Counterspy Is Making Me Crazy

[Big J Money]

Yes this is maddening. Screw it, just make it permanent and let me wake up the spy and cancel the mission whenever I'm ready!

 

[Brian Boru]

It is most boring think in Civ6, it actually made me stop using spies at all last game

Is there a Custom Game option to turn off Espionage entirely, like in Civ4? I stopped playing Civ4 too when they introduced spies--happily it didn't take long to make it optional.

makes me wonder if they really test games before releasing....if they really do, then their tester are living in a bubble.....hire real players as testers

Big software projects usually have a big and very detailed test plan written and implemented. However... the software continues to change up to final release day, so the test plan goes partially obsolete and some silly looking stuff gets thru to retail.

They want to minimize turn times and quicken the game. Really?

Did Firaxis say this somewhere? I ask because of the mistake they made in dropping the option for build queues, which also has the opposite effect.

That would cut down on a lot of the whack-a-mole-but-blindfolded problem while reducing the tedium.

Let's hope reducing the tedium becomes a priority for a patch, DLC, or expansion. Civ6 looks like a game I'd buy if it was decently playable.

 

[skallben]

Did Firaxis say this somewhere? I ask because of the mistake they made in dropping the option for build queues, which also has the opposite effect.

I think it was in the AI battle royale. I cannot recite and other exact references but I was under the impression that they wanted to make mid/late game more interesting and speed things up. And yes, that is another huge mistake. The interface is horrible overall, bad supply of information, bad readability, bad functionality.

 

[shaglio]

What's worse is when you have two counterspies in the same city covering the industrial zone and the space port and accidentally re-assign one to double up on one district .

This! I wish the Counterspy menu would put a little spy icon on the districts that already have a spy assigned to them.

 

[Ravenwild]

How does counter-spying work exactly? Do they go on a "hunt" for a few turns and if they didn't find anything it means an enemy spy isn't there?

 

[skyclad]

My guess is that when the enemy spy finishes his mission (his 8 turns stealing tech or whatever) it checks to see if there is a counterspy on his or an adjacent tile. If not, the game proceeds with the standard success/fail/killed randomizer. If there is a counterspy there, it does the same but adjusted for the counterspy shifting the percentages for the possible results. So if no enemy spy finishes a mission while the counterspy is there nothing happens.

 

[Jabulani]

It seems I'm capoed at one spy, how pls to recruit more ? thx

 

[skyclad]

You get more as you advance in techs and civics. For example you get one extra at civic "ideology".

 

[KmDubya]

In my first two games, KIng and Emperor, had lots of enemy spy missions. In my last emperor game I ran both police state and cryptography for a combined -4 to enemy spy levels and did not suffer from any spy attacks. Captured and killed a few spies but they stayed away. In a Space Race game where keeping your powerhouse city functioning at peak production using two policy cards to stay espionage free seems like a good tradeoff.

 

[steveg700]

Well, I'd say to some degree, the problem with the counterspy is a bit broader in nature. The spy is constantly having to "re-up" because keeping you only have so many spies, and it's not influenced by the size of your empire. Imagine for a moment that someone was actually building numerous campus districts (and I use the word "imagine" to pre-empt people going off on an off-topic tangent about not needing even one campus); protecting one campus does you no good if a civ sends a spy to one of the others. If you have multiple districts that you're concerned about as points of intrusion, then the premise is likely that you're going to shuffle his location to provide broader coverage.

But in practice, it's just too tedious. Their should be a way to assign a route of sorts to a spy. The more different districts he protects, the lower the overall value of his protection becomes. It's a trade-off. Then, you can dial the re-ups way back.

 

[Takfloyd]

People are asking for trouble with stuff like this when they play on quick. On Epic, each counterspy mission lasts 12 turns so it's not a big hassle, though it should still be changed so it works like a Fortify - lasts until you give a new order.

 

[mnf]

I wish counter-spy missions work like Fortify. You click on the Spy's Fortify action, then all the city centers and districts light up, and you click on one of them and it "fortifies" in that district doing its counter spy thingy. When you want it elsewhere, you click on it and select the "Wake" command.

 

[ViterboKnight]

I agree with the OP. As a possibility, it might work as the "Fortify" command: the units remains in this state until reactivated.

By the way, when I select to do counterespionage in a specific district, does it also inflict the close districts as well, or should I put a spy in every district of all my cities? A coverage area might be more sensible (eg., counterespionage within 2 tiles).

 

[Victoria]

It seems like they hit the highest targets with the best % chance but that's a guess as my commercials are always hit.

Good in a way because a spy there gets promoted quick and then sent off overseas replaced by a raw recruit.

Nothing like a bit of training on the job

 

[Zuizgond]

The spy system is not really fun and too simple. They put it just for the sake of it, but might as well remove it and come back with a more engaging version.

 

[valamas]

I had a skilled spy. Germany had 15k gold of which eventually transfered over to me.

 

[valamas]

Besides the short amount of time before asking for new orders; this is how i manage my spies. Particularly in my own cities.

Here is what i do for spies in my cities.
1. Click on the city name. Confirm placement.

2. The spy focuses again but the city list is showing. Ignore that and click on the head icon twice. (that closes city selection and opens orders)

3. Your spy always returns to the city centre when requiring new orders. So if you have multiple spies protecting your districts. You will notice say that the campus doesn't have a spy icon. So you know to click campus.

Job done.

When the spy needs new orders. Just go to action 2. After a while it becomes real quick to do your counter-espionage.

 

[Fromage10x]

This is a general problem with the game design, not just spies, but also traders and diplomatic agreements work this way for no other reason than to force us to do busywork on a set schedule.

 

[shaglio]

3. Your spy always returns to the city centre when requiring new orders. So if you have multiple spies protecting your districts. You will notice say that the campus doesn't have a spy icon. So you know to click campus.

Wait, does a Spy icon appear when you assign one to protect a district? I never noticed that. Does it appear in the district list on the left or on the district's tile on the map?

 

[Miravlix]

Pro Tip: Click the button for "go to city" then click the button for spy action and your have magically saved yourself a click or two.

Only thing wrong is why I can't click directly on spy action, but have to close the move one first.