports¶
Once a day, during the midnight update, every snitch on your team passes on what he overheard. He only knows about mercs in his own sector (or, while traveling, his own group), so a snitch per squad hears the most. The things that trigger a report:
- a merc thinks the death rate on the team is too high;
- a merc's morale has fallen below his personal tolerance;
- a merc is bothered by your bad reputation as an employer;
- a merc thinks you have been inactive too long;
- a merc is owed money (M.E.R.C. mercs);
- an A.I.M. merc's contract is about to expire and he is not planning to renew — the report comes before he leaves, so you still have a chance to fix his mood;
- one merc can't stand another — reported once the first merc's opinion of the
second drops to
MERC_OPINION_ABOUT_MERC_TRESHOLD(default −10, well before actual hatred at −25). The deeper the dislike, the likelier the report.
These are the same undercurrents that drive contract renewals and the morale and opinion system — the snitch just surfaces them before they cost you a merc. Reports are delivered as spoken dialogue lines built from the subject's name and the complaint; a sleeping snitch briefly wakes up to deliver his news and goes back to sleep.
No report is guaranteed. For each event the snitch rolls against a chance built from
(defaults from Skills_Settings.INI):
- base chance 50%;
- the target's opinion of the snitch × 1.0 and the snitch's opinion of the target × 0.5 (opinions run −25 to +25, so friendly mercs who chat freely around the snitch generate far more reports than ones who loathe him);
- the snitch's leadership × 0.5;
- +20 if snitch and target are on the same assignment;
- +10 if the snitch is Sociable, −10 if he is a Loner;
- halved if the snitch is Deaf.
Snitching has a social price
With dynamic opinions enabled (the default), every merc a snitch reports on resents him for it (the "snitch sold me out" opinion event, −3). Run an informant long enough and the team's opinion of him — and with it his own morale environment — degrades.
If you would rather not hear it all, open the snitch's assignment menu in the map screen: Snitch → Team Informant and choose Don't report (or Report complaints to turn it back on).
Preventing misbehaviour¶
Some mercs misbehave on their own: characters whose profile or background includes drug or alcohol abuse buy a drink or get high during strategic time, and thieving types scrounge items from the sector inventory. An awake snitch in the same sector polices this: each time a merc is about to get wasted or steal, every eligible snitch gets a chance to stop him, based on the snitch's leadership plus half his experience level, +25 per Squadleader trait level; a Stealthy misbehaver subtracts 25. A prevented merc takes a small morale hit (−1 by default) and resents the snitch (the "snitch interference" opinion event, −5) — but keeps the item, his money and his sobriety.
Snitches only stop others — a snitch with a drug habit of his own will still indulge. The policing can be toggled per snitch under Snitch → Team Informant (Prevent misbehaviour / Ignore misbehaviour).
Passive reputation gain¶
Every day a snitch's own morale is above his complaint threshold, he is supposed to
talk you up to the folks back home, improving your player reputation (the employer
rating from Reputation_Settings.INI that influences merc hiring and contract
decisions) by PASSIVE_REPUTATION_GAIN (default +3).
Inverted in current builds
The code passes the gain value where the reputation function expects an event ID, which selects the −3 "poor morale" reputation slot instead — so with default files a happy snitch currently worsens your reputation by 3 per day. See the verified analysis on the reputation page.
Town assignments¶
In a loyalty-tracking town sector (any town except Tixa, Estoni and Orta) that is under your control with no enemies present, the assignment menu offers Snitch → Town Assignment with two jobs. Both run hourly while the snitch is awake, and both slowly train wisdom, leadership and experience.
Spread propaganda¶
The snitch glorifies your deeds to the locals. Two effects, both scaling with his leadership (the biggest factor), wisdom and his talent for persuasion (the profile's recruitment approach plus any background bonus):
- Loyalty trickle — town loyalty rises every hour; at best around one point per hour, so it will not replace liberating sectors, but several snitches stack.
- Suppressing bad news — while the assignment runs, every loyalty loss in that town (civilian casualties, collateral damage and so on) is reduced, by up to about half per propaganda snitch, multiplicatively.
Gather rumours¶
The snitch buys rounds and keeps his ear to the ground. Every hour he has a chance to learn about enemy troops in any sector of the country — much wider coverage than Scouting or a radio scan, but far less reliable. The chance per occupied sector scales with his leadership, wisdom and experience level and with the size of the enemy force (big garrisons are easier to hear about); detected sectors are marked on the strategic map as enemy presence only — never numbers. Rumours being rumours, there is a small chance (smaller with a wise snitch) of a false alarm marking an empty sector. Success prints "heard rumours about enemy activity in N sectors" in the log. Deafness halves the effectiveness.
Facility versions¶
Three town facilities offer upgraded variants of these jobs through the Facility assignment menu:
| Facility | Assignment | Twist |
|---|---|---|
| Small Sleazy Bar | Gather rumours | More effective (150% performance), but costs $15 an hour and the snitch may get drunk on the job |
| A.C.A. Building | Spread propaganda | Turns the office into a "well-oiled propaganda machine" (150% performance); requires 60 wisdom, 20 leadership and 20% town loyalty |
| Military Headquarters | Spread propaganda (global) | Extends propaganda and bad-news suppression to every town in Arulco at reduced strength; requires 60 wisdom and 50 leadership, one snitch only |
Undercover prison snitch¶
If you take prisoners of war, a snitch can masquerade as one of them. In a sector with a prison facility that currently holds prisoners (and no enemies), assign him through the Facility menu — the assignment shows as Undercover Snitch. It requires that he is not currently known as one of your mercs there: being exposed, or serving as a regular interrogator, marks him as known for the next 24 hours (the game then tells you he is "well known as a mercenary snitch").
While undercover he works both sides of the prison job:
- Interrogation — he befriends prisoners instead of threatening them, generating
interrogation progress from his level, leadership, wisdom and friendly approach
(a Spy/Covert Ops trait helps). The prison's performance rating is multiplied by
PRISON_SNITCH_INTERROGATION_MULTIPLIER(default ×3), which is what makes an undercover snitch roughly three times the interrogator. His progress always goes to the easiest pool (administrators) first. - Mutiny prevention — he tips off the guards about brewing riots. His contribution scales with level, wisdom and leadership (Covert Ops +25, Stealthy +10 each), but only counts if at least one regular guard or militiaman is present — an undercover snitch does not count as a guard himself, and a prison staffed by nobody else riots regardless.
One INI value does nothing
PRISON_SNITCH_GUARD_STRENGTH_MULTIPLIER (default 3.0) is read from the INI but
is not applied anywhere in the current source — the mutiny-prevention value comes
entirely from the formula above. Older descriptions claiming snitches guard "at
3× strength" no longer match the code.
Getting exposed¶
Every hour undercover there is a risk the inmates see through him: suspicion (10, plus 1 per elite and officer prisoner — the dangerous ones) is rolled against his cover (built from experience level, leadership and wisdom; Covert Ops +25 and Stealthy +10 help). If he is exposed, a chain of saving rolls decides his fate — he may notice in time (wisdom), talk his way out (leadership), dodge the assassination attempt (experience), or be saved when the guards step in (total guard strength). Fail them all and the prisoners try to drown, beat, shank or strangle him; depending on how fast the guards react he escapes wounded — or dies. A surviving exposed snitch must wait 24 hours before going undercover again.
Exposure can be lethal
Exposure outcomes depend on the snitch's own stats and the guard presence. A low-level snitch alone in a prison full of elite prisoners is a body waiting to be found. Keep guards in the sector and prefer experienced snitches.
Tuning¶
All defaults live in Data-1.13\Skills_Settings.INI, section [Snitch]:
[Snitch]
BASE_CHANCE = 50
MERC_OPINION_ABOUT_SNITCH_BONUS_MODIFIER = 1.0
SNITCH_OPINION_ABOUT_MERC_BONUS_MODIFIER = 0.5
SNITCH_LEADERSHIP_BONUS_MODIFIER = 0.5
SOCIABLE_MERC_BONUS = 10
LONER_MERC_BONUS = -10
SAME_ASSIGNMENT_BONUS = 20
MERC_OPINION_ABOUT_MERC_TRESHOLD = -10
PASSIVE_REPUTATION_GAIN = 3
HEARING_RANGE_BONUS = 1
PRISON_SNITCH_INTERROGATION_MULTIPLIER = 3.0
PRISON_SNITCH_GUARD_STRENGTH_MULTIPLIER = 3.0
The opinion costs of being reported on or policed are set with the other dynamic
opinion events in Morale_Settings.INI (see Morale & opinions), and the
facility variants are defined per facility in TableData\Map\FacilityTypes.xml.
Sources¶
- Snitches + Externalised morale & reputation — anv, Bear's Pit forum (December 2013 – February 2014), the feature announcement; historical claims re-checked against current code
Data-1.13\Skills_Settings.INI([Snitch]),TableData\MercProfiles.xml,TableData\AIMAvailability.xml,TableData\MercAvailability.xml,TableData\Map\FacilityTypes.xml— from the 1dot13/gamedir repository- Current source at 1dot13/source:
Tactical/Morale.cpp(HandleSnitchCheck,RememberSnitchableEvent,HandleSnitchesReports),Strategic/Assignments.cpp(snitch menus, propaganda, rumours, prison snitch, exposition),Strategic/Hourly Update.cpp(misbehaviour prevention, rumours tick, exposure cooldown),Strategic/Strategic Merc Handler.cpp(daily check, reputation gain),Tactical/opplist.cpp(hearing bonus),Tactical/soldier profile type.h,Laptop/IMP Minor Trait.h,Strategic/Rebel Command.cpp,Ja2/GameSettings.cpp,i18n/_EnglishText.cpp