Thank you everyone for all of the feedback, it was incredibly useful. I'm finally at the point where im happy enough with the mod to release it.
I'll be leaving this up, but all updates will be pushed to the main mod now. Any saves made with this beta will be perfectly compatible with the main mod too, safe to just switch over. There are no major changes between the two.

You can find the full release here - https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2097903490

Oh great! :D Very excited for what this all adds. I used to use it a bunch when I played Stellaris before a little break.

@ACS4 - You caught me in the middle of updating haha Yes there is still a backup edict available.

Hi there. Really excited to try out your mod! Is there no 'backup' button in edicts anymore for if we do use UI mods? Just curious! Not a modder myself so I have no clue how to even help out if a patch is needed lol.

@CaptainKampfkeks - Oh wow I didnt realise It was releasing so soon, I will indeed just wait.

@Spaceception - Oh thats perfect then! Yes a little while after first contact it will all unlock fully, but if you can already see those things the rest will work fine too.

I just booted up Stellaris to check with Dark UI, and I saw all of those! So, does the Manage network tab refuse to open until you've met another species or have high unrest? Because I got an event whenever I tried.

You might as well wait up 2.7 at this point. It's due at the 12th, I believe.

@Spaceception - Im honestly not sure about recolored UI mods, but it would be very easy to check. As long as you have access to the 'Manage Networks' button in the government window and you can see the two new resources on the top bar you should be good to go.

And yes, i'll be writing a proper description detailing all of the features when I release in a few days.

Oh, I was asking because I only had a recolored UI mod in mind, that's all. But thanks in advance for checking. Will you include a feature summary of the mod then?

@Spaceception - It might be because its currently unlisted, im not sure though.

@超高校级的圆学家 - No plans right now, the text is changing quite a lot still right now.

Ive been really busy with work etc recently, but I should be able to push a small update in a day or two and then finally fully release this. (I'll also make sure it works with UI overhauls when I do that).

Is there a reason I can't add this to my collection? Is it the fact it's still a beta? Anyway, this mod looks great, and I'm looking forward to trying it out in the next update. Also, do UI mods include recolored UIs, or just overhuals like tiny UI?

We need the Chinese version. Do you have any plan for this
我们需要中文版本，请问有这方面的计划吗
(Google translation)

One thing I remember from the old version of this Mod was that the rival empires reducing opinions made every other empire hate me, even when I didn't do anything to them.

But other than that last point I've enjoyed it immensely - sorry word count!

So after playing with it for a little while - I can't see how many levels of intelligence I have in each area.

The events are awesome and the fact you went deeper to get into diplo buffs/debuffs are awesome. Would love to know for the user, what affects success? Is there anything you can do to increase success chance? Is it based on tech lvl vs theirs? etc

But this really does add some cool stuff. Tech stealing is amazing while also having tech cache and the counter spy events with actual choices on how to handle it is also incredibly good.

Right now this is on my 'mandatory to play Stellaris' list. Great work. Can definitely flesh out more to add more user clarity but it functions really goddamn well for flavour. Random events you add also make this great.

I think one area that sticks out is that the enemy seems to be able to launch hostile actions way earlier than the player ever could. 'Crime activity/unrest' which really tanks the early game economy HARD.

@APx-jeeperz2 That would be great, thank you!

Ive been a little busy with studying, but an update is coming soon.

Just wanted to let you know i'm back to play Stellaris and this mod was an essential part of this game for me so I'll help test it out for you :)

Yeah I kinda figured that would be the case, it seemed a little crazy how hard it could hit even from 1 empire. I'll have to fiddle to see how counter espionage deals with hostile actions. I could only imagine if a few empires were hitting you with the unrest it could seriously keep your economy tanked and on the edge of rebellion. Maybe it would be good to have leveled teams so that their impact scales with competence as they get better?

I do think techs would even this out though as well if the leveling is too hard an implementation. But boy does it hit like a truck when you get hit....

But I'm super keen to see where this mod goes.

Also I was being lazy with the description when I made the beta, but you're right its changed so much from the main mod at this point I really should explain what it does. Seriously thanks for the detailed feedback man.

@Meme Merchant Freddy - Agree with a lot you said, but to be clear none of those events are just randomly happening to you. They occur when an AI targets you for an espionage operation, just as they can target each other for espionage. All of the options you have available to you is stuff the AI is also capable of using.

I know there's an event chain where you can try to spy on a neighbour that wants better race relations and steal an amount of tech research points from them monthly until they uncovered it - there was a failure with no penalty (protests) and a critical failure with diplo penalty (they uncovered your spying), not sure if it's a mod. But that was a nice lore friendly way of implementing your system.

Would highly recommend you flesh out your mod description above listing current features, how to use them and planned areas of expansion so people both understand your mod and can get excited for improvements ASAP.

I do like the whole concept though, it has great potential. Keep going!

I'd also recommend you look at how the Total War series did agents and gave the player the percentages on success with critical successes and failures - it'd would be an engaging risk/reward mechanic for important stuff like tech stealing/big rewards. If certain event triggers/excavation-esque paths happened for each 'campaign' (ethics shift, unrest, sensor data, resource heists/raids, incriminating info (influence - maybe scaled to race diplo weight) etc) showing you risk of each choice and maybe level system for your agents (maybe techs to improve?) we'd be looking at a highly engaging completely new arm to this game. It would add the high stakes space opera side to the Empire interaction.

Good man - yeah I'd agree with that approach as every man and his dog is using Potent Rebellions I'm sure. I am and I see it on most lists. It seems they settled after dedicating a whole team to domestic counter terrorism but it just seems like it just ties up a whole team all the time.

As they stand if they were hostile actions taken by the AI empires then that makes sense but if they're random triggers of 'stuff happening' then that comes across as needless harassment of progress without rhyme or reason. Basically if a mechanic carries meaning and isn't a straight debuff without prospect of reward then a player will engage with it. If it's random and clearly only affecting the player empire negatively then it's going to piss them off.

@Meme Merchant Freddy - Yes I agree about the stability events. Right now im working on some other things for an update, but after that i'm either going to try and hook it into the Potent Rebellions unrest events, or i'll add counter espionage events to try and put an end to it and find the instigator.

Hmmm not really loving the random but frequent 'civil unrest' events that keep popping up. Not sure how to combat them given they add -100 Happiness and -40 Stability. Straight up brings a perfectly happy planet to 0 Stability.

Seems silly that our counterintelligence has no clue why its happening or how to stop it other than it hopefully peters out.

Yes, I think i'll wait until I push this onto the main mod though.

Any plan for UI dynamic patch？

Your welcome! if i find something else i'll keep you informed.

@Archon That was some seriously helpful feedback, thank you. Ive uploaded a quick fix to the window position, and i'm gonna take a look at implementing the other changes you suggested too. Thanks again.

So, first things first, the spawnpoint of the espionage window is in the top left corner (at least on my screen) thats quite troublesome because its hard to move ( it's not complete visible only a small part of the frame). Rest seems to work fine for me. Every intended espionage action still works as intended but the outcome is quite randon. Maybe implement some more deterministic options for more collected intelligence points. Furthermore i would suggest to gate the basic options of the system behind a low level technology and some major features and improvements behind and ascension perk. After all not every empire has good espionage and if you want to focus on that it feels more impactful. Overall it works quite well with the same critics i made for your original version of this mod. Keep going, this one is still one of the more innovative mods there! =)

@Archon Thank you!

I'll make a test for you =)