BTS Espionage Implementation Question

[SerapisIV]

Hey there,

I don't have BTS yet (waiting for the holidays). How do the passive Espionage costs work? You build up EP against a Civ with time, do the costs also increase with time/opponent population?

For instance if viewing demographics costs 50 EP, do you automatically view the opponent EP after you build up 50 EP or do you have to buy it from the accumulated EP and keep the benefit for the rest of the game?

If the cost increases, do you lose this ability if the cost exceeds your accumulated EP?

How long does the passive ability to investigate a city last?

Thanks.

[ChrisiusMaximus]

The costs contunually rise so you have to continually invest with the sliders to maintain the passive espionage abilities.


It is related to civ size and development, if you take a civ down in war the costs to passively spy get lower.

[Palpster]

Re: BTS Espionage Implementation Question

Originally posted by SerapisIV
Hey there,

I don't have BTS yet (waiting for the holidays). How do the passive Espionage costs work? You build up EP against a Civ with time, do the costs also increase with time/opponent population?

Yes, costs will also rise when the opponent gains more EP's (relative to you)

For instance if viewing demographics costs 50 EP, do you automatically view the opponent EP after you build up 50 EP or do you have to buy it from the accumulated EP and keep the benefit for the rest of the game?

You do not spend points for passive abilitities...you automatically gain the results from them. However you do need to keep up your EP's because you can lose the benefits if at some point you don't have enough anymore.

If the cost increases, do you lose this ability if the cost exceeds your accumulated EP?

Yes

How long does the passive ability to investigate a city last?

As long as you have enough espionage points (check how many you need in the espionage advisor)

[Crossfire]

I really with the espionage slider could do increments less than 10%! At 10% I am always outspending the AIs by quite a bit. I wonder if they are bouncing between 0% and 10% each turn?

[Willem]

Originally posted by ChrisiusMaximus
The costs contunually rise so you have to continually invest with the sliders to maintain the passive espionage abilities.

That's not true. I never raise my espionage spending past 10% of my treasury, all through the game. Occasionally I have to adjust the weight of certain civs because they managed to gain a lead on me due to their own spending, but that only shifts your overall costs from one civ to another. Increase the weight of one civ, and you're spending less on all the rest.

[Willem]

Originally posted by Crossfire
I wonder if they are bouncing between 0% and 10% each turn?

Either that or they're not building as many Courthouses/Jails etc. as you do. Those buildings have an impact on your total EPs as well.

[Blaupanzer]

Apparently, how much the AIs spend on you depends on your standing on the score tree. The relative stances between you in espionage spending is revealed in the espionage advisor screen.

[Blaupanzer]

Get BTS. It tranforms Civ IV into the best turn-based strategy game developed to date!

[Supr49er]

And in the late game, jails (+4 espionage and +50% espionage), security bureau (+8 espionage and +50% espionage) and the intelligence agency (+8 espionage and +50% espionage, can turn 2 citizens into spy).

[joncnunn]

Actually, instead of diverting 10% of your money peroidcally into spying, just build Court Houses instead. These will give you free esp points while also reducing maintenance costs.

Actually there is a way to invest between 0% and 10%, it's called spy specalists. Just change one or two specalists into a spy in your empire and you'll get a few more spy points. Or again, you could also have strong hammer - weak commerce cities building the other free esp buildings. (These +50% modifiers is after the flat points from buildings (and any specalists) so they are still useful even if you leave your slider locked at 0%)