Thanks for this mod, Spy are annoying as hell in this game

Hello, can you please give leader Wu Zetian any bonus, maybe the scout like you did it with Catherine de Medici from France? I would do it on my own, but i don't know how to do. Thank you very, very much and have a merry Christmas!

You're a hero for creating this mod! I have been playing as Germany, and spies keep burning down my hansas. Thank you so much!

Thank you for looking into it so thoroughly. I have updated with your suggested line of code.

So I added the following as line 55 to NoSpies.sql, and it seems to have fixed the problem:

UPDATE ModifierArguments SET Value = 1 WHERE ModifierId='SPYGLASS_BONUS_SIGHT' AND Name='Amount';

Basically it just undoes what line 54 does, but only for the recon unit promotion, so that line 54 can still function as a "catch-all" line for everything else that's actually related to spies. I tested in-game and the promotion works as intended again.

I think this mod has broken the spyglass promotion for the recon units as of the 3rd April 2023 update for the mod, because when I played with this mod in March -23, the promotion worked fine, and now playing after the update, the promotion no longer grants +1 sight range when choosing the promotion, and I think it's because of the following line 54 on the NoSpies.sql file:

UPDATE ModifierArguments SET Value = 0 WHERE ModifierId LIKE '%SPY%' AND Name = 'Amount';

Which then overwrites the following row in the base game's UnitPromotions.xml file, starting from line 1648, because it matches the ModifierId just for having the word "spy" in it, despite not actually having anything to do with spies:

<ModifierId>SPYGLASS_BONUS_SIGHT</ModifierId>
<Name>Amount</Name>
<Value>1</Value>

And so the promotion becomes pointless when sight is increased by 0.

@sdamorgan11 Leader pass Wu Zetian added free spies. I've updated the mod to adjust for it.

This mod worked well for me for about six months, but it recently stopped working. I have only ever had this mod and Sukritact's Oceans, so there is no interference there. It is enabled and reinstalling did not fix it.

The spy unit is so badly thought through and game-ruining in Civ 6 that this mod feels like a must-have.

Good, what an utter garbage unit. Should have the tooltip "Waste 200 production". Whoever fucking thought to put RNG in this game in the first place I hope they've since been fired...

Yeah, it ended up being a mod that provides better bonuses for goodie huts.

I suggest checking your mods for those that grant free spies. For example, Sailor Cat's 'Persia Kawad I' has 'Ability: The Mazdakite Subterfuge' which says 'Receive a spy after founding a Religion.' Those kinds of mods break this one.

Just has a spy steal gold from me despite this mod being active. Dunno how that's possible as it's never happened before, but I don't have the ability to create my own spies so I can't counterspy them.

Spies wouldn't be so bad if the AI suffered actual penalties for being busted, but the game series has a terminal problem of all AI vs. the player.

It'd also be nice if this wasn't just a tool for low-tech, non-expanding countries. I could be the largest country in the game but somehow not have enough counterspy resources to defend myself from all 5 of France's spies, despite having on 4 cities.

God, just for existing this mod deserves an upvote and favorite, i really really find the spy feature abysmal, it kept me from playing the game for years. Ill give it a try now with this.

so done with the ai spamming steal my gold

Sorry I was wrong - my game also crashes without any mods installed. (Have already tried Verify Files).

I play with this mod always. My game is not crashing. Please provide more details, eg. log file references. Also, did you test with only this mod enabled and the game still crashed?

I got configurable goody huts and unchecked free spies. Did the trick. Thank you for your quick reply! :)

What other mods do you have enabled? There are many mods that grant free spies. There are not compatible with this mod. eg. SailorCat's 'Persia Kawad I', 'CIVITAS Kawad I' & 'Wondrous Goody Huts', Liberty's 'Beyond Earth - Han Jae Moon's Chungsu', Lor Uji's 'Goguryeo Kingdom', Kaiaru's 'Waluigi's Island'. And these are just some from page 1 of the search.

Addon Enabled. I'm not able to create spies but unknown civilization was able to siphon gold from me. I've disabled and re-enabled. I've unsubscribed, deleted the folder from the directory and re-subscribed. Game still doing the same thing: siphoned gold, stolen artwork, disrupt production, etc...

I find this mod absolutely neccesary since Spies are broken. My game just ended because an Enemy Spy has siphoned all of my funds to them for 28 turns. So stupid that Civ sin modern era or earlier always succeed in Spy missions against the player who has all techs and all the policies that hinder Spies.

I'm using "Real Building Upgrades" & "Real Tech Tree", & all my other mods are map & resource related. I'm assuming one of them is overwriting whatever your mod does, because I have been able to build the regular 2 spies so far during the Industrial era.

What other mods do you have enabled? Are they any modded civs with free spies given to them?

Mmm ... first game in with this, and there are still spies everywhere =/

If I hadn't just found this, I was about to uninstall Civ 6 forever.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.

No more rebels in modern armor! No more gold theft! No more danger of a GW heist! THANK YOU!!

I see you have fixed the Flying squadron problem. It also works with the newest update, Catherine spying version gets it, but Catherine magnificent version and Eleanor no longer get it. ANd it is now a consistent unit, good work.

thank you this is the best and most useful mod ever, no more -90% GPT from fucking spies. Thank you so much.

@jamesmorris_k What other mods do you have enabled? Are they any modded civs with free spies given to them?

I'm playing on vanilla, started a new game with this activated, but it affected nothing; still riddled with spies. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

@Charlemagne I'll think on how to fix the Flying Squadron Scout.
@NobleZarkon That building has no effects with this mod. The amount for the modifier 'GOV_GRANT_SPY' is set to 0.

How does this handle the Grandmaster's chapel?

Thank you so much, I just had to give up a game I almost finished, they constantly rob me, I still had +600 gold, but I got down to 0 and everything went downhill, all my spys were defending, was still not enough.

oh my gosh you are my hero, I HATE the spy mechanics!

First, I love this mod and absolutely can't live without it. That said. The Flying squadron isn't right. It can ignore terrain, which is OP. It looks like a warrior, which is confusing. France can still make the normal scout, which is redundant. And Eleanor of Aquitaine also gets them, which shouldn't happen, not her trait.
I humbly suggest a unique unit, indestructible but displaceable (like a Great person) or rebuildable, which looks like a court lady because this is what the FS was (Catherine's court ladies who used their "arts" for spying). Perhaps stack-for-free, even with enemies, like a religious unit. IDK, something like that.
If that's too complex, do away with it and add some perk. Or none, the wildcard for free is perk enough.

the only thing worse than spies is the world congress, now ive gotten rid of both

Yup, that's what happened, and that what I ended up doing. Thanks for the mod.

I would expect it to either break or not perform properly when activated for an old save. Best to start a new game after subscribing to the mod.

Does this work for an existing save or a new game only?

thanks bro! i understand enemies spying but a huge pain was my ALLIES the ones im supposed to be counting on getting caught spying on me:( thanks so much!!

You are amazing for putting here this mod. Spies are the biggest pain in the *** for me

@Nnorm It is likely that you are using other mods that are granting spies or spy capacity.

Mod doesn't work, i still can hire spies.

thank you very much

I can live with all of the various spy actions except stealing of great works. That one bugs me to no end.

Thank you so much! I hate having districts constantly breaking down...

YES!!!!!!! Thank YOU!!!!! And the modification to Catherine makes her a worthwhile play

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you....... <deep gulping breath>.... thank you, thank you, thank you.......!!!!!