Can't see some units in BTS

[xalien]

So I have this problem, I can't see what units enemy ships are carrying onboard. They move to my coast pretending to be some innocent empty vessels (not that I've believed that for a second) and then out of nowhere they unload a bunch of troops.

If I hover the mouse over my own ships then it's all visible, but other civ ships always appear as empty. Is there some magical button I've missed or something? I didn't had this problem in vanilla.

[joncnunn]

The military personal are below deck so you can't see them.
The AI uses Work boats for exploring coast in BTS so if the unit can carry military personal (or a unit+settler combo) its probably not empty.

[SerapisIV]

Is there an espionage level at which you can see their units? I miss that mission from previous civ versions.

[xalien]

Ok, so I take it that's a new feature of BTS then and not some glitch. I wonder about espionage too, mine was just a bit higher than theirs so I could only look at their research.

[rah]

Has anyone ever tried to board an enemy ship with a spy?

[joncnunn]

Yes on a by city basis, but it's a lot of points. The exact amount is slightly variable on the same turn (size and/or distance from your capital) so once it starts it turns on like popcorn.

And with a lot more points you can see what their cities are producing.

Originally posted by SerapisIV
Is there an espionage level at which you can see their units? I miss that mission from previous civ versions.

[Willem]

Originally posted by xalien
Ok, so I take it that's a new feature of BTS then and not some glitch. I wonder about espionage too, mine was just a bit higher than theirs so I could only look at their research.

No, it's been like that ever since Civ 4 came out. You've never been able to see what troops are being transported in this game.

[Theben]

As I recall, it's been that way since the very beginning of Civ the game. In CivII if you saw an extended 'shadow' behind the ship you knew there was more than 1 unit in that tile, and if it was a ship transport it probably had units on board.

[xalien]

Originally posted by Willem


No, it's been like that ever since Civ 4 came out. You've never been able to see what troops are being transported in this game.

Huh? That's not what I remember. It feels like it was yesterday when Monty have sent 2 galleys towards my city and I could see what they were carrying, I could swear on that. Unless my own memory have suffered a major glitch .

[Reiko]

I don't ever remember being able to see what units enemy transports are carrying.

[CerberusIV]

I'd swear that pre-BtS you could mouseover another civ's fleet and it would list not only the ships but the units in them too.

Now you just have to assume the worst.

[snoopy369]

You'd be, generally, correct. I think it was a warlords patch that introduced the hidden units, but either way certainly in initial vanilla it was possible.

[xalien]

Yay, it's not a bug and I'm not going crazy, the world is good again .

[SerapisIV]

Any chance of re-adding the Civ2 mission to steal military plans and see all of the opponents units for a little while?

[xalien]

That mission was in vanilla Civ4 as well so I don't think it would be very hard to put it back.