Horay!
To be honest, i love your mod for i can try to change Ethics of my neighbors with out of war, it just what i dreamed lol. Revolutions from the Shadows

@Anton Rabe
Glad you’re enjoying it.
Always great to hear it hits the mark.
More ops and updates are already in the works.

@Defrost4OkSMAH
Noted for the concept list. Thanks for the suggestion!

@FenFenScreeScree & DaViper
Funny enough that exact chain (retaliation, vengeance CB, counterstrikes) made it into the Eliminate Key Figure rework.
Your discussion aged very well. Thanks again for the spark back then!

Thanks you for this mod, i love it, it best :)

good mod. Could you please add operations to steal branch offices (criminal syndi players cant declare seise war). And sometimes you want to evict outpost without declaring war. Canwe get sabotage outpost operation?

@Chrisrous Thanks! Will do..

@Demognomicon
Yes. Updated for Stellaris 4.1.* today.
If you hit anything odd on 4.1, please drop it in the Bug Reports discussion with your mod list and steps to reproduce. Thanks!

@Morphine
I try to keep ops impactful but not cheesy . That said, I’m open to a few higher-risk / higher-reward variants. If you’ve got a specific “OP fantasy” in mind (what effect, what cost/risk), share it in Operation Ideas & Balance or on the Discord.

@Hereward
Nice one on the EED × CCO patch!

Is this still not compatible with 4.1?

hey there, would be pretty cool to have more "overpowered" operations

Hi, I made a patch between Expanded Espionage and Diplomacy & Chris’ Covert Operations.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3571310683

@The Turk
No not achievement compatible.
CCO changes the game checksum (new ops + one small AI override), so achievements are disabled.

Is this mod achievement compatible?

(If there *are* any espionage mods that *do* work on 3.14, I'd like to know.)

Aw man..
I don't think there's any espionage mods for 3.14, so this was my best bet. Oh well..

Community vote (48h) is live / next covert op!
👉 Official poll on Discord: Join the Discord [discord.gg]

(Provoke War • Covert Fleet Support • Secret Arms Deal • Propaganda Uplift)
Votes via Steam comments won’t be counted please leave feedback in the “Operation Ideas & Balance Suggestions” discussion. The final results will be posted there after the poll.

@Large_Gremlin
Short answer: no. 3.14 isn’t supported.
CCO is built and tested for Stellaris 4.0.x. Older versions may load parts of it, but they’re not tested and won’t be supported. If you try it on 3.14, it’s at your own risk; recommended is 4.0+.

Asking this because I don't play on 4.0+.

Does this work on 3.14?

LOVED @FenFenScreeScree idea.

I would also like to see more "helpful" espionage, especially when keeping tabs on 'friends/n/vassals'. Things like quietly getting rid of issues/corruption/what-have-you for the ally or subject.

Also more types of 'move the needle' missions to change or form policy.

This is a HUGE wonderful rabbit hole.

OPINION: Assassinating key figures should lead to a series of events where, based on the target empire's hacking skills and their spy network value on the player empire, they are able to deduce that it was the player that assassinated their key figure. This gives them a permanent -200 opinion on the player, a casus belli (like "Retribution" or "Vengeance"), and, if their opinion is low enough, they straight up declare total war. And who knows, perhaps they try to also assassinate the players' leaders, though it would be just as difficult for them as for the player.

nice

@all
Just wanted to say thanks the mod just passed 10,000 subscribers.
Really appreciate all the support and feedback so far!

@Chrisrous Yea, thanks for replying. Im gonna reinstall and try again

@Kizuna.
CCO only overrides one vanilla AI file, so if you’re seeing crashes it’s almost certainly a conflict with another mod.
If you’d like me to check it further, please post the details in the bug thread or on Discord.

seems to crash my game (a new game) when I do some empire setup and then pressing the F2 button. Probably some conflict with my other mod

Thank you for reply, I see now.
I've tried to convert empire with opposite ethics. After 3 operations I haven't noticed any effect, right now I've checking the pops: 200 out of 10k is egalitarian, but they don't get any attraction to egalitarism, so thats why there are only so few of them.

@Dr.Vaфе!ь
Narrative Shift doesn’t flip an empire’s ethics instantly.
On success it: creates a small POP group with the chosen ethic on each planet, applies modifiers for 10 years that boost attraction/drift towards that ethic and weaken government attraction.

If the target empire is very large, or has strong attraction to its own governing ethics, the effect can be subtle. The AI may also counter the situation, so it’s not guaranteed.

Over time those “seeds” can grow: new factions appear, attraction changes spread, and internal tension increases. It’s meant exactly as described to manipulate beliefs and bend ideology from within, not to guarantee an immediate ethics swap.

For a full breakdown of the mechanics and numbers, check the Operation Details & Balance discussion.

What does Narrative Shift do to AI empire? I've done it like 3 time, they failed to counter it in the situation, but still, I see no change in their ethics

@Chrisrous. Ty for that. I'll definitely swing by sooner than later!

@DaViper
Glad you’re enjoying it! Some of those “007 style” or “Dune-inspired” concepts are tricky to represent directly in Stellaris since the espionage system is fairly abstract. What I can do, though, is build more empire-level and leader-focused operations that capture the same spirit: covert strikes, hidden plots and situations with high stakes.

If you’ve got concrete ideas, I’d love to hear them in the Ideas & Balance Discussion or on Discord.
Otherwise… you’ll just have to wait and see what I’m cooking up next.

@Zapp Brannigan
Glad you enjoy the mod!
The Branch Office Shutdown operation only works on your own planets with branch offices.
Sabotaging offices between two other empires isn’t possible right now, but it’s a cool idea.
If you’d like, drop it in the Ideas & Balance thread or on Discord so we can discuss it further.

Mooooaaar 'Wetwork' stuff. We need some 007 types amongst the spies.

Hi Chris, loving the mod, but running into an issue. I'm doing a MegaCorp game, and run into another Empire with Branch Offices of a third Empire.

I figured based on the description, that I should be able to run an operation to close those Branch Offices?

For whatever reason I just don't see the Cover Operation to close them, on either Empire. Am I missing something? Do I need a specific Tech? Not sure if it's a bug or what. The other Covert Operations seem to show up.

Is it an Operation that only allows you to close Branch Offices on your own planets? If so is there a chance you could add in an Operation to sabotage/dismantle Branch Offices of other Empires on other Empire's planets?

@The Engineer Pop
That must be a vanilla feature, not from this mod.
This mod doesn’t touch districts or buildings at all.
So nothing here should remove your districts. If you see something unusual beyond that, feel free to share details or screenshots (also on Discord), but this mod itself only adds espionage operations.

Is here the feature that the Corporates with Criminal Heritage can demolish the Districts, Buildings of the planet in which they parasite?
I noticed some of the Districts, Buildings of my worlds which is in the Capital Sector are vanished when I fight the Criminal Heritage Corporates.

Playing the Dominion War are we @Hivelord?

I want more 'machinations and sneaky stuff'. I've read too much of Frank Herbert's Dune series (not his idiot child's fan-fic) and a product of the cold war, I'm guessing.

@Chrisrous
Could you add an espionage operation that allows hiveminds to gain an asset that says something like "this influential individual has been replaced by one of our covert drones" or something like that?

@JellyfishGamingg
Yes, please check the Compatibility section in the mod description for details.
In short: it works fine with most mods, as long as they don’t override
common/ai_espionage/spynetworks/00_base_strategies.txt
If they do, the AI will stop using custom operations, but everything still works for the player.

Does this mod work with Dynamic Political Events, Gigastructural engineering and more, and NSC 3?

@IndAVdiv
Exactly, if Expanded Espionage and Diplomacy overwrites the same vanilla file, the AI won’t run my new operations. You can still use them manually as a player, but the AI side won’t trigger them. If both mods are active, it just comes down to which file loads last.

@DaViper
There are a few different weakening messages in Stellaris, and they can come from different mechanics. Please post the details in the Bug Reports discussion so I can check if it’s intended or an issue, that’s where I track and follow up on all reports.
And I like the ‘Wheels within wheels’ reference, definitely fits the vibe.

I am curious about the 'weakening' mechanic. I've had several reports in the current campaign that tell me my intel is weakening...BUT I'm ON a covert mission. Is that supposed to happen?

Also, I could see this becoming the "Wheels within wheels - Dune" mod quite easily.

@Chrisrous

From what I see in Mod File the Expanded Espionage and Diplomacy also overwrites the vanilla file that you mentioned.

@IndAVdiv
The mod is generally compatible with most others. It only overwrites one vanilla file (common/ai_espionage/spynetworks/00_base_strategies.txt) so the AI can use the new operations. If another mod changes the same file, the AI won’t run these ops anymore but you can still use them as a player. I haven’t specifically tested it with Expanded Espionage and Diplomacy, so if you try it, feel free to share your results. If you run into any issues, feel free to drop them in the Bug Reports discussion so we can track them.

@DaViper
Glad to hear it’s adding that extra bit of fun to your campaigns! Comments like yours make the work worth it, thanks for taking the time to share.

Does this Compatible with Expanded Espionage and Diplomacy?

Just a thank you for this. It has rapidly become the "secret sauce" for fun in my campaigns as I play with it.