2 questions

[MyOlde]

1. Space Elevator: how can I tell what latitude a city is in order to meet the requirements for the Space Elevator?

2. I was building a space ship and had several elements (thrusters and casing) already built and then destroyed through sabotage. How do I prevent that? I had the espionage bar at 40% which I thought should be plenty and a spy in every city. Very frustrating. Of course the corollary question to that is how do I do it to the other guy -- how do I know where his SS elements are located?

Thanks in advance.

[wodan11]

1. Try and add it to the queue. If you can, then you can. If you can't... you can't.

(Not a sarcastic answer. That's the best solution I've been able to come up with, myself.)

2. There are articles written about how to combat spying.
For part B of your Q I'd say it's generally easier to blow up his only source of copper or aluminum. Yes, the workers come in and build it again, so blow it up again.

If your espionage rating against your opponent is high enough, you can see the queue in his cities.

Did you go into the espionage screen and assign all your espionage points to just one opponent, or were you sinking them into ALL opponents?

[Theben]

1. Same as Wodan. That's how I find out.

2. If you're at war you're better targeting his copper/aluminum mines with bombers (or troops). As for built ship parts, you can go into any of his cities and attempt sabotage- it doesn't have to be any particular city unless you want to halt the production of a part in process.

When targeting built parts, it's better to target ones that only require 1 over parts that need multiple of a type- cockpit over thrusters. Your foe can still launch with only 4 thrusters but still needs that cockpit. Otherwise target ones that don't get bonuses to production from the aforementioned mines, so it takes longer for your enemy to rebuild.

[trev]

Build a security bureau in all cities, keep espionage points high and focussed on danger AI's really that is all you can do, makes their cost higher so they can do it fewer times, cannot stop it.

[rah]

Yeah, the only sure way is to eliminate them

[MyOlde]

Thanks for all your answers: should be very helpful. I was hoping there was a way to know where to build a city near the beginning to ultimately be able to build the Space Elevator there. But I did read elsewhere that one can mentally divide the map into three and vaguely figure it out that way.

Wodan11: I was sinking the 40% espionage into ALL opponents, I guess, since I was doing it on the main slider in the upper-left-hand corner (with research and culture). I'm not sure I know how to get into the individual civ's espionage screen.

[Boracks]

control-E opens the espionage screen so you can set relative weights, and see how many espionage points each civ is assigned each turn. Quite handy to put lesser civs at 1 and others at 2 or higher.

[MyOlde]

That's a help. Thanks, Boracks.

[Brael]

1. Space Elevator: how can I tell what latitude a city is in order to meet the requirements for the Space Elevator?

2. I was building a space ship and had several elements (thrusters and casing) already built and then destroyed through sabotage. How do I prevent that? I had the espionage bar at 40% which I thought should be plenty and a spy in every city. Very frustrating. Of course the corollary question to that is how do I do it to the other guy -- how do I know where his SS elements are located?

Thanks in advance.

For #1 it's hard to tell in the late game, but if you remember from earlier you have a chance. If you've never noticed there's three types of trees on a map. The ones from 0-30 degrees or so (depends on the map script a little) are the round ones, from 31-whatever are pine trees, then towards the poles are snow covered pine trees. If you remember where those round trees are, that's more or less the latitude necessary for the space elevator.

Wodan11: I was sinking the 40% espionage into ALL opponents, I guess, since I was doing it on the main slider in the upper-left-hand corner (with research and culture). I'm not sure I know how to get into the individual civ's espionage screen.

EP by default are divided equally among every civilization you know. In order to change what amount goes to what civ, in the upper right corner is a button with a spy icon. Press that and it brings up the espionage menu (I think it can also be accessed by F11 or something like that... I never bring it up that way) on the left hand side of that menu you can change the weight of EP to each civ.

[MyOlde]

Well, hell, I just gave up on a nice game.

I followed (I thought) everything above, assigning the major civs 2-4 EP points and having a general overall Espionage slider at 20%. I put an Intelligence agency and Security Bureau in each city.

At no point could any of the spies I sent to other civs see what a city was building so, although I knew from the "news bulletins" across the top who was building a space ship, I couldn't pinpoint where or how to destroy anything. And in the two turns before I gave up I had the cockpit and stasis chamber of my own ship destroyed.

What gives? What am I missing?

[Theben]

I followed (I thought) everything above, assigning the major civs 2-4 EP points and having a general overall Espionage slider at 20%. I put an Intelligence agency and Security Bureau in each city.

Destroying a spaceship part costs 1000's of EP's, so you need to do everything in your power to lower the cost of doing so while generating as much as you can.

If you didn't build a jail in every city as well, you need to. It'll boost the EP production in that city dramatically as it not only adds +4 spy points but another +50% overall boost. A city with a courthouse, Bureau, and agency will produce 27 pts. ((8+8+2)1.5)
while adding a jail will produce 44 pts. ((8+8+2+4)2). You can add more spy specialists (up to 7 with all buildings). Consider the Nationhood civic for the +25% EP pts.

Usually only 1 or 2 civs will contest you for the space win, so by this stage of the game you should either drop all EP points in other civs to focus completely on those civs, or if you feel the need to put some into other civs raise the EP ratio very high on the target civs... like 15 in the target AIs and 1 in the rest.

Plan ahead where to send your spies. Target small cities that are unlikely to have Bureaus in them. Send missionaries to those cities with your state religion (-40% cost!). Have your spies wait when they try to sabotage parts... not only does your chance of success increase after waiting 1 turn, but the cost goes down -10%/turn up to -50%. You may even consider moving your capital next to his border (distance costs). And the more points you generate thruout the game, the lower costs you'll have for missions. And yes you'll lose a lot of spies, so keep making them.

And in the two turns before I gave up I had the cockpit and stasis chamber of my own ship destroyed.

Don't forget to use a spy of your own for counter-intel every 10 turns. It lowers his success rate and doubles the cost of his misions.

[MyOlde]

But I couldn't see what any cities where I had spies were building. How do you know when the city is building a cockpit? Or how do you find something that's already built, as the AI did with two of my ship's parts?

[Brael]

If you have enough EP against a civ you can see what each city is building.

[Theben]

Or how do you find something that's already built, as the AI did with two of my ship's parts?

You don't have to find it, that's my point. You just have to be in 1 of the AI's cities and have enough EP's to launch an attempt to destroy the part. You can do this in any AI city- and it yours- but some cities have higher costs than others. Which is why the smaller cities are usually the best targets.

[wodan11]

Here's a basic tip for espionage. Early in the game, go into the espionage screen (which by the way you can get using the buttons at upper right) and click the + button next to the civs on your continent and ONLY those civs. Leave it that way all game.