Does AI Germany get some special bonus to spy-catching?

[DukofDeth]

Fired up the game with the newest patch, thought I'd try the UK. Had two agents working in Germany, building networks out of Berlin and Munich, and two in the UK on defense, waiting on opportunities as well as just in case of captures. Well, first one guy gets caught, so I send one of my reserves to get him out. Then that guy gets caught after springing the first, and so does the second guy working on the Munich network, which was almost at 100%. I get that there might be some secret bonuses for the AI in order to "challenge" the player, but wasn't this capture spamming supposed to be put to a halt? I paid for what was supposed to be an interesting addition to the game, but anytime I put agents into a major nation, I spend most of my time breaking them out of prison. So what gives? I get that there are times where the RNG God just hates anything remotely human, but this is ridiculous.

How about an option to not use the intel system, but keep the resistance system? I really don't enjoy these prison break missions, and to be quite honest, any agent who is caught ought to be done for, if only for now being known. And most prisons are not so easy to bust out of, so I don't know what we're really abstracting with this system.

I would also like to add this, as I just noticed, but as I did have two agents caught at the same moment, but it seems that I may only rescue one at a time, either limit my losses or have one automatically get killed so I can replace the fool. I just don't want to be constantly setting up the same mission, over and over and over and over [see, its monotonous].

Okay - so the one rescue mission rescued both guys, but there was nothing in the UI telling me that would happen. I still think it was too much too soon.

 

[noobermenschen]

Fired up the game with the newest patch, thought I'd try the UK. Had two agents working in Germany, building networks out of Berlin and Munich, and two in the UK on defense, waiting on opportunities as well as just in case of captures. Well, first one guy gets caught, so I send one of my reserves to get him out. Then that guy gets caught after springing the first, and so does the second guy working on the Munich network, which was almost at 100%. I get that there might be some secret bonuses for the AI in order to "challenge" the player, but wasn't this capture spamming supposed to be put to a halt? I paid for what was supposed to be an interesting addition to the game, but anytime I put agents into a major nation, I spend most of my time breaking them out of prison. So what gives? I get that there are times where the RNG God just hates anything remotely human, but this is ridiculous.

How about an option to not use the intel system, but keep the resistance system? I really don't enjoy these prison break missions, and to be quite honest, any agent who is caught ought to be done for, if only for now being known. And most prisons are not so easy to bust out of, so I don't know what we're really abstracting with this system.

I would also like to add this, as I just noticed, but as I did have two agents caught at the same moment, but it seems that I may only rescue one at a time, either limit my losses or have one automatically get killed so I can replace the fool. I just don't want to be constantly setting up the same mission, over and over and over and over [see, its monotonous].

Okay - so the one rescue mission rescued both guys, but there was nothing in the UI telling me that would happen. I still think it was too much too soon.

I have noticed my guys tend to get caught in Berlin as well. They are Maxwell Smart in Germany, but James Bond everywhere else. It could be that Germany is scripted to start building a spy agency from the start. I noticed AI Britain is quick off the mark on intel as well.

Another thing I noticed, maybe it was just a quirk, is that as USA I was catching spaiz all the time. But playing France I have yet to catch one even though I have maxed out defensive intel. I have noticed my British Ally usually has a spy working counterintel in Paris, and am wondering if the Rosbifs are catching fish in my pond and gaining the intel.

Obligatory Sterling Archer:

 

[DukofDeth]

Oddly, shit calmed down after all that. I managed to run the infiltration missions on the [German] civilian authority, the navy, their air force, and now just started the army. I am keeping a pair of agents on standby just in case, which does mean I'm wasting my potential. Both the guys who were caught building networks [not the third, caught finishing a rescue just as the second networker was caught] were double agents, one being the infamous "Popov" so maybe my fault was in using double agents, but what else were they good for?

If they were really trying for some "realism", you'd never know that your agent had been caught and turned - there would be no interruption. If they were killed or captured, you'd never know which - they'd just stop reporting in. Any spy who managed to free themselves should - well there you should be given the chance to either make them disappear on your own [as they're probably turned] or try running them a while to see who's now holding the leash, then roll them up along with the turned spy. People don't just walk out of custody like its some cheesy adventure series - spies tend to rate better security. Any country sloppy enough to lose a caught spy should not have caught that spy in the first place, and if they did anyway, then the spy is probably not worth rescuing.

They need to add the "tech" of compartmentalized information - spies don't get sent out knowing enouhg to hurt the rest of the organization. Spies were old hat by WW2, so that much should have been obvious.

 

[DukofDeth]

I did like that Archer episode!