[GS] [1.0.6.521158_rc_5]Spies fleeing when they shouldn't

Spies flee cities "because a new empire is in power there" when there is no change in ownership.
In my case what changed was that the AIs I spied on made an alliance with EACH OTHER (not me).
Then it happened again when a friendship expired with an AI I spied on (with me this time - but FRIENDSHIP, not ALLIANCE) .
So it seems to be related to changes of diplomatic status between the AIs and someone else, not necessarily the player.
I'm aware of recent change to ban spies on allies, so I stress: there was NO ALLIANCE between me and spied on factions, at any point in fact.
Nor, to repeat, was there any ownership change of the cities where spies were posted. No wars were going on, no loyalty flips.

I've found the same issue reported in these reddit threads:
https://www.reddit.com/r/civ/comments/jhts70/a_spy_issue_since_the_latest_update/
https://www.reddit.com/r/civ/comments/jhdfyf/spies_deciding_to_escape_for_a_fake_reason/
https://www.reddit.com/r/civ/comments/jjp6t5/spy_bug_on_new_update/

And here on CivFanatics:
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/all-my-spies-fled-the-same-empire-every-few-turns.663981/

 

Here is the autosave when spies flees from Niani while the friendship with Mansa Musa ends. The previous situation I no longer have because I kept playing.
Also I checked the patch is 1.0.6.9 but the number in title was shown within the EGS client, because I wanted to avoid loading a game just to see the version number.
Posting a reply because editing my first post returns error for some reason?

 

Ah - I have also seen this happen to me, playing as Bull Moose Teddy and spying on Egypt with a fully promoted spy.
I am also seeing a 'regime change' notification, even though the City is not changing hands & the spy teleports immediately back to my capital

 

New thread on reddit, this time it mentions multiplayer, i.e. this happens not only when spying on AI but on a human player who makes an alliance with another player.

https://www.reddit.com/r/civ/comments/jjp6t5/spy_bug_on_new_update/

 

It appears to be a problem where the spy is kicked out of the city any time the civilization you are spying on has an alliance change. I just had a spy get kicked out of a city because the civilization had an alliance change with another civ I was 'unfriendly' with. So it doesn't seem to matter what your relations are with any of the civs, your spy will get kicked out whenever the spied upon civ starts or ends an alliance with any other civilization.

 

That might explain the problem but it is still definitely a bug as well as yet another example of a silly mechanic

 

there's no mechanic here it's definitely not working as intended

 

The 'mechanic' is that we can no longer spy against an ally since the last patch, which is what I meant when I said the 'silly mechanic'

 

I quite like it. I like to usually ally as many as possible and enjoy diplomatic favour + wisselbanken + security. Now as Catherine it's a strategic decision to me - enjoy the benefits of alliance? yes but you can't use your spies then...

At least after they fix a bug, I can't use spies anyway now

 

Just in case needed...a save where ending the turn triggers this bug - my spy in Olympia aborts a mission 3 turns before it would end "because of a new ruler coming in power" and neither has changed anything in my relation to Perikles nor has the city switched ownership:

 

Thanks for identifying the cause. I can confirm the bug still exists in [1.0.6.9] Please fix!

Alas, since I didn't know about this bug, I chose "Bodyguard of Lies" for my Golden Age dedication, and was trying to flip cities of two nations that got a Dark Age. It was exasperating having my spies flee before completing their mission, and then I'd have to waste time sending them back. This happened six times in that game. (Then I won.)

I reviewed a couple autosaves.

Autosave 269: Netherlands and Scythia friends.
Chrysanthi mission at Leiden will finish in 2 turns.
Polyxeni and Omiros traveling to The Hague, arrives in 1 turn.
<shift-return to force next turn>
Scythia forms alliance with Netherlands.
Chrysanthi flees.
Turn 270: Chrysanthi in Pella, both Polxeni and Omiros do arrive successfully.

Autosave 263
All my friendships and alliances have just expired.
Adea & Chrysanthi are both in Ottawa.
<shift-return to force next turn>
Both Adea & Chrysanthi flee.
Turn 264: Adea & Chrysanthi both in Pella.

(Originally, when I played this turn, I renewed Friends with Canada, and made some other Alliances, but that doesn't seem necessary to cause the spies to flee.)

Attached are those autosaves.

A couple other nitpicks about spies (unrelated to this bug), both about the pop-up screen when a spy completes a mission:
a) a spy which is already a master spy gets "Rewards: promotion to master spy"
b) when "Steal Tech Boost" is successful, it says "successfully acquired" when actually only the boost is
I can live with these, but please fix the spy-flee bug!

 

11/14/2020 STILL BROKEN

 

Well, there hasn't been a game update since the mechanic was introduced last month, so nothing would've changed. It's better to wait until after an update before proclaiming something is still bugged.

 

Thank you for that information. From all the forums I have read, this issue dates back far more than "last month". I was reading posts from last year when I wrote that. I 'thought' I might have been helping. I apologize for proclaiming that the issue was not resolved. It will not happen again, Sir/Ma'am. I won't post on this forum again, actually. Thank you.

 

I don't know what other issue you could be referencing that occurred before the October Update. In any event, the current problem with spies (and the subject of this thread) was introduced in October with the new mechanic of not being able to perform spy missions on Civs you are allied with.

The sentiment is fine, but can cause confusion if people think there has been an update to the game, but no resolution. In this instance there's been no update, so there should be no expectation of a fix. We'll know whether there's been any corrections next Thursday when the November Update drops.

No need to be overly sensitive, you can post as much as you like. Just keep in mind it's more helpful to state the game version and attach a save game, where applicable, when discussing new or ongoing bugs.

 

From November Patch Notes:

• Fixed an issue where making a new alliance would remove all foreign spies, as opposed to just the spies from the new ally. A new notification for this event has been added.

 

Yay! Hard work reporting bugs has been rewarded. Thanks to all who did.