RTR VII Feature highlight: Spies, informers, conspirators and traitors

[Muizer]

Spies, informers, conspirators and traitors
In this thread we will explain the various roles spies can fulfill in RTR VII. In our timeframe, the capture of a besieged cities tended succumt to starvation and treachery more often than assaults. Without taking away the fun of taking settlements by storm, the role of treason is given a higher profile in RTR VII and spies are instrumental in this regard. Spies still fulfill all roles that you are familiar with, but VII introduces several special abilities.

The home town as basis of operations
For easy identification, spies have the town they were recruited in as part of their name. If you want to make use of a spy's special abilities, this town is their basis of operations.

Informers
The informer is a locally recruited spy. In other words, a spy currently residing in his home town. Informers have superior spying skills (subterfuge). As long as he returns to his home town at the end of his turn, the informer trait is maintained. In any other case, the trait is lost. It will not be regained until he once again ends a turn in his home town.

Conspirators
If you manage to infiltrate a spy with the informer trait into an enemy settlement, he will become a conspirator instead. As the informer trait is lost if a spy ends outside his home town it follows you can only obtain a conspirator by moving him in a single turn from his home town into the enemy settlement. While not as skilled as an informer, the conspirator still enjoys considerable subterfuge benefits. The conspirator may open the gates to your besieging armies of course, but that is not the only reason to plant a conspirator.

Traitors
When you capture a settlement you will be confronted with considerable unrest. It is your task to guide the settlement through a period of transition (see the thread about conquest). A couple of turns after you capture the town, the conspirator will reveal himself to the traitor he is. The traitor will substantially reduce the period of transition and thus increase your chances of pacifying the town. If the base-level of unrest (distance to capital, culture penalty) is already high, his role may prove to be vital.

Example [reference to image]
Here I have recruited a spy in Arretium. As you can see, he has both a trait [1.1] and a name [1.2] identifying him as a native of this town. As he is currently residing in his home town, he also has the "informer" trait [1.3] which confers a considerable subterfuge bonus [1.4].
The barbarian town of Bononia is within reach of my informer. Having infiltrated the town, the spy obtains the "conspirator" trait [2.1] the next turn.
Having captured the town, a few turns later the trait "traitor" appears [3.1] in the spies' character scroll. This has an immediate and substantial effect on the speed with which the transition is completed [4.1]

[MannybeingManny]

Ah, so your conspirator is a front-line agent - from a settlement already under control, within one turn into the next settlement you wish to conquer.

[evb]

Can you add capture scenarios?

1. Frontal assault- scaling the walls, battering the gates.
2. Trojan Horse- whether it is an informer or a secret opening discovered (in which case you may spawn one unit inside the walls- like an immediate sap).
3. The occupants fight back.
4. The occupants starve into submission.
5. The occupants are plagued into submission.
6. The occupants negotiate terms.
7. The occupants commit suicide (and you do not know it. May be accompanied by a note).
8. The occupants flee- only if they have escape hatches.
9. The occupants greet the incoming army with open arms (maybe even after inviting them).

One annoying thing is that plague is not calculated. If food can be stored- plague is a big penalty (on both sides).

Another annoying thing- you know how long the settlement will last. That sucks. Can you hide that?
And have several different criteria to how long they last (if they trade food goods they will keep less of them in store, or have a warehouse building) so it won't be obvious.

Also, could you add a gauge to tell you how much you spend per-month on repairing buildings (and other things like paying for keeping food supplies). If you won't pay enough- the buildings start to deteriorate.

In preparation to siege battles you can also invest in escape hatches (thus running away without being hurt) or supply tunnels (and not run out of supplies). But this can be a double edge sword, as the enemy army may find out (you have a gauge of how much you search for hatches- the more you do so the more the men are tired) and charge through there.

Last two things- have a half building represent half of a building: If the market is half gone- it has half of it's facilities still standing! It is by no means gone.
Second- armies on the move should charge extra for distance from the nearest road/city. One MOD already has a special siege fee. It should be made to represent the size of the army.

Cheers,
Evb.

[MasterOfThessus]

Welcome to the forums!

Your idaes are all well and thought thru, but I'm sorry to say they are all hard-coded

[evb]

What does that mean?
You have them already?

[Finn]

No,it means certain game files can not be altered-hence the term "hardcoded"

[evb]

No way around it?
This is OUR property, you know...

[cherryfunk]

Have you ever played RTW before evb? These features would be great but are impossible with this game engine, no mod can add them...

[evb]

I had played, but I have no knowledge of the system.
For me it's all up to changes...

[Sphere]

No way around it?
This is OUR property, you know...

Alas this is not how copyright works. Cracking and then distributing hardcode is illegal (though if crack it and keep it to just to your purchased copy I think it is legal).

[Sourblood]

A bit of tweaking is in order concerning spies I think. Playing as the Attalids, if I recruit a spy in Pergamon he can't reach any settlement to the north in just one move.

It would be much more useful if the spy kept his Informer status as long as he stays in his home region. Is this possible?

[-Stormrage-]

This is a nice idea but i dont think its working for me, i put my spartan spy in sparta one turn, next turn i moved him to a town or something, he didnt get any trait while in sparta, and no trait while in the town. He just has Superior subterfuge.

Note, Sometimes i forget to start the script for one turn then the next turn i start it, does this cause errors ?

[Sourblood]

Also it looks like the starting spy doesn't get the "Native of ..." trait.

[El_Saracen]

Some of my spies don't have the "native of.." trait either. I just use them for patrolling my kingdom. But I was wondering if all spies are meant to have the trait? I have started the script everytime I've played this awesome mod.

[Finn]

The starting spys don't get the trait, so maybe disband them at game start if you want all your spys to attain traits.

[El_Saracen]

Well that solves it, cheers

I actually think the spy system is a really great idea. I tried to take a major settlement without using a conspirator and it was a right headache. Next time I used a conspirator and it was a much smoother takeover. In previous mods I used to have a band of characters (spies, diplomats etc.) who I'd place in a settlement I intended to take. This system is much more simple and elegant. Although it is annoying when you can't reach a particular settlement in one turn from your nearest city.

[-Stormrage-]

take the nearest city at a time, like a tree branch

[Sourblood]

But maybe it would be an idea to give the starting spies this trait in an upcoming patch?

[gcybill]

But maybe it would be an idea to give the starting spies this trait in an upcoming patch?

Maybe it can be softcoded, like:
at end turn, for all spies which doesn't had native-> add region's settlement as native

Just guessing, never modding TW before

For me, I use my non-native spy for a while since he can get the Master Spy trait. I think the native one couldnt get the trait, because I've never got any till now.

[gcybill]

Question, how to disband my spy after the native city already too far from frontline except by going to their city and kill himself?