Little buggers have me spending over half my income training spies.
Ah, so you're playing the Iconians or Krynn then. Everyone else is pretty-much (anomolies & colonization choices aside) limited to the 25% of income.
Yeah, the spy mega event hurts...BAD. However, in that case, the only things that could save you would be to have had CECs on the planets or have a relatively small empire and never gained spies...so low replacement costs. Pulling passive spies would only lessen that scale of damage.
The AI has gotten overhauled something feirce when it comes to spying now. I really think it's a good thing, at least it forces you to use some of the tools at hand.
And Mumble...come to think of it, I think I may remember a few patches I was able to trancend versions w/o a crash. However, there were enough that did crush my game to just make me finish any game before updating. Also, doesn't the MV not like different versions from start to finish?
I think 2.01 is coming soon (tm) so, perhaps if you haven't already taken the 2.0 plunge, just hold out a bit longer to see what they have fixed.