Is there a way to make spies go back to originating city?

[SteelSterling]

I like to use spies but for one annoying trait - as soon as they're done with the mission, they go back to the capital.
I recently expanded my empire to another continent and had spies spread culture to neighboring cities and it gets frustrating when they instantly teleport to my capital. I now have a few options; I can have the spy travel to a coastal city, build a transport there and then send the spy back to whence he came, delete the unit and just create a new one, or just forget the whole endeavor.
Is there way to make the spy go back to the town it was built in?

 

[Dancing Hoskuld]

There is a mod that returns them to the nearest city. That can probably be done in C2C as well. It would use the same code as the subdued animals. Getting it to go back where it was built would be much harder I would have thought.

 

[SteelSterling]

I guess all I can do is wait until I have airports to make it easier to get them back where they started. I never understood why they made spies work that way. What's the point?

 

[Dancing Hoskuld]

it is easy! The alternative is to have them die when they complete their mission.

 

[LumenAngel]

Die or stay...
Just the more realistic option

 

[Koshling]

Originating would be hard, but I can probably easily change it to largest city n the same continent, or nearest city on the same continent (whichever people would prefer), with the capital as the fallback when you have no cities on the same continent.

 

[Thunderbrd]

What may be cool is to have promos and traits influence where the spy would reappear. Obviously more valuable to have them go back to the nearest city. In order of effectiveness:
1) Stays put in the city without needing to retreat afterwards
2) A developing % chance to stay in the same city
3) Moves back to the nearest city
4) Moves back to the largest city on the continent
5) Moves back to the capital

 

[Dancing Hoskuld]

For balance, if you are going to allow the spy to remain in the city rather than report back for a new assignment, the costs of all espionage events should increase dramatically.

All steal plans style missions should require the spy to report back to the capital anyway.

 

[Thunderbrd]

For balance, if you are going to allow the spy to remain in the city rather than report back for a new assignment, the costs of all espionage events should increase dramatically.

All steal plans style missions should require the spy to report back to the capital anyway.

'Reporting' need not necessarily require the unit travel back himself. There's been rather secure message transmission methods all the way back to the domestication of Carrier Pigeons and beyond.

I don't have anything against charging more, nor potentially against opening up spies to being potentially caught in the same way criminal units may soon be given the plans there. Channeling the spy capture mechanism through that new process would probably mean an improvement over the current way spies can be caught anyhow. Therefore, highly secure cities with Law Enforcement units can be fairly well protected from all but the very best spies.

 

[Faustmouse]

I don't have anything against charging more, nor potentially against opening up spies to being potentially caught in the same way criminal units may soon be given the plans there. Channeling the spy capture mechanism through that new process would probably mean an improvement over the current way spies can be caught anyhow. Therefore, highly secure cities with Law Enforcement units can be fairly well protected from all but the very best spies.

Yes, please!
Right now it's very frustrating that the AI can harass you with their spies and you can do almost nothing against it.

 

[Dancing Hoskuld]

Yes, please!
Right now it's very frustrating that the AI can harass you with their spies and you can do almost nothing against it.

Strange there has always been stuff you can do about it. Have a spy in the city! Perform counterespionage in their cities! Have a good espionage spending - this last one is very difficult not to have in C2C.

 

[Faustmouse]

Strange there has always been stuff you can do about it. Have a spy in the city! Perform counterespionage in their cities! Have a good espionage spending - this last one is very difficult not to have in C2C.

I have a spy with the Security promotion in every city. I also have a lot of Town Guards in every city. I do use the Counterespionage. But I can't spend more espionagepoints than my enemies. Well, I could, but then I'd falling behind in the techrace even more.

The AI just uses A LOT of spies. Basically every round I have some massages that a Spy stumbled in my empire, and at least every 5 turns there is one sucessfull in bribing my city, destroying a building, destroying an improvement...

 

[SteelSterling]

It would make sense for the spy to escape to the nearest friendly city. It would be realistic as the spy would be hightailing out of there.