agents

[markgiwrgos]

After 1980 my agent count drops to a crawl and i end up with an agent deficit.My MSS budget is 14.Should i increase the budget or focus on science?

[chankljp]

I think that at some point, directly increasing MSS funding will start giving you a diminishing return of how much agents you get out of your investments, and you will need to counteract this by researching intelligence related technologies. Perhaps as a way to reflect that just because you hire more spies and operatives, they will not be able to effectively do their jobs if they don't have the tools needed to compete against their KGB/CIA counterparts.

Also, make sure that your standards of living isn't below 20, otherwise China would be so poor to the point that agents couldn't work effectively either.

[Roland the Thompson Gunner]

Agent count usually drops because of "Backward economy" modifier which gives -1 agents and income (this modifier appears in 1980). To avoid this make sure you have no negative modifiers for your agriculture and industry (research techs which erase this modifiers). Also, your industry, agriculture and services must be above 40 and corruption at low levels (in one of my games "Backward economy" disappeared at 25 corruption, but usually it must be lower than 10). Also, big investments in MSS usually don't have much effect, but you can invest some just to avoid big deficit of agents.

[Cally]

Several factors cause this:
1. You have more trade deals. You are losing agents due to 'globalization'. You can see it in the view tab.
2. You are supporting a certain party in the doctrine screen. This costs agents and you should stop after a while.
3. You are under an embargo. This is a killer in the early game. Keep someone in the MFA role who can juggle whether the US or USSR likes you, unless you are going for an all left-wing or all liberal playthrough.
4. You are suffering a bad status like 'backward economy'. Invest more in your economy, quickly.
5. It's getting to the late game and you just naturally get less agents. (A guess.)
6. You liberalized your laws regarding fighting dissent and religion. (A guess.)

To compensate, spend more in MSS, and research the army techs with the "spy" focus, but only do that after you research enough agriculture/industry to avoid the backward economy status. If that doesn't work, just start a new game and be very choosy with who you trade with. You don't, technically speaking, need to trade with the entire world, even as a reformer.

[markgiwrgos]

I won the game i was playing because i rushed the spy tech and i was at a 2.5 surplus in 1983 but i missed many of the cool events.BTW you were right guys i had bad economy.I will take your advice in the next game.Thanks a lot

[Gakuen Babysitter]

In the case of MFA, someone who is not westophilic is helpful to maintain good relations with USSR and USA. Wang Dongxing, Li Xiannian, Deng Xiaoping, Hu Yaobang are good MFA candidates.