Effective Espionage?

mimi · June 11, 2003, 08:55

OK, so maybe it's me but to pay 2764 to do a medium-safety snag of another civs tech and fail kinda bites (didn't have the 3500 or so for the safest snag but suspect it wouldn't have worked anyway).

Does this tech stealing ever work? I've tried several times but never got anything though occasionally I get away with it without getting caught.

So what espionage tricks actually work at least some of the time? And are worth the price?

Spiffor · June 11, 2003, 09:08

I rarely use spies, and I never ever tried to steal a tech:
The AIs are most often willing to trade them in a risk-free and correctly cheap fashion.

Spies should either be much cheaper or have higher chance of success to be of any use. In most of my games, I don't even bother building the intelligence agency.

The Emperor Fabulous · June 11, 2003, 16:50

IMO, there needs to be MORE espionage, so that it is much more incorporated in playing the game. There should be more options as well.

bobbo008 · June 11, 2003, 16:59

having a spy to see what they have for military units is the only use, in my opinion. everything else i dont even look at.

MqsTout · June 11, 2003, 17:57

If you've never played Civ2 with its diplomats and spies, you should. Then you can complain even more about Civ3's espionage system!

CrONoS · June 11, 2003, 18:04

....yep!
Spy is usefull to see millitary units and city information!! I use the city information to know how many units I will need to capture a city, specially in the modern age when you have to capture a capital to destroy the space ships being build.

Sometimes I try to bribes some city... when this is some old city who was in my control before...

I dont use them for anything else...

So, see ya

Kaos XIII · June 11, 2003, 19:40

Change the editor! Make all spies Veterans and in communism make them Elites. The costs are fine, intelligence is not cheap in the real world.

But if you're paying half your treasury, it better work.

Panag · June 12, 2003, 03:13

hi ,

ones you get the hold of it you shall earn at least a thousand gpt on a 160 X 160 map with 12 players , it therefore makes spying easier and less hurting for your wallet , .....

it tends to work , great is the surprise when your military plans are stolen

it works both ways , but the AI seems to have a 25 % better chance to get what he came for , ......

we should be able to do more counterintel , ......

have a nice day while spying

georges bonbon · June 12, 2003, 04:01

Quote:

Originally posted by bobbo008
having a spy to see what they have for military units is the only use, in my opinion. everything else i dont even look at.

Even that is too expensive.

dexters · June 12, 2003, 04:15

all you need to do is plant a spy. a few hundred gold. not expensive at all.

Considering it is very easy to accumulate tens of thousands of gold, I think the complaints about its expensive is largely unfounded. The benefit from these missions is the issue. Your spies fail far too frequently.

mimi · June 12, 2003, 06:03

You guys all make me feel incompetent... earning 1000s of gpt, 2600 being half my treasury. HAH

HAH...

It took me 5 turns of picking my nose to collect 2600 g. Most I've ever earned is 350gpt and I thought that was pretty cool.

I must be missing something in the money dept. Unless I'm warmongering I get into Demo as soon as I get it (but I have never used Rep though - I go for Monarchy 'cause I'm usually trying to kick butt for awhile 'cause I can't even keep up in research so i have to steal it... oops, I mean, make peace for it. )

Perhaps I give up too soon? Once it's clear that I'm gonna be on the losing end and the turn take 3 mins I usually start over 'cause, well, I have low frustration tolerance.

1000gpt! HAH!

BulMaster · June 12, 2003, 06:22

aaaa i miss the old days when i asked my spy to plan a nuclear device the AI city

it was even coller when i as cought, but as i aid those were the cool old days when civilization was still cool

dexters · June 12, 2003, 06:36

mimi, trade trade and trade some more.

It's tedious if you want to extract maximum profit, but I prefer it to the camels, which are even more tedious.

You don't need a tech lead although having one helps substantially with the prices you get, but if you're middle of the pack, you can still buy a tech from one, and sell it to another for a tidy profit.

ghen · June 12, 2003, 06:53

If I have enough money to have fun with spies the game is already won. Thats a major problem.

dexters · June 12, 2003, 06:56

ghen, you have a good point. But I think you mean to say "the game can be won but not yet won"

If you're in a real nail biter, I do agree that you probably wouldn't have 20,000 gold sitting around.

Darth Balrog · June 12, 2003, 07:10

Quote:

Originally posted by ghen
If I have enough money to have fun with spies the game is already won. Thats a major problem.

...true.

Another question:

Now I'm a Democracy (Roman) and I tried 3 times to put a spy in a Comunist country (English) without succeed.
Yes, I know that the Comunist spy are the best in Civilization, but this mean I couldn't put a spy in a Comunist country with a Democracy ?