Normal Intelligence

[Blaupanzer]

When playing the game, I can see the specific promotions of every AI unit I encounter. However when I enter a city with my scout/explorer/unit, I can't tell what buildings are there. Neither of these factors make any sense. If spies see the whole city screen, the units should at least see the building list portion.

1. How would I know, except by the most careless of rumors, which promotions a specific unit had taken? I might guess a few based on the characteristics of the civ's leader (aggressive or protective), but I don't expect the unit flags or leaders to explain this to me, peace or war.

2. Why wouldn't my visiting units be able to see if a city had a market or bank, training stables and barracks, etc.? They could then report that back to me. Such a unit probably wouldn't have much trouble determining what major project was in progress either (though not how far along it was necessarily). I find it frustrating that this information is not known up to a certain "as of" date for every city visited. It at least ought to be available in the move of the unit in question.

3. How do spies, who do provide the city data in question, know the national budget data shown in the left corner of the city screen? Not that this is a rant about TMI, but you'd have to do some serious research to determine that information for any city in the US today, and we have "open," if obscure, sources for the Government and publicly-owned business portion of this data.

Any Firaxis folk want to address the first two questions? Perhaps # 1 is instituted to tamp down complaints about "unfair" outcomes. Perhaps numbers 2 and 3 are the way they are due to the coding hassles involved? "Just show the spies the city screen and keep it simple," or something.

[Jaybe]

#2. You cannot see what buildings are there? Why, just LOOK! They aren't identified in print, but you can identify every building in a city any time you have a line of sight to it. You may have to zoom in a bit, but they are all there for the seeing. Toggle Ctrl-B if you need to clear the view of units. If you haven't learned what particular buildings look like, practice on your own cities, and use the F9/World Wonders, National Wonders so you can identify the appearance of those.

#1 & #3 are game design decisions for which I am thankful, though perhaps #3 would require a small expenditure of gold.

Not from Firaxis, am I.

[Prussia]

The only unit that let's you open up a foreign city screen (atleast I think) is the spy. If you happen to have any other unit in that city, just passing through, or exploring, or whatever, you can only see what units are fortified and what the city looks like from the outside, you can't open up the city screen and see production, commerce, and all of that good stuff.

[sparkyal]

you make an interesting tongue in cheek comment on the military promotions. I see what you are saying. not that I think this was what the Fireaxis people had in mind, but....
Many battalion size organizations have scout and intel sections attached. so, it is possible that these sections of the unit can gather this information. It is how they can see for a few tiles.

sparky

Edit: Jaybe, that is a great suggestion (That I don't often take). you also have to use the angles to see all of the city. I've found airports especially hard to see. but then again, you haven't seen how thick my glasses are....

[Older than Dirt]

Just another example of Firaxis' insensitivity to the needs of seasoned citizens.

[Destroyer]

Spying seems to regress with each civ.

There is so much you could do with it.

Its like they cant even be arsed anymore.

I only use them to scout during an invasion. They are good for determining where to deploy your forces.

[eris]

Originally posted by Jaybe
#2. You cannot see what buildings are there? Why, just LOOK! They aren't identified in print, but you can identify every building in a city any time you have a line of sight to it. You may have to zoom in a bit, but they are all there for the seeing. Toggle Ctrl-B if you need to clear the view of units. If you haven't learned what particular buildings look like, practice on your own cities, and use the F9/World Wonders, National Wonders so you can identify the appearance of those.

I would love it if, in Firaxis's love of hover-over info, a close-up of the city allowed you to hover the cursor over buildings and see which ones they are. There is no need to have the human memorize artwork when a helpful little label could be added using the same general information display systems in place. ("Islamic Temple, +1 Happiness, enables one Priest Specialist", etc) The challenge is supposed to be in the strategy of the game, not in a version of "I spy with my little eye..."

It would be a good excuse to use the close-up view. Excuses for changing the view level enhance the 3D experience/look of the game. I am actually surprised they didn't do this trick in the first place in order to help show off their 3D efforts. Also, the initial philosophy was supposed to be that you didn't have to leave the main display to find information, but that info has always been hidden in the city screen display. Very strange and inconsistent seeming design decision.