Spy mechanics are a pain in the butt and are hardly worth it

[Crow]

Unless you gear your empire to have +4 additional envoys at the start of the game, having spy masters and trying to maintain relations with multiple empires is very difficult and isnt practical until late mid game. Even if you have the envoys to sacrifice, the fact you have to waste so much credits early game just to figure out the opponets fleetpower or maybe figure out their borders is insane. There is so much information thats robbed from you now and its infuriating. Being limited on the number of envoys until you get techs or spec into it from civics or xenophilia is mindnumbing, which I was fine previously because it made sense but now envoys are used for ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ everything now. Why isnt there a new hire-able leader for spymasters? Why is it such a pain in the ass to clear the fog of war? Why would I burn so much energy credits to get minimal intel gain? Should there be buildings to help with encryption/decryption or spymasters instead of relying on rng tech? This update makes me really upset with how it works.

[SkiRich]

Interesting thought ... Having a building like a CIA with spymasters employed. Thats much better than using envoys.

[RodHull]

I like the spy stuff, I would say I think they should be separate entities to envoys though who already have many uses themselves since federation.

[Crow]

Originally posted by RodHull:

I like the spy stuff, I would say I think they should be separate entities to envoys though who already have many uses themselves since federation.

I strongly believe there should be a building that provides encrypt/decryption values and maybe provide spymasters for espionage and possibly assisting with cost or upkeeping spycellls in foreign countries

the fact they consume envoys ontop of it being a tech based mechanic is very annoying. Envoys are already sparse as it is, and making them be used to maintain intel ontop of their multiple other jobs makes them very inflexible.

[Arakuel]

You dont need to invest energy to clear fog of war, spymaster need just time for that.
If you got open borders, just send science ship to clear it for you. Or maybe you got white peace and open borders from it, then again science ship goes in...
Having comercial pact removes fog of war too...
I mostly dont bother with spies. Extorting favor could be useful but its much easier to dump excess resourcess in trade for them.

[RodHull]

Originally posted by Crow:

Originally posted by RodHull:

I like the spy stuff, I would say I think they should be separate entities to envoys though who already have many uses themselves since federation.

I strongly believe there should be a building that provides encrypt/decryption values and maybe provide spymasters for espionage and possibly assisting with cost or upkeeping spycellls in foreign countries

the fact they consume envoys ontop of it being a tech based mechanic is very annoying. Envoys are already sparse as it is, and making them be used to maintain intel ontop of their multiple other jobs makes them very inflexible.

Another potentially easier fix (though your idea is sound) is have sleeper cells be able to operate on their own when you pull your spy out. So that way you set up the network, pull your spy then use your embedded assets to do the various tasks.