I beg to differ. It would be frickin' awesome to have different governments, laws etc giving different results when subjected to enemy clandestine actions.
That nice Democratic federation might see themselves forced to enact some draconian edicts and laws, at the outrage of factions and pops. In order to combat the scheming or outright sabotage by the shapeshifter-aliens whom they're at a cold war with. Whereas the xenophobic tyrannical closed empire might have less issues with foreign spies but would be full of resentful dissidents ready to work as double-agents.
Or your tall-and-proud empires major chokepoint starfort suddenly rebooting for an update due to carefully laid spy-actions, just as the enemy fleet approaches.
Or why not "borrow" a espionage action from HOI4 and let well established electronic warfare and spies create 'phantom fleets' luring your sensors to think a strikeforce is amassing in a system where there in reality is nothing etc. When I jump into system with my battlefleet and realize it's just a ruse by the AI I would be thrilled (and immediately put more spending into my counter intelligence).
Or why not shield resources, tech-level and planets real worth from prying eyes as to make you less of a tempting target.
PDS could tie espionage into primitives and uplifting as well using the same mechanics for infiltrating and abducting Pre-FTLs. Or maybe even really shady stuff. Like on a planet your trying to uplift which has already been secretly infiltrated by your enemies now feeding them information from hidden spy-rings.
Oof, we definitely want to play different games. Half of these would be enough to make me rage quit on their own.
Although I do love the idea of phantom fleets and hiding information like resources, tech levels, what you've built and where. Manipulating and gathering information, then being able to make better decisions based on that information, is the kind of espionage system I want.
Instead of sabotage missions, I want missions to make the enemy think we're far more powerful than we are so that our tiny empire registers as "Superior" to theirs. Or make them think we're wealthier than we are, so that rich empires sign trade deals with us. Or missions to find out their tech levels and fleet composition, with options to fast-refit my own fleet to counter theirs if need be. Or missions to find their anchorages, trade bases and alloy worlds, and to hide my own. (Admittedly the chokepoint system makes it tougher for that last to matter, but still.)
The one sabotage-like system that I'd want would be ways to send out false information. Not just a generic "RNG, you lose 50 points of opinion! Ha!" But basically I'd like the ability to generate false diplomatic pop-ups. Send an insult from another empire, or make it look like Empire A has taken a hostile stance to Empire B. Generate a false alert that two empires have signed a defensive pact, or a false alert that two empires have
broken their defensive pact.
None of this would actively do anything to other empires. It would all be based on the same theme of having better information. Either I've gathered information that lets me make better decisions, or I've put out bad information that causes other empires to make worse ones.
I would know that a given defensive pact still exists, but my spies have convinced other empires that it fell apart. They then decide whether or not to start a war without knowing who they're really attacking. Or the opposite.
I would know that I don't have a defensive pact with that fallen empire, but maybe my spies are just that good and an aggressive neighbor thinks that attacking me means attacking a fallen emp.
None of it would be an RNG troll, because you're still making the decisions. You know that there's always the chance that your information is wrong, and have to rely on your own spy network to get it right. If an insult alert pops up, you know it might be a false flag and need to react accordingly. Is that empire on your border
actually aggressive, or is this a trick? If you don't respond you risk being out of position when they attack. If you do respond you risk being the one who started the hostilities.
Now, it's true that for the AI this would all be RNG. I start a mission and, almost certainly, the AI processes it as a percent-chance of success based on its personality, relationships and the strength of its spy network. I'm completely fine with that. That's how the AI processes information. But from a player's point of view this wouldn't be an RNG troll. It would be changing and manipulating the information with which I and other empires make decisions.
And the reason I'm actually excited about this is that Stellaris really does seem like a game that has the potential for this to work, more so than other strategy games I've seen.