I have been playing this mod a lot lately and feel this needs to be brought up. With a small army of espionage you can gain an unfair advantage early. Though in theory espionage shouldn't become too powerful until later in the game, my experience has been the opposite.
Worker Exploit:
1.Place an espionage on an enemy resource(preferably strategic ones like iron or horse as they'll get priority)
2.Destroy improvement
3.Wait for workers to come rebuild it
4.Bribe workers and repeat
You get free workers, they lose workers, and best of all they can't make good military units. Win-Win-Win
Money Exploit:
1.Steal most of their money(more they have the more you can steal at once since there is no cap)
2.Once they are low enough on funds send an espionage to each city and send it into revolt
3.Next turn send all espionage back to all cities so they can cause revolt again when the old revolt wears off
4.If all their cities are revolting continuously then they can't produce money
5.Once they run out of money they can't pay their military
6.After they run out of military you invade and take everything
7.Choose new victim and go back to #1
Even if you don't drive an AI broke, stealing money can let you upgrade units and rush building more easily, and is further compounded when your espionage is stealing 2-3k each time
Culture Exploit:
1.Send a large group of espionage to a city with your culture in it
2.Spread culture
3.Repeat
I have exploited this to the point were a neighboring city will have 99% of my culture
Tech Exploit:
If you focus enough on stealing techs you can get a massive tech lead, if exploited enough you can get to transhuman by 1900 despite realistic timescale
Holy City exploit(kinda):
1.Get holy city
2.Wait to convert so you don't get negative relations with other religions, maybe use the civic Appeasement if they refuse right of passage or open boarders
3.Spread the religion like wildfire with missionaries
4.Convert for the bonus in cities with your religion
The bonus is too much, especially in early game
Promotion Exploit(kinda):
Not so much of an exploit, but if you get enough promotions on an espionage they become virtually invincible. Once they get going about the only way I lose them is if they need to take a boat and it gets sunk from an event.
Defense Exploit(Kinda):
1.Put a spy and a watch tower in every city
2.Watch the enemy spies get caught as they come in
Not entirely sure if this is an issue, but it does feel like one when you have a spy in every city and the AI doesn't
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All suggestions should be implemented individually so each ones effect can be gauged
Suggestion #1
Reduce espionage promotions
Escape Artist I&II 40%->25%
Deception I-III 10%->5%
Improvise I-V 10%->5%
Loyal split into Loyal I&II with % to happen instead of every time. Even with both it shouldn't add up to 100%, there should always be a chance to hurt relations with espionage. Also Loyal II should have a prerequisite so it's not available too early(maybe Psychology).
Suggestion #2
Make Spies and Agents limited national units
Should be noted that traders, caravans, and freight don't count against each other, so at Photography you could technically have 15 espionage(5 spy+10 Agent) if my suggestion is followed.
Spy
Limit:5
Alphabet(Classical)
Agent
Limit:10
Photography(Industrial)
Special Agent
Limit:5
Electronics(Modern)
Top Secret Agent
Limit:1
Electronics(Modern)
Hacker
Limit:Unlimited
Cyberwarfare(Modern)
Suggestion #3
Put a limit on the amount of money you can steal at once, maybe in the range of 100-1000
Suggestion #4
Reduce bonus from holy city for espionage
Suggestion #5
Have espionage return to capital after every mission, whether or not they are in a city
Suggestion #6
Limit culture spread with espionage to 75%
Worker Exploit:
1.Place an espionage on an enemy resource(preferably strategic ones like iron or horse as they'll get priority)
2.Destroy improvement
3.Wait for workers to come rebuild it
4.Bribe workers and repeat
You get free workers, they lose workers, and best of all they can't make good military units. Win-Win-Win
Money Exploit:
1.Steal most of their money(more they have the more you can steal at once since there is no cap)
2.Once they are low enough on funds send an espionage to each city and send it into revolt
3.Next turn send all espionage back to all cities so they can cause revolt again when the old revolt wears off
4.If all their cities are revolting continuously then they can't produce money
5.Once they run out of money they can't pay their military
6.After they run out of military you invade and take everything
7.Choose new victim and go back to #1
Even if you don't drive an AI broke, stealing money can let you upgrade units and rush building more easily, and is further compounded when your espionage is stealing 2-3k each time
Culture Exploit:
1.Send a large group of espionage to a city with your culture in it
2.Spread culture
3.Repeat
I have exploited this to the point were a neighboring city will have 99% of my culture
Tech Exploit:
If you focus enough on stealing techs you can get a massive tech lead, if exploited enough you can get to transhuman by 1900 despite realistic timescale
Holy City exploit(kinda):
1.Get holy city
2.Wait to convert so you don't get negative relations with other religions, maybe use the civic Appeasement if they refuse right of passage or open boarders
3.Spread the religion like wildfire with missionaries
4.Convert for the bonus in cities with your religion
The bonus is too much, especially in early game
Promotion Exploit(kinda):
Not so much of an exploit, but if you get enough promotions on an espionage they become virtually invincible. Once they get going about the only way I lose them is if they need to take a boat and it gets sunk from an event.
Defense Exploit(Kinda):
1.Put a spy and a watch tower in every city
2.Watch the enemy spies get caught as they come in
Not entirely sure if this is an issue, but it does feel like one when you have a spy in every city and the AI doesn't
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All suggestions should be implemented individually so each ones effect can be gauged
Suggestion #1
Reduce espionage promotions
Escape Artist I&II 40%->25%
Deception I-III 10%->5%
Improvise I-V 10%->5%
Loyal split into Loyal I&II with % to happen instead of every time. Even with both it shouldn't add up to 100%, there should always be a chance to hurt relations with espionage. Also Loyal II should have a prerequisite so it's not available too early(maybe Psychology).
Suggestion #2
Make Spies and Agents limited national units
Should be noted that traders, caravans, and freight don't count against each other, so at Photography you could technically have 15 espionage(5 spy+10 Agent) if my suggestion is followed.
Spy
Limit:5
Alphabet(Classical)
Agent
Limit:10
Photography(Industrial)
Special Agent
Limit:5
Electronics(Modern)
Top Secret Agent
Limit:1
Electronics(Modern)
Hacker
Limit:Unlimited
Cyberwarfare(Modern)
Suggestion #3
Put a limit on the amount of money you can steal at once, maybe in the range of 100-1000
Suggestion #4
Reduce bonus from holy city for espionage
Suggestion #5
Have espionage return to capital after every mission, whether or not they are in a city
Suggestion #6
Limit culture spread with espionage to 75%
