pineappledan
Deity
Preamble:
- The current state of the espionage system gives nothing that players want, because players are already getting too much stuff for free.
- The only thing that is left for spies to do is contribute to yield inflation by stealing X and giving it to you, or rigging elections in city-states. They're just another economic tool, on top of the 7-8 economic systems in the game, all of which are far more robust than the espionage system. Spies as they are simply fail to justify their existence as a hollow, inferior copy of better mechanics.
- It can't even do that bad job properly, because you steal yields from others only to have them stolen back from you. The system leaves everyone more or less as they were if there were no spies at all, except we are all forced to engage in this system and click all these buttons just to ensure that we can run in place and remain exactly where we were before. Pointless.
- The current system has too many small, low impact decisions: Where to put spy? What roll? What action? What's the cost-benefit of X over Y? How long will it take? What if it fails? The decisions could be made weightier if spies gave tangible, visible benefits, had predictable outcomes, and the decision to move them was rarer and weightier.
- It's opaque, based on % chance actions, and if you fail you lose a bunch of time because of an arbitrary dice roll. Chance based mechanisms are not fun if what you are gambling is purely game time.
- Spies are earlier, more numerous, and weaker
- Spies focused on gathering strategic information about other civs to help players make decisions:
- Heavy incentives to keep spies in 1 place for a long time to gather intelligence
- Greatly reduce yields and lock yield bonuses behind lvl 3 Spies
- Spies only give benefits to their player, they never hurt their host
- Hide some player info that is currently freely available, and unlock it with spies
- No %-chance based actions. No "Spy Points":
- No More Advanced Actions
- No More Coups
- No more tallied up points to keep track of
- No more counterspies in your own cities. Security is the only defense.
- Spies cannot be killed
- Security from buildings etc. passively reduce the rate that spies in the city gain XP
- Security lowers the amount of bonuses max level spies get.
Spoiler Details :
We currently have a lot of good information about other civs in-game. Maybe a little too good?:
I have colour-coded the new spy abilities.
Legend:
Level 1
Level 1 to 3:
Diplomats can only be placed in a foreign civilization's capital.
Diplomats are immune to Security levels, and gain XP at their full rate.
Level 1
All cities have a Security rating between 0 and 5 stars.
These stars are now a discrete rank. There are no increments or partial stars. There are exactly 6 levels of security between 0 and 5.
There are only 5 sources of Security in the game that each give +1 Security level:
Changes are Underlined
Constabulary/Wat (building)
Police Station (building)
NIA (national wonder)
Bletchley Park (World Wonder)
Great Firewall (World Wonder)
Rationalism Finisher (policy)
Great Leap Forward (Order Tenet)
I have colour-coded the new spy abilities.
Legend:
- Something that spies already do
- Something that is currently freely available to players, without needing spies
- Something that is a new ability
- Spies can be assigned to cities. It takes some turns for them to travel and set up in a city. This time can be shortened with cultural influence.
- All Civs get 2 free spies at the start of the Medieval Era, and +1 spy for every Era after that. (Total # of spies increased by 2 per player)
- Spies passively gain XP every turn they are in a city, gathering intelligence.
- Spies gain 5 XP per turn once set up on a city, minus 1 XP for every point of security in the city. (eg. A spy in a city with level 2 security will gain 3 XP per turn)
- Spies gain a level once they have earned 100 XP
- Spies lose all XP and levels when they move cities, and have to start over from lvl 1 (unless you have an ability that boosts their levels or XP)
Spoiler Spies in major civ city :
Level 1
- Share “intrigue” with you
- Give vision of a foreign city
- Gives you access to that city's screen, giving you access to the following information about that city
- Production queue
- Building list
- yields per turn
- Reveal the host player's game score (civ icons are still in order from highest to lowest, but exact amounts are hidden)
- Reveal the host player's icon in the Demographics screen (currently hidden until you meet the player. now requires you spy on them)
- List of Wonders they own (can be visible from the map tiles, but could get a complete summary from spies)
- Number and types of policies adopted (the UI will simply indicate you are "Ahead", "Behind", or "Similar", depending on if you are within +/-1 policy of the host civ)
- Total number of Technologies researched (the UI will simply indicate you are "Ahead", "Behind", or "Similar", depending on if you are within +/-2 technologies of the host civ)
- Total Population and number of Cities (can be calculated from vision of their lands via reconnaissance, but the summary stat is hidden unless you have a spy)
- Reveals the host player's icon in the Monopoly overview (ie, how much % control they have of what luxuries. Currently hidden until you meet the player)
- Reveals host player's number of copies of resources owned by that civ in the trade menu.
- Reveals host player's Culture overview information in CV victory progress window (without a spy, you are only told if you are exotic/familiar/popular/etc. with another civ, but don't have vision of their culture bar, or if your tourism is rising/falling w.r.t. theirs)
- Reveals host player's active Open Border agreements.
- Reveals all of the host player's ongoing trade deals.
- Unlocks Passive actions for your spy in the host city:
- Embed in the Military Brass:
- Local Effect: Your military units gain +100% combat strength vs this city. Combat bonus is halved for each level of security in the city (ie. 100%/50%/25%/12.5%/6.25%/3.125% at security level 0/1/2/3/4/5)
- Global Effect: Reveals Host player's Unit list (window is visible from the host city's screen)
- Embed in the Black Market:
- Local Effect: Gain 100% of the host City's
Gold from Trade Routes in your own
capital. Yields are halved for each level of security in the city (ie. 100%/50%/25%/12.5%/6.25%/3.125% at security level 0/1/2/3/4/5)
- Global Effect: Import 1 copy of a luxury that the host civ controls that you don't have. (The luxury picked is the one that the host civ has the highest % monopoly control of that you don't already have. Counts toward the Dutch UA)
- Local Effect: Gain 100% of the host City's
- Embed in the Intelligentsia:
- Local Effect: Gain 100% of the host City's
Science from Specialists in your own
capital. Yields are halved for each level of security in the city (ie. 100%/50%/25%/12.5%/6.25%/3.125% at security level 0/1/2/3/4/5)
- Global Effect: Reveal Host player's current research choice and progress (window is visible from the host city's screen)
- Local Effect: Gain 100% of the host City's
- Embed in the Aristocracy:
- Local Effect: Gain 100% of the host City's
Culture from Great Works in your own
capital. Yields are halved for each level of security in the city (ie. 100%/50%/25%/12.5%/6.25%/3.125% at security level 0/1/2/3/4/5)
- Global Effect: Gain a notification whenever the Host player creates a new
Great Work, or completes an Archaeological dig, and reveals details about the new
GW
- Local Effect: Gain 100% of the host City's
- Embed in the Local Guild:
- Local Effect: Gain 100% of the host City's
Production from Buildings in your own
capital. Yields are halved for each level of security in the city (ie. 100%/50%/25%/12.5%/6.25%/3.125% at security level 0/1/2/3/4/5)
- Global Effect: Gain a notification whenever the Host player begins construction on a wonder in any city, and reveals what the wonder is
- Local Effect: Gain 100% of the host City's
- Embed in the Military Brass:
Spoiler Spies in City-State :
Level 1 to 3:
- Rig elections (unchanged)
- Cannot coup (removed)
Spoiler Diplomats :
Diplomats can only be placed in a foreign civilization's capital.
Diplomats are immune to Security levels, and gain XP at their full rate.
Level 1
- Gives +1 Vote in the World Congress (requires Globalization tech)
- Can buy/sell votes in the World Congress via the trade screen with the host civ
- Share “intrigue” with you
- Give vision of a foreign city
- Gives you access to that city's screen, giving you access to the following information about that city
- Production queue
- Building list
- yields per turn
- Reveal the host player's game score (civ icons are still in order, but exact amounts are hidden)
- Reveal the host player's icon in the Demographics screen (currently hidden until you meet the player. now requires you spy on them)
- List of Wonders they own (can be visible from the map tiles, but could get a complete summary from spies)
- Number and types of policies adopted (the UI will simply indicate you are "Ahead", "Behind", or "Similar", depending on if you are within +/-1 policy of the host civ)
- Total number of Technologies researched (the UI will simply indicate you are "Ahead", "Behind", or "Similar", depending on if you are within +/-2 technologies of the host civ)
- Total Population and number of Cities (can be calculated from vision of their lands via reconnaissance, but the summary stat is hidden unless you have a spy)
- Reveals the host player's icon in the Monopoly overview (ie, how much % control they have of what luxuries. Currently hidden until you meet the player)
- Reveals host player's number of copies of resources owned by that civ in the trade menu.
- Reveals host player's Culture overview information in CV victory progress window (without a spy, you are only told if you are exotic/familiar/popular/etc. with another civ, but don't have vision of their culture bar, or if your tourism is rising/falling w.r.t. theirs)
- Reveals host player's active Open Border agreements.
- Reveals all of the host player's ongoing trade deals.
- Can Broker Peace/War via the Trade Screen with the host civ
- Gives you a 15%
Tourism modifier with the host civ
Spoiler Security :
All cities have a Security rating between 0 and 5 stars.
These stars are now a discrete rank. There are no increments or partial stars. There are exactly 6 levels of security between 0 and 5.
There are only 5 sources of Security in the game that each give +1 Security level:
- Local Happiness: Cities with no excess
Unhappiness have +1 Security
- Local Building: Constabularies give +1 Security in the city they are built in.
- Policy: Rationalism Finisher policy gives +1 Security in all cities on empire
- National Wonder: The National Intelligence Agency gives +1 Security in all cities on empire
- World Wonder: The Great Firewall gives +1 Security in all cities on empire
- reduces the rate at which lvl 1 and lvl 2 spies in that city gain XP by 20% (ie. spies gain XP at 100%/80%/60%/40%/20%/0% of the normal speed at city security level 0/1/2/3/4/5)
- Reduces the benefits that a lvl 3 spy in that city will give to its own civ
Spoiler list of things you can currently do without needing spies that would be locked behind spies :
- view other players' :
- game score (requires lvl 1 spy or diplomat)
- demographic rankings (requires lvl 1 spy or diplomat)
- wonder list (requires lvl 1 spy or diplomat)
- number of policies and techs (requires lvl 1 spy or diplomat)
- city and population numbers (requires lvl 1 spy or diplomat)
- monopoly control (requires lvl 2 spy or diplomat)
- number of tradeable resources (requires lvl 2 spy or diplomat)
- Broker peace deals and pay other civs to go to war (requires lvl 2 diplomat)
Spoiler changes to buildings/policies/wonders/etc to integrate new spy mechanics :
Changes are Underlined
Constabulary/Wat (building)
Gives a flat +1 security
gives -5% Empire Size reduction modifier in the city it is built in, and -2% Empire Size reduction modifier in all other cities on empire.
Police Station (building)
Gives +1
in the city for each level of Security

gives -5% Empire Size reduction modifier in the city it is built in, and -2% Empire Size reduction modifier in all other cities on empire.
NIA (national wonder)
Gives flat +1 Security in all cities
Gives +1 Spy
Bletchley Park (World Wonder)
Free Research Lab in the City
+1 level to all spies (ie. all spies start at lvl 2)
All Naval Melee units gain the submarine detection promotion for free
Great Firewall (World Wonder)
Gives flat +1 Security in all cities
Nullifies enemy civilizations' Internet tourism bonus
+10
to Research Labs

Shadow Networks (policy)Receive 25% of
Science generated by Allied City-States.

+2%
Culture in the
Capital for every active Spy or Diplomat (up to 30%). (down from 3% per spy)


+1
Science from Specialists

+3
Science from Constabularies and Police Stations.

Rationalism Finisher (policy)
Gives flat +1 Security in all cities
-1 to all
needs on empire

Can purchase GScientists with Faith
unlocks Bletchley Park wonder
Covert Action (Freedom tenet)All
Influence changes from Election rigging in City-States doubled

+1 Spy (scaling with number of city states)
Double Agents (Order Tenet)+3 Spies (scaling with number of city states)
Spies operate as if the city has 1 less level of security
Great Leap Forward (Order Tenet)
Gain 1 Free Technology.
Gain 3%
Science for every active Spy or Diplomat.

+1
for every 3 non-specialist
Citizens.


Perfidious Albion (England UA)Naval Military units have +1 Movement and -25%
Gold maintenance.

Starts the game with +1 Spy
Spies gain experience 100% faster
Public Works (repeatable city project)Remove Empire size reduction (moved to Constabulary/police station)
+1
Happiness and -1
Needs in this city


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