Spies to defend ... how much is enough?

[Tuberski]

Originally posted by BALROG


Hmmm... Spys in reserve actually DO something? I guess I didn't catch that from the "manual."

It's all relative, but they do help some, but not as much as the "O-meter".

ACK!

[bakalov]

Yeah, sometimes you get a message like "One of your operatives killed a spy belonging to ....." - this is when your reserve spies did some work. This is relatively rare event, though .....

[Prothero]

i heard a rumor that 10 spies = 1 step higher on the oppressometer. However, it is only a rumor.

[moomaster]

build lots of ground military units in each planet, and couple of spies in each category

[Hydro]

Another option is to use one of the mods that are out to decrease the influence of spies. Some of the methods suggested: longer build time (so fewer spies), lower luck (die off faster), increase cost (bankrupt spy-happy empires - likely to hamstring the AI).

A friend of mine is playing with this since he hates spies and wants this to be an option he can turn off. He currently has spies taking 100 turns to build and living about 4 turns and, so far, he is happier. I'm likely to take a middle road make build times higher, but am undecided.

One side benefit of toning down spies is that leaders can now actually help your empire, as opposed to being a bloody assassinated mess found in your Imperial Council Room the year after they join you.

[bakalov]

After some time they die just from old age :-) And this is inevitable ....

[Flinx]

Originally posted by bakalov
Yeah, sometimes you get a message like "One of your operatives killed a spy belonging to ....." - this is when your reserve spies did some work. This is relatively rare event, though .....

I get this message all the time, even if I have no spies at all. Having spies who are not deployed in the field is not the source of this message.

[Flinx]

Originally posted by Yolky

I have read that any spy in the reserve will help in defence, only when they are specilized for military or scientific or whatever, that is what they are only good for.

I had a scientific spy for defence and the enemy was still attacking my scientific leaders and stealing my tech. only when i bumped up my oppmeter did it stop. lower the taxes to make people happy.

Davor

Where did you read about spies having defensive abilities? The only thing I have seen is people in the forums saying that they keep spies in reserve for defensive purposes. My experience is that the oppressometer is the only thing that affects the frequency or success of spy attacks.

[Tuberski]

Originally posted by bakalov
After some time they die just from old age :-) And this is inevitable ....

I had Loknar come to help me once, he had survived 1000's of years to come help me. A few years later he died of old age!!!!!

Ridiculous.

ACK!

[bakalov]

Flinx, you can find out when your defending spies do the work by the text of the message in the sitrep. If it says "One of your operatives killed a spy belonging to ...." then this is the case .... Otherwise it says "Your security forces ..."

[Noone]

Ive found that counter spies are no where as usefull as O-metre, but that has been said about 5 times already....

Ive found that when you get a sudden spike in spy actvity its often cos uve "annoyed" the new orions, cos when they send spies i dont think anything stops them (well a slight exageration :|) and they can smash you up pretty bad.

moonmaster mentioned that having troops on a planet helps, do they? i havn't bothered to put troops on planets cos of the passive ai.

[MichaeltheGreat]

After reading this thread, I decided to play around a bit, and with Humans and corporate government, I've been able to crank the oppressometer all the way up, get more or less viable tax rates (15-17% planet, 6% empire) and waste enemy spies on a regular basis. I've had no asset losses, and no leaders assassinated (I've got some I'd actually rather keep). This is with 7 to 8 of my spies hanging around.

Previously, with the oppresometer at 5 or 6, I was getting reamed on a regular basis, and really hurting with it at 2 or 3, no matter how many spies I had sitting around, or what types.

[Dr. A. Cula]

Slightly off-topic: how do you get so many spies? I can only get 4 or 5 before they die of old age, and that's only one time, at the beginning of the game. For the rest of the game, I only have about 2 or 3 spies at one time. By the time I finish training a new one, at least one of the others has died.

And about leaders: after the 2 leaders I started the game with were assasinated, no other leader came to join me. Did this mark my empire as one where important people get killed (so nobody wants to come here anymore), or was it just bad luck?


Edit: can't spell

[gloob]

To Dracula: increase their luck by picking cunning level "dangerous". Some social techs as well as some leaders also increase spy luck.

Setting random events to high yields more leaders. I also think being a low ranked empire heightens the chance for getting leaders, despite the text "leader joins our successful empire".

Having events set to frequent produces leaders faster than they die naturally. Having bad relationships with someone, especially with the NOs, is disasterous. I played Nommo (O-meter at 7) and got my 4 leaders killed by NOs in 4 consecutive turns. After that, they blew up every gov seat I had. Every 2 turns I caught a spy, but apparently NOs can produce spies faster than that.

[MichaeltheGreat]

If you have the opressometer at 10, it's rare to non-existent that enemy spies will do anything to you, and you don't need unassigned spies at all.