Some of these suggestions come from my post in an earlier thread, however the thread was not in the suggestions forum, and I've developed my suggestions slightly more.
Rationale: Spy vs Spy... ahem... diplomat.. (the core idea)
Idea Groups in EU4 - like ideas in EU3 - are there to encourage or enable different strategies. The issue I have with Espionage ideas right now is that the idea group doesn't provide a compelling use-case; why would I prefer espionage ideas over some other ideas?
Personally, I would like to see Espionage ideas as an alternative to investing in combat ideas - an attractive option for a lesser power that is unlikely to ever match a major land power.
I would like Espionage ideas to be useful tools in winning a diplomatic struggle - to shape the diplomatic landscape for or against a particular nation. It would be a struggle that depended on the use of diplomats against each other, with the number and efficacy of the diplomats determining the number and success of operations.
In this spirit, I don't like the new rule preventing one from starting a new covert operation for five years after a previous one was discovered. I appreciate that spamming covert operations is not something Paradox wants to encourage considering how dangerous it can be when combined with progressing revolts, but I feel the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction - the current system paralyses advanced espionage and espionage ideas.
New Actions: Discrediting a Casus Belli (CB) - enabled through espionage ideas.
I think a useful addition to Espionage ideas would be allowing the player (or the AI) to erase an individual CB. This would take up a diplomat, and take time, but it would allow the player/AI to complicate the process of declaring war. A minor power under threat from it's neighbours would have a way to defend itself through its diplomats rather than through its inferior armies and navies (and inferior alliances in many cases).
I think only two types of CB ought be discreditable:
I imagine one could have a 'Discredit Territorial Claims' button in the 'Covert Actions' section. You would then have to select the correct territory of yours with the objectionable claim, and the specific nation that had the claim. The action would use a diplomat, and be quicker if the provincial (and national) spy defences were strong and the opposing diplomat's spy offence was weak.
My feelings about the 'Trade Conflict' CB is similar to that 'Conquest' CB generated by a claim, except that one would attack the CB directly rather than a territorial claim, and do so through a 'Discredit Trade Conflict' button.
Discrediting a CB: Prevention is better than a cure
It would be nice to be able to prevent a territorial claim or trade conflict CB before it was completed.
As the game stands now, a player is notified by 'the captain of the guard' when an agent is been caught fabricating a claim (or justifying a Trade conflict). The offending country gets an AE penalty, but the process continues and there's nothing the victim can do about it.
It might be nice if the "Discredit Territorial Claim" (or Trade Conflict) action (or something similar) could be used to prevent claim or CB being fabricated as it happened. The 'captain of the guard' notification would then serve as a warning to begin counter operations. The better one's spy defence, the more likely the warning would be early in the fabrication process. If the notification was soon enough, and one's spy defence strong enough one might thwart the fabrication process entirely - so long as one specified the right country doing the fabricating. The country seeking to fabricate a claim would be deprived of even a short window of time in which to declare war using the CB.
It would be a form of diplomatic defence.
Supporting Rebels & Sowing Unrest
A favourite gripe about the espionage system is that the support rebels mechanic is too expensive. I agree, though I admit there are multiple concerns to take into account. My understanding is that the more provinces one tries to support rebels in, the more expensive it becomes even if some of those provinces have -10 unrest and will never actually contribute to the rebellion. Right now this means supporting rebels is often prohibitive compared to the cost, and also compared to the alternative, sowing discontent, which is free and adds +3 revolt risk nation-wide so long as one has Espionage ideas.
I would like to see the 'cost-per-province' model refurbished for the 'support rebels' option so one only supports rebels in provinces that already have positive unrest. This would be simultaneously less expensive, but only a little less effective.
However, I think the cost of supporting rebels should be similar to the cost of supporting a non-mercenary army (one isn't even supporting a professional army but rather angry volunteers), so the 'cost per province' should be in proportion to the number of soldiers it will contribute, and the cost of raising unrest might be quite low in general.
Once the rebels rise, I think the total being paid should be in proportion to the number of regiments - assuming the regiments replenish their numbers - with higher funding dictating how fast those numbers actually replenish.
As for 'sowing unrest', I think it should cost money, and I think the amount of unrest ( and loss of tradition) generated ought to be in proportion to the amount spent. In effect, I feel that sowing unrest ought to take on some of the functions of 'support rebels'. I think that the 'price of unrest' still ought to be quite low.
The real risk in conducting these actions should be getting detected and then thwarted.
New Actions: Expose Foreign Agitators and Foreign Rebel Supporters- available to everyone
Basically, I think it would be interesting if your 'captain of the guard' detected foreign agents form a particular country 'sowing discontent' or 'supporting rebels' and then the player had to divert a diplomat to thwart these actions - to dismantle a network of agitators or rebels.
The detection chances would again depend on spy offence vs. spy defence, as would the chance each month of a diplomat foiling the hostile covert action. Such chances would also depend on knowing which country was conducting the operation, as it is often possible to deduce one is being victimised by a covert action, but not know the source (but an educated guess might help in the absence of detection).
Successfully 'Exposing Foreign Agitators' could result in expelling the foreign diplomat, receiving a small bump in legitimacy/republican tradition, (some of the patsies get executed) and a reduction (by 3?) in unrest for the next year - be it foreign-inspired or not. In effect, conducting a 'sow unrest' operation that failed quickly could leave a realm more stable.
The spy could be back soon after, but with the increase in legitimacy and reduction in unrest, the spy's efforts would still be frustrated.
Likewise, successfully 'Exposing Foreign Rebel Supporters' could have a frustrating result on rebel progression. Once an action was thwarted by a diplomat, the progression of the rebel faction could be set back to zero (or something rather low) - saving the player military points. The unrest might still be there, but the time till the rebels rose up again would be very long (the leading conspirators caught, their cause discredited, their arms confiscated, their foreign contacts hounded out of the cities... etc.).
Conclusion
Anyway, I've outlined some rather extensive ideas. There might be better, simpler ideas out there (that are simpler to program). This is what I've got for now. I hope it was interesting. The main current through all of this is about having the player responsible for espionage defence and coupling that with diplomat management. Similar principles could be applied to the 'sabotage reputation' and 'infiltrate administration' actions. Counter-intelligence could be an active role for the player rather than a passive one - requiring valuable time from agents and making Spy defence (and through competition, Spy offence) much more of a priority. In the right context, it might make Espionage ideas look attractive.
Rationale: Spy vs Spy... ahem... diplomat.. (the core idea)
Idea Groups in EU4 - like ideas in EU3 - are there to encourage or enable different strategies. The issue I have with Espionage ideas right now is that the idea group doesn't provide a compelling use-case; why would I prefer espionage ideas over some other ideas?
Personally, I would like to see Espionage ideas as an alternative to investing in combat ideas - an attractive option for a lesser power that is unlikely to ever match a major land power.
I would like Espionage ideas to be useful tools in winning a diplomatic struggle - to shape the diplomatic landscape for or against a particular nation. It would be a struggle that depended on the use of diplomats against each other, with the number and efficacy of the diplomats determining the number and success of operations.
In this spirit, I don't like the new rule preventing one from starting a new covert operation for five years after a previous one was discovered. I appreciate that spamming covert operations is not something Paradox wants to encourage considering how dangerous it can be when combined with progressing revolts, but I feel the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction - the current system paralyses advanced espionage and espionage ideas.
New Actions: Discrediting a Casus Belli (CB) - enabled through espionage ideas.
I think a useful addition to Espionage ideas would be allowing the player (or the AI) to erase an individual CB. This would take up a diplomat, and take time, but it would allow the player/AI to complicate the process of declaring war. A minor power under threat from it's neighbours would have a way to defend itself through its diplomats rather than through its inferior armies and navies (and inferior alliances in many cases).
I think only two types of CB ought be discreditable:
- Claims on your provinces (fabricated or not) - "Discredit Territorial Claims"
- Trade conflict (of the sort that have to be fabricated) - "Discredit Trade Conflict"
I imagine one could have a 'Discredit Territorial Claims' button in the 'Covert Actions' section. You would then have to select the correct territory of yours with the objectionable claim, and the specific nation that had the claim. The action would use a diplomat, and be quicker if the provincial (and national) spy defences were strong and the opposing diplomat's spy offence was weak.
My feelings about the 'Trade Conflict' CB is similar to that 'Conquest' CB generated by a claim, except that one would attack the CB directly rather than a territorial claim, and do so through a 'Discredit Trade Conflict' button.
Discrediting a CB: Prevention is better than a cure
It would be nice to be able to prevent a territorial claim or trade conflict CB before it was completed.
As the game stands now, a player is notified by 'the captain of the guard' when an agent is been caught fabricating a claim (or justifying a Trade conflict). The offending country gets an AE penalty, but the process continues and there's nothing the victim can do about it.
It might be nice if the "Discredit Territorial Claim" (or Trade Conflict) action (or something similar) could be used to prevent claim or CB being fabricated as it happened. The 'captain of the guard' notification would then serve as a warning to begin counter operations. The better one's spy defence, the more likely the warning would be early in the fabrication process. If the notification was soon enough, and one's spy defence strong enough one might thwart the fabrication process entirely - so long as one specified the right country doing the fabricating. The country seeking to fabricate a claim would be deprived of even a short window of time in which to declare war using the CB.
It would be a form of diplomatic defence.
Supporting Rebels & Sowing Unrest
A favourite gripe about the espionage system is that the support rebels mechanic is too expensive. I agree, though I admit there are multiple concerns to take into account. My understanding is that the more provinces one tries to support rebels in, the more expensive it becomes even if some of those provinces have -10 unrest and will never actually contribute to the rebellion. Right now this means supporting rebels is often prohibitive compared to the cost, and also compared to the alternative, sowing discontent, which is free and adds +3 revolt risk nation-wide so long as one has Espionage ideas.
I would like to see the 'cost-per-province' model refurbished for the 'support rebels' option so one only supports rebels in provinces that already have positive unrest. This would be simultaneously less expensive, but only a little less effective.
However, I think the cost of supporting rebels should be similar to the cost of supporting a non-mercenary army (one isn't even supporting a professional army but rather angry volunteers), so the 'cost per province' should be in proportion to the number of soldiers it will contribute, and the cost of raising unrest might be quite low in general.
Once the rebels rise, I think the total being paid should be in proportion to the number of regiments - assuming the regiments replenish their numbers - with higher funding dictating how fast those numbers actually replenish.
As for 'sowing unrest', I think it should cost money, and I think the amount of unrest ( and loss of tradition) generated ought to be in proportion to the amount spent. In effect, I feel that sowing unrest ought to take on some of the functions of 'support rebels'. I think that the 'price of unrest' still ought to be quite low.
The real risk in conducting these actions should be getting detected and then thwarted.
New Actions: Expose Foreign Agitators and Foreign Rebel Supporters- available to everyone
Basically, I think it would be interesting if your 'captain of the guard' detected foreign agents form a particular country 'sowing discontent' or 'supporting rebels' and then the player had to divert a diplomat to thwart these actions - to dismantle a network of agitators or rebels.
The detection chances would again depend on spy offence vs. spy defence, as would the chance each month of a diplomat foiling the hostile covert action. Such chances would also depend on knowing which country was conducting the operation, as it is often possible to deduce one is being victimised by a covert action, but not know the source (but an educated guess might help in the absence of detection).
Successfully 'Exposing Foreign Agitators' could result in expelling the foreign diplomat, receiving a small bump in legitimacy/republican tradition, (some of the patsies get executed) and a reduction (by 3?) in unrest for the next year - be it foreign-inspired or not. In effect, conducting a 'sow unrest' operation that failed quickly could leave a realm more stable.
The spy could be back soon after, but with the increase in legitimacy and reduction in unrest, the spy's efforts would still be frustrated.
Likewise, successfully 'Exposing Foreign Rebel Supporters' could have a frustrating result on rebel progression. Once an action was thwarted by a diplomat, the progression of the rebel faction could be set back to zero (or something rather low) - saving the player military points. The unrest might still be there, but the time till the rebels rose up again would be very long (the leading conspirators caught, their cause discredited, their arms confiscated, their foreign contacts hounded out of the cities... etc.).
Conclusion
Anyway, I've outlined some rather extensive ideas. There might be better, simpler ideas out there (that are simpler to program). This is what I've got for now. I hope it was interesting. The main current through all of this is about having the player responsible for espionage defence and coupling that with diplomat management. Similar principles could be applied to the 'sabotage reputation' and 'infiltrate administration' actions. Counter-intelligence could be an active role for the player rather than a passive one - requiring valuable time from agents and making Spy defence (and through competition, Spy offence) much more of a priority. In the right context, it might make Espionage ideas look attractive.
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