7/13/2015 - Espionage Update

[Alex]

Alright everyone, here's an update that I'm expecting to receive a lot of flak for, but I do believe this is going to benefit the game overall, and my intentions are truly in the spirit of what's best for the game. This change is not a result of any group of players whining, it's a compromise between several groups of players, some with very high spy counts and others with lower spy counts. I'll detail each change made, and give you the reasoning behind why it was made.

 

Also, as a sidenote, I understand this is a big change to a significant game mechanics. I have no intention or desire to make big changes like this to other aspects of the game. The espionage system is one that was flawed and needed a workover, and this change was made after weeks upon weeks of deliberation between myself and players. At the end of the day, I am the one who made this change, and many of these changes were my own original ideas, not the result of any one individual or group.

 

Change #1 - Spies Removed from the Score Formula

 

Spies have never been huge factors in nation score, and now they're even less. Also, to increase spy anonymity, they've been reduced from the formula. With the maximum score contribution from spies now being 6, it seemed better to just remove them altogether.

 

Change #2 - Spies Have Been Capped at 50

 

The spy system was built around people having tens of spies, not hundreds. This change is what I think will be best for the long-term spy system and the game as a whole. The espionage system does not use resources, it's based a lot around how much money you can throw at it. In this aspect, bigger nations have a huge advantage, as they can obviously spend more money on spies. They will still retain an advantage, however their will no longer be any "untouchable" nations with hundreds of spies. This will make spying more effective for everyone across the board, while still maintaining Espionage as a competitive system.

 

Change #3 - Spies Over 50 Have Been Refunded at $135,200 Each

 

To simply cap spies and remove all of them over 50 would be wholly unfair to nations that have invested oodles of time and money into building and maintain large spy forces. For this reason, they've been refunded at a very fair rate, $135,200 each. That's $50,000 for the cost to train each spy, plus $85,200 as compensation for upkeep costs. That's 35.5 days of upkeep, which is a considerable amount. Not to mention that anyone who had any used their spies already likely got their money's worth by using them as a deterrent to attacks, or for offensive operations.

 

Change #4 - Spy Information Has Been Hidden

 

The number of spies, spies killed, and spy casualties has been removed from your nation and API pages (unless you're viewing your own nation). This is to retain more spy anonymity, and make them a less-known figure and more of an enigma.

 

Change #5 - Spy Assassination Operations Are Now Capped at 25% of the Defender's Spies + 4

 

This is a change from 50% + 4, in an effort to keep your hard-earned spies from being wiped out all at once. Previously, a larger cap was necessary because people with hundreds of spies were losing nominal amounts. The lower cap is now retained to keep someone from utterly wiping out their opponent's spies in a few attacks.

 

Change #6 - Central Intelligence Agency National Project Buff

 

The CIA Project is not one that has seen a lot of purchases. It has now been buffed to also increase your spy cap to 60, which should make it a more viable and useful national project. True "spy gurus" will likely go after this project to maintain higher spy counts and also use the extra operation per day that it provides.

 

Change #7 - Espionage Operation Costs Have Been Slashed by $5,000/spy

 

Previously, it costed you at least $10,000 per spy in your Espionage operations. That amount has been reduced by half to $5,000/operation to accommodate the influx of espionage system users. The safety level of your operation modifies the cost, so this doesn't mean a flat 50% reduction in price across the board, but for "Quick and Dirty" operations, it does.

 

Change #8 - Results Per Page Setting

 

This is unrelated to the Espionage changes, but I've added a setting available on your Account page to allow you to set the default number of rows that are displayed on various search pages throughout the game. It is currently defaulted to 15, but you can change it to anything between 5 and 50. This is for your convenience.

 

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Alright, like I said, I'm expecting a lot of disapproval and flak, especially from people that had a lot of spies and think they're being specifically targeted by this update. I understand how you feel, and why you think this update is about everyone else complaining about how "it wasn't fair" that you had an advantage, when you had spent the time and money to build that advantage.

 

I promise you [those nations that lost a lot of spies] that this change was not about that. It's not about making it "fair" for everyone, it's about making a better spy system that will last for the game, and not have major issues and need fixing in the future. Like I said earlier, big nations will still have an advantage.

 

One thing that I should note that I did not change is the Spy Range. The Spy Range is still in effect and has not been changed.

 

That about wraps it up for the update. Go ahead and post your feedback, and try not to be too mean about it. Constructive criticism is always welcome, being a !@$% is not.

 

EDIT: A couple of other tidbits - on the Espionage page, Spy Odds are now fuzzed so that you don't know exactly what your odds are and can't in turn calculate how many spies your opponent has.

 

Also, Gather Intelligence operations now reveal how many spies your opponent has.

[LordRahl2]

Did you give any consideration to removing the module completely?

[Speaker Faris Wheeler]

o/ Sheepy

[Greatnate]

Change #8 - Results Per Page Setting

 

This is unrelated to the Espionage changes, but I've added a setting available on your Account page to allow you to set the default number of rows that are displayed on various search pages throughout the game. It is currently defaulted to 15, but you can change it to anything between 5 and 50. This is for your convenience.

 

All spy drama aside, this is really nice.

[Ren]

Might as well remove the spy leaderboards too.

[Alex]

Did you give any consideration to removing the module completely?

 

If you're one of those people who thinks that spies are now worthless, I guess what I'd recommend is that you just ignore that part of the game. Just because you don't think something, doesn't mean you have to take it away from everyone else.

 

For example, if you didn't like the Factbook change, and suggested I just remove it entirely because you won't use it, that would just be silly, wouldn't it? Not everyone uses Factbooks, but that doesn't make them worthless. They're very fun, useful parts of the game for many players.

 

Furthermore, this change isn't about making less people use spies, it's about getting more people to use them. Instead of a small percentage of players with large spy counts being the only ones that use spies, they're more applicable and useful for all players. I think that, in itself, is pretty neat.

Might as well remove the spy leaderboards too.

 

Yes, I will remove them as an option on the Leaderboards. Thanks.

[Hooves]

Oh hey I can still see what my odds are against people.

[LordRahl2]

If you're one of those people who thinks that spies are now worthless, I guess what I'd recommend is that you just ignore that part of the game. Just because you don't think something, doesn't mean you have to take it away from everyone else.

 

For example, if you didn't like the Factbook change, and suggested I just remove it entirely because you won't use it, that would just be silly, wouldn't it? Not everyone uses Factbooks, but that doesn't make them worthless. They're very fun, useful parts of the game for many players.

 

Furthermore, this change isn't about making less people use spies, it's about getting more people to use them. Instead of a small percentage of players with large spy counts being the only ones that use spies, they're more applicable and useful for all players. I think that, in itself, is pretty neat.

 

Wow.  Well if that is how you think I meant it...

[Alex]

Oh hey I can still see what my odds are against people.

 

Yes, you can. I'm aware that that means you can indirectly see how many spies your opponent has. However, this is a minor thing, and I'm working on coming up with a solution to the issue. I don't want to get rid of spy odds, but I also don't want to show how many spies your opponent has.

It may come down to some type of "fuzzing" the odds, so that you don't have an exact idea but you might have a clue on your chances.

[Phiney]

Yes, you can. I'm aware that that means you can indirectly see how many spies your opponent has. However, this is a minor thing, and I'm working on coming up with a solution to the issue. I don't want to get rid of spy odds, but I also don't want to show how many spies your opponent has.

It may come down to some type of "fuzzing" the odds, so that you don't have an exact idea but you might have a clue on your chances.

Yeah I'd like to see a range of plus and minus 5 or 10 added to the backend where a random number is picked from that range and used with a tilde on the end. The range isn't actually used, it's just for ubfuscating the odds to the user.

[T Servo]

This is annoying.

[Rozalia]

To be nice. At the very least the spy range is still intact though I feel naturally this will be the next point targeted considering it is pretty much all that is left.

 

I don't like the narrative of people with high spy count being the only users though or having an unfair advantage. I had a high spy count which was only going to run higher, but that wasn't because I wanted to abuse that fact on people. It was solely so I was "untouchable" even in an outnumbered situation... now the side with less numbers will just get wrecked which favours the big alliances who already dominate in every other aspect already. Is that right? Wrong? Well considering I'd be feeding money into the shredder I think I'd have deserved that... but that doesn't really matter now as it is now done. 

[Alataq]

This is annoying.

Great imput. Really helpful.

____________________

 

Really love this update. o/ Sheepy

[MRBOOTY]

 

 

Change #8 - Results Per Page Setting

 

This is unrelated to the Espionage changes, but I've added a setting available on your Account page to allow you to set the default number of rows that are displayed on various search pages throughout the game. It is currently defaulted to 15, but you can change it to anything between 5 and 50. This is for your convenience.

 

--

Oh my God best change ever.

[Alex]

Alright, I've made an update to spy odds so that they're fuzzed. That should now make spy counts completely "hidden". I've also made it so a "Gather Intelligence" operation tells you how many spies your opponent has.

[Clarke]

Great imput. Really helpful.

____________________

 

Really love this update. o/ Sheepy

I'm not sure what you're trying to say, it's not like his opinion/thoughts mattered even if they were constructive. 

The change has happened is going to stay this way, the community has no say so best to show your disdain in as little words as possible. 

[Alataq]

I'm not sure what you're trying to say, it's not like his opinion/thoughts mattered even if they were constructive. 

 

Just saying "this is annoying" isn't helpful to what he doesn't like. 

[Yosodog]

Alright, I've made an update to spy odds so that they're fuzzed. That should now make spy counts completely "hidden". I've also made it so a "Gather Intelligence" operation tells you how many spies your opponent has.

 

God damn it. I was just making a calculator to determine how many spies someone had.

 

Anyway, I like the update and the decision to keep the spy range.

[Clarke]

Just saying "this is annoying" isn't helpful to what he doesn't like. 

Obviously its most likely change #2 since all the rest are minor in comparison. 

[Conroy]

Furthermore, this change isn't about making less people use spies, it's about getting more people to use them. Instead of a small percentage of players with large spy counts being the only ones that use spies, they're more applicable and useful for all players. I think that, in itself, is pretty neat.

That's obviously what you're attempting do, but the opposite will now happen. All that will happen now is more people will buy spies till they get 50 and never touch them again, because they are no longer applicable or useful in anyway other than defense. Unless you now reduce spy op costs the system is now forever broken.

Edited July 14, 2015 by Conroy

[LordRahl2]

Well I asked a simple question and got jumped on.

[Alex]

That's obviously what you're attempting do, but the opposite will now happen. All that will happen now is more people will buy spies till they get 50 and never touch them again, because they are no longer applicable or useful in anyway other than defense. Unless you now reduce spy op costs the system is now forever broken.

 

I'm not sure if you read the update, but I already reduced them by half. It's now $5,000/spy instead of $10,000.

[Goldie]

Can I default to search for 130, because that would be really convenient.

[Alex]

Well I asked a simple question and got jumped on.

 

I just answered your question.

 

I assume you meant why didn't I remove spies from the game entirely? And I replied as to why I didn't.

Can I default to search for 130, because that would be really convenient.

 

Nope, it's set at a cap of 50 to decrease server load. You really wouldn't want 130 for every single result, would you?

[LordRahl2]

I asked if you considered it.