Developers want the knowledge of alien civilizations to be fought for, rather than received outright. This will be reflected in the Stellaris Console Edition, compared to the PC version.
After establishing communications with another empire, your empire will now only have a limited amount of Intel about them: their government, military, borders, and non-capital planets.
Intel itself is raised through Diplomatic agreements, or by building a Spy Network in the target Empire.
In order to gather said Intel, a Spy Network needs an Envoy. It will then gradually collect Intel up to a certain level as Infiltration. Once Infiltration gets high enough, you’ll be able to run a Gather Information mission to gather even more Intel on the target empire.
Espionage Missions will perform rolls similar to Archaeology Sites, where random events can be triggered throughout the stages, and after a number of rolls, Espionage Missions will end in pass or fail.
Paradox Interactive
When it comes to outdated, or Stale, Intel, removing the Envoy on a Spy Network will cause your Infiltration level to drop, and previously known information will become Stale, and will not update if the information changes.
The goal of these changes is to make the experience of learning more about alien empires to be an equally important and fun aspect of exploration, as well as make it more natural. After all, it makes no sense that player gain knowledge of the entire alien civilization immediately upon making contact with them.
