play the world - espionage

[Raleigh]

I haven't bought the expansion yet, but I was curious - does it do anything to change the (IMHO) awful espionage system currently existing in CIV III. I mean, maybe it is just my incompetence with the game, but paying $3k to steak a technology I will research in 6 turns just doesn't seem worth it? Thanks...

[vmxa1]

NO change that I could see.I rarely use it. Just once in a while to see troop layouts for nukes and for a lark.

[dexters]

I would argue the espionage system in Civ 2 is more awful than the one in Civ III.

The one in Civ III is far more restrictive and costly. But I agree with you that spy -ops seems overpriced and highly ineffective.

The point of espionage in Civ 3 is to de-emphasize it. You can plant spies and investigate cities fairly cheaply. That will give you the bulk of the military intelligence you need.

The other stuff, such as inciting revolt/defection, undermining production, stealing techs, have been made more expensive and more difficult to de-emphasize them. And I think for good reasons.

[bongo]

The game can be modded so espionage will be cheaper but then there will be espionage all the time...just try it

dexters , agree with your view on civ2. The espionage in civ2 were in fact so horrible that the strongest unit in the game were the spy....

[ChrisiusMaximus]

Definitely better than civ2 I have to agree but maybe a little to inefective now due to the price.

but like bongo says you can mod the costs.

[ghen]

investigating cities and nukes work much better than propaganda or sabotage


Seriously though, I think that prices should be tweaked down a little.. Having a game full of espionage would probably suck, but I should see at least one tech stolen or production sabataged..

If it gets tweaked down enough that would also give an excuse for city improvements made to hamper espionage and who knows, maybe a NSA wonder or even Homeland Security (barf).

[dexters]

A john aschcroft peaceful leader?

[The Templar]

Originally posted by dexters
A john aschcroft peaceful leader?

Jesus loves me yes I know, for the voices tell me so ...

[Raleigh]

Good comments, all! Didn't realize you could edit espionage costs. I think I will try that once just to see what happens.

Thanks for the responses! (really liked the NSA wonder or improvement). Also, Civ 2 allowed you to put spies in your own cities to act as counter-espionage, didn't it?

Thanks again all!

[Kuciwalker]

An espionage-filled game would be cool.

[bongo]

Raleigh , spies in cities would act as counter-esionage in civ2 but only against sabotage and tech-stealing. They did not stop you from investigating cities or (most important)inciting revolts.

I haven't modded spy costs myself but I read a thread where someone else had(don't remember who ) and he said the AI went completely bananas and conducted espionage all the time(he lowered the cost by 90%)

[dexters]

Heh.

[David Murray]

The single biggest improvement to be made to espionage is to make planting a spy have a 95% or even 100% success rate. After all, it usually costs at least a couple hundred gold.

And what I hate is the way Firaxis have rigged it so that you can try once per turn but if you fail to plant a spy it will automatically fail on each consecutive turn. It should be random every time you try, and at the very least the option should be grayed out if you aren't going to be allowed even a chance of planting a spy.

As I was saying ... make planting a spy automatic, like establishing an embassy. Maybe then people will be more willing to try out the espionage options.

[HAND]

A couple of improvements in PTW espionage wouldn't go a miss in my books..simple things like being able to see what form of government a certain AI has once you've actually got a spy into their capital. Since you can find out from the military advisor screen but not espionage screen??
Also you could have a display of an AI's amount of gold up on espionage screen after you have made contact with them, since you find this out anyway simply by going to talk to them!

These two things would make my plotting alot quicker.

[bongo]

In previous civs you would get all sorts of information just by having an embassy; gold, techs, government, capitol, foreign relations, cities. You can still get all this info by talking to them but I really miss that advisor telling me that 'the romans just invented sliced bread' or 'the aztecs moved their capitol to mingapulco'