Investigating their cities & seeing their research.

Dudey · November 20, 2009, 12:40

I have another question. (Thanks for answering these easy questions, by the way.)

So, I have enough money to do all the passive espionage against a particular city, and I've figured two of them out; and those are: city visibility and demographics. Easy enough.

But, the other two I can't figure out.

1) The Civilopedia says to double-click on their cities to see their city screens, but that doesn't work. I'm quite sure I'm double-clicking properly...

2) The Civilopedia says I can see their research, but it doesn't say how to do it.

Hmm...

Blaupanzer · November 20, 2009, 13:29

If you have enough points invested to investigate cities then double clicking opens the city. Your chief clue on the map will be that their cities' current production will show up, as it does for your own cities. This relates directly to the ratio of espionage points you have spent on them vice the points they have spent on you.

Seeing their research is quite a bit cheaper and their current research topic and turns remaining will show up next to their leader names in the lower right corner of the map. Of course the current topic will also show up at the top of each city if you have outspent a given civ sufficiently to actually open their cities as described above.

Related costs in espionage points are shown in the espionage tables for each civ for demographics, research city visibility and so forth. Except for the clicking, these are passive missions resulting from spending rather than active missions involving a spy. Spy costs will show too, but I'm not a big fan of spies except for defense, so I'm not sure how that's all set up in detail.

Theben · November 20, 2009, 13:33

You can see the research in the display on the bottom right corner, assuming you have those open.

City visibility is not the same as seeing into a city. You'll need even more ESP points for that... usually a lot more. Check the espionage screen and select the civ and the city in question and the chart on the right will tell you how many more ESP points you need to look into the city.

Btw looking into 1 city is often all the info you'll need. You can see the science/culture/money %s for the empire as well as the research rates, and the type and amount of resources available to that city; most likely the rest of the empire as well.

Dudey · November 20, 2009, 13:46

Okay, I see what the deal is. The 'cost' on the espionage screen is an espionage-point cost, not a money cost.

Jeez... Civ3 hangover perhaps?

Thanks for the tips.

brandonjm8 · November 20, 2009, 16:55

hey i got a question for you all:
when you goto the domestic advisor screen, whats that little red coin or circle thing? its the third column from the right, you have great people column then units stationed within city column then that little red coin, whats that red coin?

Hauptman · November 20, 2009, 17:03

Originally Posted by brandonjm8

hey i got a question for you all:
when you goto the domestic advisor screen, whats that little red coin or circle thing? its the third column from the right, you have great people column then units stationed within city column then that little red coin, whats that red coin?

Think Your refering to the button to set that city free (liberate). Basically means it is not of your culture, or if settled far away, a colony.

brandonjm8 · November 20, 2009, 17:57

Originally Posted by Hauptman

Think Your refering to the button to set that city free (liberate). Basically means it is not of your culture, or if settled far away, a colony.

hmmm, they got little numbers next to each city in my empire under this "red circular coin looking thing" column.

im gonna do this from right to left to help you guys better understand me:

domestic advisor screen:

what this city is building/great people points/# of units stationed within city/
then that ( ) it looks like a red coin with numbers next to each city under the column.

any ideas?

it doesnt appear to be any buttons, i havent built any cities off of my landmass yet too so no vassals possible yet, im the only civ on my island.

Theben · November 20, 2009, 22:48

unhappy faces?

EDIT: That's maintenance costs for the cities.

brandonjm8 · November 20, 2009, 23:11

Originally Posted by Theben

unhappy faces?

EDIT: That's maintenance costs for the cities.

thanks, thought so but wanted to be sure.