How much is a spy worth?

[RogerBacon]

I know each spy has their own strengths and weaknesses but, for a typical average spy, how much is it worth to you? To put it another way, how much would you pay for that spy if you had to buy it? How much would you be willing to pay to remove another empire's spy? Are those two numbers the same?

[OzoneGrif_slith]

That's an interesting question. It's difficult to estimate a price for a spy, but I would certainly pay something between 250k and 500k.
A good spy is a dangerous weapon in the hand of an experienced player.

I wouldnt pay to remove a spy from another empire. I would use the Counter-Espionnage for this : It works against all spies from all empires, so it's very efficient.

[Aeson]

I don't know what price I'd name, but I'd want espionage agents to be expensive if they could be purchased. Good espionage agents who can reliably steal maps (particularly operations maps), stay in deep cover inside another empire, or acquire research information are in my opinion by far the most valuable agents in the game, and while I don't know that I'd quite be willing to pay millions for them, I might come close.

I wouldn't want assassins, saboteurs, or other offensive agent types to be much, if any cheaper, but not because I value them. There's rarely just one or two key targets that you can blow up with a saboteur or kill with an assassin to cripple an opponent in Distant Worlds (especially with assassins, where the only thing you really know about a target is likely the character type), most colonies are not so valuable that it matters all that much when one rebels (and a rebellious colony usually goes independent, which means it's relatively easy to take it back over), and with neither any guarantee of empires fragmenting due to nor any way to influence what government type results from a successful Incite Revolution mission I don't see them as being either all that appealing to launch or anything more than a nuisance to receive. Nuisance-level activity is not worth engaging in against a computer opponent, and I find it irritating when a computer or a human opponent engages in such against me, especially when it does so in a spammy fashion as can happen with e.g. GalCivII's agents or some of the Total War games' saboteur/assassin agents. Worse, though, is that offensive black ops as implemented in video games are something which the player on the receiving end - human or computer - cannot do anything about other than throw virtual money at a hidden RNG. Video strategy game active offensive black ops systems are typically neither very effective nor at all enjoyable, so I'd rather they not be present, or if they are present then priced such that offensive black ops at least won't be a continual background nuisance (effective and meaningful when successful but rare because they're difficult to pull off, as with e.g. Dominions 4 assassinations, can be acceptable, but it's still a kind of system which at least to me is mostly just irritating).

[BlindOne]

I have no problem spending a million to get rid of an annoying spammy enemy spy but that is way to easy to pay your way out of your troubles imho.[:'(]

[Hattori Hanzo]

I agree with BlindOne, it's too easy to pay

[RogerBacon]

ORIGINAL: BlindOne

I have no problem spending a million to get rid of an annoying spammy enemy spy but that is way to easy to pay your way out of your troubles imho.[:'(]

Wow. You guys value spies way more than I would have thought. I'm glad I got some input.

ORIGINAL: Hattori Hanzo

I agree with BlindOne, it's too easy to pay

I have no intention of making spies purchasable. I have something else in mind. [:)]