The Birdman Super Spy mission is used to gather information about the enemy planet that the ship is orbiting, and possibly to change the planet's Friendly Code. The actual action of this mission is dependant on the Friendly Code of the starship and the advantages that are currently active.
If a Birdman starship has a mission of Super Spy , and the starship is capable of cloaking, the starship will attempt to cloak, as normal for the type of cloaking the starship has. If the starship has inadequate fuel, the cloaking will not occur and the mission will continue as though the ship didn't have the ability to cloak.
Birdman starships on a Super Spy mission are immune to the surrendering functions of starbases as long as they have at least 1 KT of fuel.
It should be noted that if a Birdman ship switches its mission to something other than Super Spy it will surrender to a planet's starbase if it has a matching Friendly Code and the starbase mission is set to force surrender.
This mission is used by the Super Spy , Super Spy Deluxe , Super Spy Advanced , Super Spy Command , Super Spy Infiltration advantages.
This is the minimum advantage that must be enabled for the Super Spy mission to be available.
Any ship with this mission set will scan the planet they're orbitting, returning information on the planetary structures and resources (MegaCredits, supplies and minerals). It will also return the Friendly Code of the planet.
A ship set to Super Spy can use the friendly code 'spy' to have its code automatically changed to match the orbited planet on the following turn.
Each Birdman starship in orbit of a planet delivers a 20% chance that the Friendly Code will be changed. This means that five starships can effectively control a planet's Friendly Code.
If the friendly code is changed, it will be changed to the Friendly Code of the starship with the lowest Ship ID, a mission of Super Spy and a Friendly Code that doesn't start with an X .
To disable the Friendly Code change function of this ability for a starship, set the first character of the starship's Friendly Code to the letter "x".
If a planet's Friendly Code is changed, the owner of the planet will receive a notification message at the end of the turn. Additionally, there is a chance that the planet's defense posts will unleash an ion pulse.
If this advantage is active, the information returned about a planet will also contain information on any starbase in orbit of the planet, including the fighters, defenses, and damage, as well as current tech levels and ships under construction.
NOTE: This ability will be disabled in all new games from Jan 2022.
If this advantage is active, and the planet's Friendly Code is NTP , Birdman starships will not be attacked by fighters based on the planet or its starbase.
If this advantage is active, and the starship is in orbit of a planet with a starbase, additional information is gathered about the planet-owner's starships docked at the starbase.
See also: Out of Fuel.