I installed BtS a coupla years ago but stopped playing it when I realized that the new espionage featrue amounted to just an overhead tax on all civs and added nothing to the gameplay

have someone written a mod to do nothing but disable the espionage in Civ 4 BtS? or render it harmless? or found a cheat code to turn it off?

joelwest

You could just check the "no espionage" option in the custom game screen. Or..... you could try any mod that includes the Super Spies modcomp, which makes spies alot more fun, usefull, and a pain in the ass all at the same time.

No Espionage breaks culture victories though, as all espionage is converted to culture.

You could just check the "no espionage" option in the custom game screen. Or..... you could try any mod that includes the Super Spies modcomp, which makes spies alot more fun, usefull, and a pain in the ass all at the same time.
I just installed patch 3.19 of BtS and it contained the No Spy option. I have no idea when this functionality was added to the BtS patches, but it was not available in 2007 when I stopped playing BtS

I have no objection per se to spies in any flavor. In fact I used to use them in Civ 3. I do object to the meaning overhead tax of GPP going into spying. I would like to find a BtS mod that offers the option to disable the GPP spy points, but still keep spies around. spies would become available through techs like in Civ 3, not through GPP spy points

if the mod does not disable GPP spy points, but still makes spies dependent only on techs I would still be interested. I disable Cultural Victory in Civ 3 or Civ 4 since to me it is meaningless. I once had a Civ beat me this way that was so militarily weak I could wipe it out it only 20 turns if I wanted to. hence the fact that GPP spy points become culture points amounts to a tax credit for all civ's to grow their boundaries faster, but not to win any faster since that type of victory is not one I allow

just for the record I also always disable Vassalage in Civ 4 Warlords or BtS. I did try it, but a former ally became a vassal and this wiped out all our previous bonds. I ended up being isolated since all the remaining civs, including that one, were allies or vassals. so I had to conquer them all whether I wanted to or not. this is another meaningless situation. I would only try Vassalage again if it was modded to take account of previous alliances

joelwest

No Espionage breaks culture victories though, as all espionage is converted to culture.
as I said in my previous post I disable Cultural Victory in both Civ 3 and Civ 4, so this is not a "break the game" issue for me. however faster growing cultural boundaries does raise imbalance issues in Civ 4 BtS

what is needed is a simple BtS mod that senses if "No Spies" is turned on then does NOT convert GPP spy points into anything else useful to any civ, in particular into no other type of GPP. ideally such a simple mod would also make one tech necessary to build spies so that they could get into the game, and make their formation occur the regular way through hammers, not any type of GPP

or has someone already created such a mod???

joelwest