Is there any point in spy missions other than Steal Blueprints?

[Major Malfunction]

You can farm some Hitler mana from infiltrating and get nice techs but other operations...
Cyphers are a joke, some 30 day bonus, that you easily live without without spending 10+ CIC on cypher departments with upgrades. Resistance is worthless and pre-war is there any reason to use anything but steal BP? Their value is uncomparable to other assets it seems

 

[FindFloppies]

I spend my spy time early getting collaboration governments on my possible/probable targets, so that when/if I have to take them over, I can start with 20 or 40% compliance right off the start, and have a lot less resistance to deal with. Also, in the process, I get some idea of what they're headed down in their focus trees.

YMMV.

If you think it's worthless, that's your thoughts. Why do you need everyone else to validate your thoughts?

 

[valisk]

I actually find diplomatic pressure and promote ideology missions are relatively useful

 

[guprad]

I actually find diplomatic pressure and promote ideology missions are relatively useful

I find every mission useful. I use control trade quite a bit as Germany.

 

[FindFloppies]

I actually find diplomatic pressure and promote ideology missions are relatively useful

Yes. I find those useful tools for um...persuading some more hesitant countries to join faction.

 

[valisk]

I find every mission useful. I use control trade quite a bit as Germany.

Same, and tbh I didn't like it much when I first played LaR, I even didn't bother building an agency for a few games, now however, I'm actually warming to it.

Once you realise it's not going to produce overnight results and take some long term planning then you can see what exactly is possible. In a recent game, I slowly but surely turned Iran and Iraq into democracies, and controlled their trade all the easier, whilst heavily raiding the coast near Venezuela with battlecruisers and submarines and strat bombing japans refineries, the combined effect on my poor old axis friends was quite profound

 

[guprad]

Same, and tbh I didn't like it much when I first played LaR, I even didn't bother building an agency for a few games, now however, I'm actually warming to it.

Once you realise it's not going to produce overnight results and take some long term planning then you can see what exactly is possible. In a recent game, I slowly but surely turned Iran and Iraq into democracies, and controlled their trade all the easier, whilst heavily raiding the coast near Venezuela with battlecruisers and submarines and strat bombing japans refineries, the combined effect on my poor old axis friends was quite profound

Yeah, I think some people were expecting a huge game changer or something which wasn't paradox's intent. The main force of the fighting is still navy, air and land. Espionage is more strategic and the results might not be instantly visible. It probably explains the mixed reviews on steam .

 

[podcat]

Yeah, I think some people were expecting a huge game changer or something which wasn't paradox's intent. The main force of the fighting is still navy, air and land. Espionage is more strategic and the results might not be instantly visible. It probably explains the mixed reviews on steam .

yea. Spies are a tricky subject when it comes to expectation. A lot of people immediately think of big flashy war winning stuff from movies. Killing hitler, stealing the enigma etc, but 1) that would just make it a straight up spy game. 2) not be very realistic.
Spies are a force multiplier and a way to support your other war winning endeavours. I also kinda think people arent giving enough weight to things like intel bonuses to combat and such, as well as the info (like convoy routes etc).

That said some operations could be balanced to be more universally useful I think and I'm open to feedback there

 

[NeuGemi]

I also kinda think people arent giving enough weight to things like intel bonuses to combat and such, as well as the info (like convoy routes etc).

How can you see the enemies convoy routes?

 

[micahah]

yea. Spies are a tricky subject when it comes to expectation. A lot of people immediately think of big flashy war winning stuff from movies. Killing hitler, stealing the enigma etc, but 1) that would just make it a straight up spy game. 2) not be very realistic.
Spies are a force multiplier and a way to support your other war winning endeavours. I also kinda think people arent giving enough weight to things like intel bonuses to combat and such, as well as the info (like convoy routes etc).

That said some operations could be balanced to be more universally useful I think and I'm open to feedback there

I think the main thing people are missing is the Intel ledger. I don't know if people know it is there with it being in the diplomacy screen and not the Intel/operations screen. Considering that is where a lot of the info you gain from spy's like division temps, number of divisions, number of factories, tech researched, eta.. with people not even seeing that screen they are not getting the full picture of what there spies are doing for them.

 

[noobermenschen]

How can you see the enemies convoy routes?

I think you have to get your navy intel to a high % for the target country. You can do that partly by infiltrating their navy.

 

[noobermenschen]

I think the main thing people are missing is the Intel ledger. I don't know if people know it is there with it being in the diplomacy screen and not the Intel/operations screen. Considering that is where a lot of the info you gain from spy's like division temps, number of divisions, number of factories, tech researched, eta.. with people not even seeing that screen they are not getting the full picture of what there spies are doing for them.

I tell you what my biggest intel bonanza was from capturing an enemy spy. Dude apparently had a low threshold of pain and spilled his guts.

@podcat one request would be to get a notification that I nabbed an enemy spy (unless there is a notification and I was too dense to notice it ).

 

[guprad]

@podcat one request would be to get a notification that I nabbed an enemy spy (unless there is a notification and I was too dense to notice it ).

It's in the game already on 1.9.1 beta, are you playing on beta?

 

[Sn3ipen]

@podcat one request would be to get a notification that I nabbed an enemy spy (unless there is a notification and I was too dense to notice it ).

About notifications. I want to be notified when my spies are done with their mission.

 

[Riekopo]

Yeah I agree with the OP's sentiment. It's shared by many I think. The whole system is extremely underwhelming considering how much you have to invest to do the missions. How many resources, how much time, and how many spies. There's barely any payoff to doing the missions. You can easily just ignore the whole thing the whole game. And the fact that there are literally only 4 unique/historical missions makes it worse.

 

[Joshuia.Dufree]

yea. Spies are a tricky subject when it comes to expectation. A lot of people immediately think of big flashy war winning stuff from movies. Killing hitler, stealing the enigma etc, but 1) that would just make it a straight up spy game. 2) not be very realistic.
Spies are a force multiplier and a way to support your other war winning endeavours. I also kinda think people arent giving enough weight to things like intel bonuses to combat and such, as well as the info (like convoy routes etc).

That said some operations could be balanced to be more universally useful I think and I'm open to feedback there

Personally, I think the actual bonuses are fine for the respective branches of intel and espionage; the bigger problem is the resource cost that they take.

 

[DystopianAlphaOmega]

I think you have to get your navy intel to a high % for the target country. You can do that partly by infiltrating their navy.

It’s actually civilian intel that gives you info on convoy routes.

 

[Gefallener_Held]

I do think the IC cost is too high, especially pre war. I think there also needs to be other ways for Germany to get more spies, or cap the number of spies the UK can have.

 

[Simon_9732495]

That said some operations could be balanced to be more universally useful I think and I'm open to feedback there

@podcat Please make Coordinates Strikes stronger!

See my more detailed suggestion here:
-> https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...uff-coordinated-strike-mission-a-lot.1370416/

 

[noobermenschen]

It's in the game already on 1.9.1 beta, are you playing on beta?

I am not. So @podcat is way ahead of me as usual, thank you!