It is often a good strategy to combine espionage with other activities, in order to “tweak” the situation for the most beneficial results. Some of those factors are traditions of both kingdoms, their crown authority, their kings’ espionage attribute, the rank of their best spy (thus spies also play a counter-espionage role), etc…īesides the risk, most spy actions are very expensive, with their activities and bribes often requiring high upkeep and good preparation before they are executed. What the chances of success and revealing are depend on many factors, not just the skills and rank of the spies and what exactly are they trying to do. Furthermore, the spy might be imprisoned if captured, or even outright killed. If a plot is revealed, this has a negative effect on the foreign relations of the kingdom and can even lower its crown authority, depending on the action. We can easily say that this class is all about “high risk, high reward” playstyle. A governor can open the gates during siege, and a puppet, that afterwards becomes king… Well, we will let you imagine what opportunities might arise from that.Įvery spy action brings some serious risk, though. For example, a bribed merchant can aid in robbing the treasury, a marshal can try to inspire a kingdom-wide army revolt and a puppet spy can aid in the assassination of otherwise unreachable targets like the members of the royal family. These opportunities depending on the newly bribed puppets’ class, whether they are governing a town, whether they are leading an army, etc. Any enemy knight, except the king, can potentially be bribed and if that is successful, new opportunity types will arise. One of the most common and important among those opportunities is the Bribing. As time go ес by, various opportunities will arise for the spy like murder plots, provoking war, etc. But these benefits are just the tip of the iceberg. Furthermore, for a cost/price he can start searching for a way to ruin the relations of that kingdom with another one. Additionally, he starts collecting various type of rumors about the kingdom he is in – its future plans, some weaknesses and problems, etc. Upon arrival in a kingdom, a spy immediately “provides” vision over its lands, which includes the position of its armies – a valuable piece of information, especially in case of war. As a result, they are now used for very different strategies. At one point of the development of the classes, we decided to make a very clear distinction between diplomats and spies and removed all offensive actions from the diplomat (like ruining relations between foreign kingdoms and such) and most defensive ones from the spy. Instead, he can do his dirty deeds alone, or BRIBE some of the opponent’s knights. Instead of waiting for the enemy to hire a new knight (which then turns out to be your spy, if you are lucky), you can now immediately infiltrate any kingdom and your spy never becomes a character in your opponent’s court. Let’s start with probably the most significant difference – how a spy infiltrates a kingdom. In result, espionage in KoH2:S has a lot of similarities to the one in KoH, but also at least as many differences and new additions. As people can be much more cunning than an AI, and players in one team can infiltrate several spies in the same kingdom, we had to be careful when designing and balancing what these knights can do and what strategies can the players explore. There was also one very major difference to take into consideration – one of the pillars of the development of KoH2:S– the multiplayer. We’ve tried to preserve the “magic” of this feature, but at the same time build on it and add more possibilities and actions. The bar we set for ourselves on the Spy class is quite high, since Spies are favorite to many of the fans of KoH and since the release of the first game, we’re humbled in how it seems to have provided a source of inspiration to a few game developers over the years as well. We had (and still have) countless ideas around what could be achieved by espionage and how the system should work exactly. We must admit that we were greatly inspired of the intrigues in Game of Thrones, amongst many other books, movies and games, and the concept that “everything (and every man) has a price”. Hello friends and welcome to the 18th DevDiary for “Knights of Honor II: Sovereign”! As you are now well infiltrated in our development process, the time has come for you to eavesdrop on classified information about one of the most emblematic features in KoH – the Spy and Espionage.
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