Spy, Spy I tell you!

[Roq]

Now, I don't know if anyone has noticed, but other than gathering information, killing spies, and spying away nukes, spies are just about useless. Another thing you may have noticed, is that we have a lot of resources. An idea that does both of these? Spies can target resources.

For example, if I had 60 spies, which I don't, and @Elijah Mikaelsonhad zero (which he doesn't), I would be able to spy away, at max, 10% of a certain resource (aluminum, Bauxite, whatever). But for a good example, since Elijah has 60 spies, and I have like 20, and he did this on me. He may be able to spy away like 6% of my Gasoline or something (6% of zero is zero, haha), given I had 10k Gasoline, that could be like 600 Gasoline (don't @ me if that math is wrong) out of the game at the cost of like 1 million, which just so happens to be around the money the latest Gasoline price, 1621, multipled by the 600 Gasoline, would cost. Amazing, right? 

 Now, this could be a good war strat. Someone spies them, someone blockades them, and then you start ridding them of their resources. Easy. Please comment your opinions, and tell me off if this effects you in a bad way. Don't @ me. Lmao. 
 

(If you can find the original post about this, link me it so I can put it in the next edit. Thank you for being kind. I know that it exists somewhere, I haven't read it, but I know it's there.)

Edited May 28, 2019 by CitrusK

[Majima Goro]

1 minute ago, CitrusK said:

other than gathering information, killing spies, and spying away nukes, spies are just about useless

Wdym
Terrorizing civilians is OP just like spying out soldiers.

[Roq]

1 minute ago, ShadyAssassin said:

Wdym
Terrorizing civilians is OP just like spying out soldiers.

Oh no, I hath been called out. 

[Sir Scarfalot]

Spying away resources by percentage... That's really extremely powerful, since it's equivalent to an entire beige. If it's 10%, that's the same as two whole beiges!

Maybe 1% would be better for a spy operation?

[Roq]

10 minutes ago, Sir Scarfalot said:

Spying away resources by percentage... That's really extremely powerful, since it's equivalent to an entire beige. If it's 10%, that's the same as two whole beiges!

Maybe 1% would be better for a spy operation?

Good point, I truly had forgotten that with three spy attacks, that could be a good portion of resources gone within a day, on a specific nation. Good point dude, this is why you're my favorite. 

Edited May 28, 2019 by CitrusK

[Guest Elijah Mikaelson]

I would rather see Spies be able to turn the power off for two turns, or cause your steel mills to shut down, even make it that due to lack of communication you can only attack with half your air force something more.

 

[Lorhill]

6 hours ago, Elijah Mikaelson said:

I would rather see Spies be able to turn the power off for two turns, or cause your steel mills to shut down, even make it that due to lack of communication you can only attack with half your air force something more.

 

Yea I like the idea of spies being able to cause chaos in a wartime society because that seems likely imo. But your idea for spying rss sounds good just need to find the right percentage because just think two days and you lost 36% of a certain rss

[Roq]

3 hours ago, Lorhill said:

Yea I like the idea of spies being able to cause chaos in a wartime society because that seems likely imo. But your idea for spying rss sounds good just need to find the right percentage because just think two days and you lost 36% of a certain rss

Yeah yeah, as Scarf said, 1% would be a lot more reasonable. In a few days, you've lost like 9% of you resources, once you get zeroed out. So that's like a five or six day spree to get that much damage. 

[lightside]

A better idea would to make it so when spy’s target infra they have a chance to destroy a building. That would make them abit more useful. 

[Micchan]

Remove number of spies from game since with the current system they all get killed at the start of the war by who does the blitz first or by the coalition with more members and there's no way to recover

Give 1 spy operation per day to every player that has Intelligence Agency

More money = higher % of success (minimum 100k)

% of success can't go over 95%

Cost of 95% 4M

Add Advanced Intelligence Agency that allow the player to counter attack the spy operation

The AIA gives you a notification of the spy operation and you have 4 hours to counter attack

If you put more money than your enemy the spy operation will be blocked

In this way the attacker can troll the defender with a spy operation of 100k that the defender tries to block with 4M

With this system missiles and nukes are no longer protected during the first day, you can protect them with the AIA that gives you those 4 hours

Edited May 29, 2019 by Micchan

[True King]

Could also build enough nukes (or get them donated) to reach him if you can’t already & let them loose if resources get spied. Attrition for max damage and minimal loot lost.

[MonkeyDLegend]

On 5/28/2019 at 5:20 AM, CitrusK said:

spies are just about useless.

do you even use spies and do you have an IA ? 

[WISD0MTREE]

On 5/27/2019 at 11:20 PM, CitrusK said:

Now, I don't know if anyone has noticed, other than gathering information, killing spies, and spying away nukes, spies are just about useless.

Now, I don't know if anyone has noticed, other than transporting people + goods to different places and providing entertainment, cars are useless.

[Roq]

23 hours ago, WISD0MTREE said:

 Now, I don't know if anyone has noticed, other than transporting people + goods to different places and providing entertainment, cars are useless.

So are you saying to me that spies will be the game changer in a war? That those sixty spies that we have, will be able to cut down 66% of aircraft like ground units? Are they going to be able to stop the trade into a nation like a blockade? And God knows that nothing compares to aircraft. Your car analogy is off, spies aren't a car, they're a scooter that's missing a wheel. 

Edited June 6, 2019 by CitrusK

[Micchan]

13 hours ago, CitrusK said:

So are you saying to me that spies will be the game changer in a war? That those sixty spies that we have, will be able to cut down 66% of aircraft like ground units? Are they going to be able to stop the trade into a nation like a blockade? And God knows that nothing compares to aircraft. Your car analogy is off, spies aren't a car, they're a scooter that's missing a wheel. 

Spies can kill the daily plane rebuild of an upper tier nation in few minutes, looks pretty good to me

[Dio Brando]

In all wars that I have been granted some advisory or commanding role in, utilizing spies was probably favorite 'niche' thing. Right off the bat, before update you can utterly demolish the defender's spy counts if you coordinate properly and have the numbers. You can follow this exactly at update by spying away planes. I've personally turned around relatively 'even' wars by coordinating well. Around the middle tier (think 15-17 cities then), you could eliminate ~200 planes under one update (3 defensive slots). Some of the best ops I've seen in that range were killing around 100-110 planes. This may not seem like a lot, but that little edge contributes incredibly. Spying tanks is not as important, in my opinion, but around the ~17 city range you could get upwards of 2,500 tanks killed. At the second update when you've cleared the opponent's spies already, you can focus on dogfights and kill 2500-4500 tanks in the course of 3 minutes. This becomes even less effective when it comes to ships, and is basically useless when it comes to soldiers/infra.

If you haven't truly seen the importance of spies beyond killing spies, nukes, and gathering information, either you or your alliance is under-utilizing espionage significantly.

Having said that, I largely agree with the idea that spies should be given some extra functionality, but it should be done in a way that it doesn't become an immensely destabilizing mechanic; alternatively, introduction of mechanics that harm the effect spies have would make them even more 'useless', as you say. I can see a lot of strats springing up from the ability to spy away resources, so I am by and large for this suggestion.