Matrix Games Forums

Okay , when you play with many races, for sure there will be the combination of traits etc. that spies will be undefeatable
In 3 of my 3 games, I had to quit because I lost every year around 5-10 installations and that empires have stolen already all techs from each other ... there is atm nothing you could do ingame, no building and even no counterespionage helps

So here we go, the "all are spies mod" , which gives all races a paranoia counterespionage bonus
of 110%

So when you are now using counterespionage , it should help
don't know, if it is enough or not, we will see !

MOD gives all civ 110% counterespionage bonus
File for 1.0.9.1
works as long as the races.xml will not be changed from a new patch

INSTALL
extract the file and overwrite the same file in the data directory in your game

It only works, when you start a new game, you could see the bonus when you examine a civ

BONUS screen, when you start a new game

Excellent idea, thank you.
Might I suggest the races that start with Counter Espionage ( Haakonish & Zenox ) be raised to 20%.
This increases everyone while not penalizing the races that already have it.

eddieballgame wrote: Tue Mar 15, 2022 2:59 am Excellent idea, thank you.
Might I suggest the races that start with Counter Espionage ( Haakonish & Zenox ) be raised to 20%.
This increases everyone while not penalizing the races that already have it.

Yes, great idea - and I would also like to support the suggestion, since this might be needed for balancing.

FIRST TESTING RESULTS ... the problem is, that you always would have to start a new game , as I am not a tester , but prefer to play, I am sorry that the mod will change very seldom, as I always play with largest galaxy, 2000 stars but else rare and long settings
_____________________________________________________________________________________

With my mod it is a lot better, okay maybe a little bit too harsh at the beginning

Wasted over 600 000 (Prison fees) to try to steal some tech, now I gave up, as atm that money is much worth. But later in the game it would be no problem to afford it ... so good side effect is, that the civs will hate you, because of the fails, so you will not do it endless

from 25 tries , which had still 100% ESPIONAGE success only around 5 have been successful , that the spies also escaped, all the other times my spies have been caught .

Without the mod, (in the last 3 games) I was always able to steal at 100% (What didn't changed) BUT I ALSO have been able to escape at a 90% rate ... not now

As you don't see how high the escape rate is, I am not able to compare it

But it feels a lot better now, will see mid game, where normal that spy craziness started , but I think it will not happen, as there will be no high level spies !

So maybe 90% counterespionage would feel better ...

eddieballgame wrote: Tue Mar 15, 2022 2:59 am Excellent idea, thank you.
Might I suggest the races that start with Counter Espionage ( Haakonish & Zenox ) be raised to 20%.
This increases everyone while not penalizing the races that already have it.

So all other races Counterspy 90%
And Haakonish & Zenox keep 110%

Maybe 110% is really a little bit too high

so 100% and 80% ... but sometimes I have the feeling in that game , only 1% more at the values means 100% more success or failure in the task ..

New Version

So all other races Counterspy 100%
And Haakonish & Zenox keep 110% and a third one, also had a bonus

Better "No" or very hard spies, because OP spies ruin the whole late game, after you have played 20h ...

If you want to change it yourself, just SEARCH the file for
CounterEspionage
, one line below is a value of 1.00 (100%) etc.
change it to the value you like.
You have to do it for any race in the game ...

LOL just checked the planets of the 2 other Major nations I encountered, each of them has around 5 other spies in prison ...
yeah that was the reason, why in my old games near ALL CIVS had all the techs, even I have been playing with lowest research rate and NO Tech trading ... even nations with near no tech research had near all techs MID GAME !
They have stolen everything and destroyed all buildings each other with their spies , so making the game senseless
So that spies really have broken all games on every level ...
Now it is game over for them, after a short time

You could still steal techs with the change, but IT WILL BE EXPENSIVE !

Feels a lot better ---
so think the last version, should improve gameplay a lot

Strange that nobody from that 2 years testing has encountered that, because it isn't a bug , it is just unbalanced !
I had this IN EACH OF MY 3 GAMES , which I tried to play ... of course because of my galaxy settings it has shown that problem even better ! Tech is very valuable and buildings also, as everything in my game is set to rare

I would love to upload my savegame but it's too big (even zipped 14.000KB)
In there you will find ravaging spies penetrating a wall of 12 counter intelligence dudes on a regular basis.


you will find duplicated unique buildings(not through conquered planets - i don't know how it happened). one of the dupes is hilarious.... i got double administration metropolis on the same planet.(no, not the metropolis + megapolis stack).
You will find a planet with no population that also doesn't seem to be able to reimmigrate with new pops. (yes i exterminated all pops on it cause I wanted to remove the planet from my empire... didn't work)

andybe wrote: Tue Mar 15, 2022 5:59 pm I would love to upload my savegame but it's too big (even zipped 14.000KB)
In there you will find ravaging spies penetrating a wall of 12 counter intelligence dudes on a regular basis.


you will find duplicated unique buildings(not through conquered planets - i don't know how it happened). one of the dupes is hilarious.... i got double administration metropolis on the same planet.(no, not the metropolis + megapolis stack).
You will find a planet with no population that also doesn't seem to be able to reimmigrate with new pops. (yes i exterminated all pops on it cause I wanted to remove the planet from my empire... didn't work)

I guess that's something for the bug-/tech-issues sub-forum (and I'm certain, that you could upload your save in their formula, too).

After playing now longer with my change, as the defending spies getting better and better, because of the fact they catch the other spies ---

maybe 100% and 80% would be better
___________________________________________________________
So all other races Counterspy 80%
And Haakonish & Zenox 100%

So when you are now using counterespionage , it should help
don't know, if it is enough or not, we will see !

MOD gives civ counterespionage bonus
File for 1.0.9.1
works as long as the races.xml will not be changed from a new patch

INSTALL
extract the file and overwrite the same file in the data directory in your game

It only works, when you start a new game, you could see the bonus when you examine a civ

Really hope that whole spy system will be overworked soon ... as many players already have given good ideas, what should be included like ,
distance matters,
time depends at what you are doing and how far away it is,
also that it costs money etc.

FlashXAron_slith wrote: Wed Mar 16, 2022 11:30 am (...)
So all other races Counterspy 80%
And Haakonish & Zenox 100%
(...)

Thanks for the update - but how about a little added info-file of what your mod does (because if you just store it to use it later on, you won't know what this file really does ) ?

Okay new official Patch for DW2 ... hope we don't need this mod anymore !

INTELLIGENCE MISSIONS
• Increased difficulty of some intelligence missions, especially steal tech when targeting higher level
research projects
• Altered how intelligence mission success chance is calculated so that always a chance of failure
(even without counter-intelligence)
• Slightly increased effectiveness of counter intelligence missions (more likely to intercept enemy
spy missions)

_____________________________________________________________________

If spies are still OP, I will release a new version for 1.0.2.1

So starting a new game LOL, think will never finish one

frankycl wrote: Wed Mar 16, 2022 12:02 pm

FlashXAron_slith wrote: Wed Mar 16, 2022 11:30 am (...)
So all other races Counterspy 80%
And Haakonish & Zenox 100%
(...)

Thanks for the update - but how about a little added info-file of what your mod does (because if you just store it to use it later on, you won't know what this file really does ) ?

That is not possible, as with every patch for DW2 this mod is terrible unbalanced or even not working at all, as it would overwrite important values from the patch ,,,
so already outdated

New Patch for DW 2 1.0.2.0
and changes in spying
INTELLIGENCE MISSIONS
• Increased difficulty of some intelligence missions, especially steal tech when targeting higher level
research projects
• Altered how intelligence mission success chance is calculated so that always a chance of failure
(even without counter-intelligence)
• Slightly increased effectiveness of counter intelligence missions (more likely to intercept enemy
spy missions)


As I really don't have fate in the devs , that they make it hard and I didn't want that my game is once again worthless, because of spies stealing and destroying everything
I made spying a little bit harder vor the DW2 Version
1.0.2.0

You have to start a new game, yes once again as it changes only the bonuses for the starting races

_________________________________________________________________________
So all other races Counterspy +10%
And Haakonish & Zenox +20%

So when you are now using counterespionage , it should help
don't know, if it is once again enough or not, we will see !

MOD gives ALL civ counterespionage bonus
File for 1.0.2.0
works as long as the races.xml will not be changed from a new patch

INSTALL
extract the file and overwrite the same file in the data directory in your game

FlashXAron_slith wrote: Wed Mar 16, 2022 4:02 pm

frankycl wrote: Wed Mar 16, 2022 12:02 pm (...) how about a little added info-file of what your mod does (because if you just store it to use it later on, you won't know what this file really does ) ?

That is not possible, as with every patch for DW2 this mod is terrible unbalanced or even not working at all, as it would overwrite important values from the patch ,,,
so already outdated

No, I only meant an additional text-file that you put in the archive for the download (with every updated info, if needed - you could even put the build-/patch-version of the game in it, if you want ). - This way it can't be more outdated, than your postings for each download from above, don't you think ?

Per 'user created' content, a 'readme file' is always a nice addition.
If one is not provided, it is fairly easy to create one's own via the notes (if any) are provided in the post.

eddieballgame wrote: Wed Mar 16, 2022 5:30 pm Per 'user created' content, a 'readme file' is always a nice addition.

Yes, that's what I meant.

Okay started anew game with 1.0.2.0
AND MY MOD

Oh I should have used a higher counterespionage buff ...

I AM STILL STEALING TECH LIKE CRAZY , from around 50 tries, I am only being caught around 5 times ...
and my mod is enabled !!!!!!!!!!!! so all have 10% higher counterespionage !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So mod should be 30% I think --- but too lazy to start a new game ...

FlashXAron_slith wrote: Thu Mar 17, 2022 10:12 am Okay started anew game with 1.0.2.0
AND MY MOD

Oh I should have used a higher counterespionage buff ...

I AM STILL STEALING TECH LIKE CRAZY , from around 50 tries, I am only being caught around 5 times ...
and my mod is enabled !!!!!!!!!!!! so all have 10% higher counterespionage !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So mod should be 30% I think --- but too lazy to start a new game ...

Is there any easy way to turn off tech stealing? I turn off tech trading in every 4x game and stealing looks like it's the same just even more overpowered.