spying/espionage

[The Ubermanlet]

Hey all im wondering on your opinions of the espionageportion of the game,

before i begin, is it possible to steal non tradable techs?

I find it to be not really that great, mostly due to the costs, im playing as Somalia in the GC setting, my econ is pretty decent thanks to oil, rubber, new industry etc, I'm about 10 years of tech behind my neibours though and i need to get more tech, so i built the really expensive intel academy facility and im sending a spy-team to kenya, and uganda, but i found that the costs of the missions were insane (540 over 45 days etc) im not sure how this cost was calculated but that nearly 30m a day, which is the equal of me producing 8 of my tanks (russians 58's) ! i don't think kenya/uganda nor the mission would cause such an insane cost mostly for not knowing what im getting or how likely i am to get it.

my ideas?

Multiple spy academies, like the industry facilities you could have mutiple spy centers (50 spies, 25 spies, 10 spies) this way you can spy earlier, also i never can even use 50 spies at once with pretty much any econ (america for instance) unless their all reconing

perhaps there should be varibles one can ingame adjust to this, (if the country likes you its easier to espionage/lower failrate, diplo setting could change the chance and possibly costs too.)

if there is a set mission cost I think both larger and smaller countries could benefit from a lower cost but perhaps a more varible failrate, and if the failrate is more standard, the costs should be adjusted, it should be fluid not a strict system

10 million a day each 10 spy groups with a 90% fail dicates that 1 should statistically come through and spy successfully.

OR

1 spy group at 10 million a day with a 90% success rate, dicates 9/10 times they can spy successfully before being caught,

Either of these are fine , but id like to know my chance (preferably a % though you could even just use a "99-80%/ very easy, 79-60%/ easy, 59-40%/ medium, 39- 20%/ hard, 19-1%/ very hard" of stealing a tech in a given country, and maybe even whichever tech im stealing perhaps you could choose a tech you wish to steal by reconing the facility? and possibly even have recon with sabotage workling in collaberation cauing more destruction? after all a good demolition is made by not just blowing up something, but blowing it up right.

that said recon is incredibly expensive for what it does, if it did more (as suggested) i could see it being a justified way of spending money even in espionage.

the cost/failrate could be varied by choosing either more expensive, higher tech year, and even based on the type (atom bomb/spacerace and military vs medical and society knowledge) thus even if a country like kenya has has a great tech like nuclear bomb production, it would still be very hard to steal, as that would abviously be well protected, vs the their standard education plan and method.

A falseflag option would be a 100% improvement if nothing else, and being able to do "inside jobs" would be a whole new level of indricate game running. is this even possible to do, if so i dont think this game has a choice but to not impliment that haha.

im not sure how intel bureaus work, besides somehow hindering the espionage, and im not sure how one calculates the spy success. that's on your end, if i knew the numnbers i'd propose more hardline suggestions

i know CB is effected by espionage if you're caught, but i feel like that it should be more consiquential to be caught stealing government secrets, perhapbs your world trade rating and treaty credibility will be lowered too as a result of being caught (if they dont already)


huge fan since 2020 goldpack, but i really hope this gets makeover.

[UrHighness]

will be nice if we can try assasinate an other ruler from an other country with a % of chance that this country invade you if they discover that you are the one who assasinate their leader.