Is the Espionage System Working in 1.6.3?

[Braxtil]

I bought Pandora last week, and I'm really enjoying it. I've finished three games now, and none of the AIs have used espionage against me. I experimented with it in one game and gave up after failing six 65% technology theft missions in a row. Is it currently broken? Thanks.

[Thebitlocker]

hi,

i can't remember that the AI was using espionage very often in the past (pre 1.6 patch)
In my last game (1.6.3) i didn't saw any AI spy too.

But my espionage was working.

But the espionage was overpowered in the past. With a good connection to the city it was possible to destroy a city in a few rounds.
e.g. virus

[dmantione]

In 1.5.x the AI did make use of espionage a lot (and made it even annoying to catch all those enemy spies in single player games), but in 1.6.x espionage is a lot less powerfull and therefore it is much less rewarding for the AI. The AI currently does not use spies at all, because it is unclear wether investing significant amounts of money in it is worth the cost for the AI.

[Zak0r]

My personal opinion is that the spies have been overnerfed with the rule that they stop when crossing a border. All other changes are ok I think but this one just makes them useless (when not in war and attacking the target with regular units as well).

[ERISS]

My personal opinion is that the spies have been overnerfed with the rule that they stop when crossing a border.

Spies are honest people, they show their true papers to custom officers: "Occupation: Spy".
It could halve their movement instead in belonging territories, as they become more carefull. That should be worst?

[Xilmi]

Rok hasn't spoken out about it. I think I'll just revert that last nerf and we'll see whether he steps in or not. ^^

I don't think he really can be for something that makes a feature completely useless, when there is a nice solution that sounds about balanced.