TLDR at top: Please consider changing weighting for relic heist outcomes. Reasons why below.

Hey Gulliman,

I can't say I agree with the previous few comments. The changes you've made to espionage have made that aspect of the game far more interesting.

I was at the receiving end of their repeated sabotage missions. It was especially painful every time they hit my main trade hub, which at one point was almost every month it felt like. It was especially painful when I had gotten 'The Last Boal' relic, used it once, and literally had the menu open and was about to use it again when it disappeared in front of my eyes. I was livid.

It promted me to power up my own codebreaking and encryption and delve into an aspect of the game that I usually ignore. Once I was at the top, the AI shifted their spy aggression to my friend who had been laughing at me getting hit so often, and he got to feel my pain.

Toning down the aggression of the AI I think was warranted, and it feels pretty good now. I do have one bit of criticism here though. The RNG at the end of the relic heist could use some weighting changes. 33% chance each to get away clean, get found out by the empire you're stealing from, and getting found out by everyone is excessively brutal given the -1000 standing hit.

One AI had more or less had stolen all of the relics in our galaxy, and when I powered up, I began stealing from them. No one liked them, and yet I took massive and permanent standing hits with other empires with which I was friendly. I stole a total of 7 relics from them, and my results at the end were 5 times everyone found out, 1 time he found out, 1 time got away clean.

I am now at a permanent negative with an AI because:
Stolen a Relic: -1000 (0 yearly)

Please consider changing the weighting to something like:
50% clean
40% they found out
10% everyone found out