Best use for a Diplomat/Spy

[Scouse Gits]

Hi Monk, In answer to your question - not according to http://ltswww.epfl.ch/~winkler/civ2.html


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Scouse Git[1]

"CARTAGO DELENDA EST" - Cato the Censor

[ottok]

i even check to ALLIES DEFEND!
or city which are my tarket: i think how i do!

[Marcel I]

So much for spy defense:

In most of my games (2.42) even the presence of a spy(veteran or not)doesn't fend off an attempt to steal space flight or plastics.
Is the manual mistaken, or is it the lousy AI cheating again

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Adopt, Adapt and Improve

[SandMonkey]

I could have sworn that I read in a thread a while ago that spies raise the price of a city by like 1/8 or 1/4 or something like that.... or those may be the chances that a tech won't be stolen (i.e. With a spy present an AI spy will only have a 75% chance (1/4 less) of stealing a tech). I could be mistaken though.

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SandMonkey

"Shut up brain or I'll stab you with a qtip"
-Homer Simpson

"Ecky ecky ecky!"
"It's just a flesh wound!"
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail

[inca911]

OK, to end the speculation, here's what I did:

I started a new game, and toggled on cheat mode. Then I played around with a bribing an enemy city using spies whilst varying the units stationed inside the enemy city.

1. Having a spy in the city did not change the bribery price.
2. The square you bribe from did change the bribery price. I did not try to quantify the difference in terms of terrain, proximity of the spy to enemy civs capital, or proximity of the spy to my own capital. But there are "discount" bribery squares (about 5-15 gold less out of a base bribery cost of 80 gold. I'm thinking it is a proximity factor of my spy to my capital, but don't have enough time right now to pin it down precisely.
3. An undefended city is indeed half price.

So there you have it! Stationed spies are worthless against bribery and if you try bribery from different squares you will likely get a cheaper rate. Happy civ to all of you!

[Scouse Gits]

We're pretty sure that the 'distance' used in the formula for bribe price of the city is the distance from the bribing unit to the oppositions Capital - We haven't tested it to destruction, but it certainly gives the right feel....

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SGs in concert

[Aaron Burr]

quote: Originally posted by Marcel I on 03-31-2000 09:56 AM So much for spy defense: In most of my games (2.42) even the presence of a spy(veteran or not)doesn't fend off an attempt to steal space flight or plastics. Is the manual mistaken, or is it the lousy AI cheating again

Marcel,

My experience has been that the AI has a 99.9% success rate at stealing Spaceship tech, no matter how many spies you have stationed in the city. This was undoubtedly programmed in order to make the endgame more exciting.