useless spies

[djafrot]

Why can't I ever get a spy in another civ's capital? I've tried a hundred times with the same "your spy was captured. Captain Kangaroo is not pleased" (of course, he or she never does anything).

[Ijuin]

Well, first of all, you are only allowed to try to plant a spy in a specific Civ once per turn--if it fails the first time, then all subsequent attempts during that turn will also fail.

[Tiberius]

However, planting a spy in a different civ can be successful, even if it has failed for the previous civ.

[WarpStorm]

In fact, they automatic failure goes on past the turn you failed.

NOTE: If you fail a spy mission, you will automatically fail any spy mission against that same civilization for next 2-4 turns.

[Minmaster]

WHERE did u find that info wasp?

[fittstim]

Originally posted by WarpStorm
In fact, they automatic failure goes on past the turn you failed.

Hmmm. I'm not 100% sure but almost 99.99% sure that this information is incorrect.

It is correct that if you fail in your attempt to implant a spy, you can not implant another spy IN THAT SAME CIV during the same turn. However, you can try your luck with the next civ on the list with a normal chance.

[WarpStorm]

The quote is from the readme.txt file

[wilbill]

Re: useless spies

Originally posted by djafrot
Why can't I ever get a spy in another civ's capital? I've tried a hundred times with the same "your spy was captured. Captain Kangaroo is not pleased" (of course, he or she never does anything).

And don't count on them not doing anything. If the AI civ is displeased with you, your diplomatic/trade relations are poor, and it estimates it has a decent chance of winning, failing to plant a spy can cause him to declare war on you.

[Eli]

So the Espionage system is still screwed up?

[WarpStorm]

No, the espionage system works fine. My only gripe is that the default prices are too high, but that's what the editor is for.

[Mad Bomber]

Warpstorm:

What value changes do you like to change with the editor to make spy missions more affordable? I have messed around with this some but not with much success. One change that I have found useful is to allow stealing world maps in the embassy espionage options.

[WarpStorm]

It depends on how much espionage action you want in the game. If the price is too low the AI will be doing it all the time. I find lowering the pirce of everything across the board by half is a good start in the right direction. I like lowering the price of steal tech even more.

[player1]

I had steal tech mission lowered to 50-70% in my ownm MOD.


But later, I returned it to nomal cost.

Simple, modern age steal-tech becomes way to much exploitable (much, much cheaper then buying). Even with standard mission cost.

One the other hand, with standard cost steal in medivial era is just not worth it.
SO it's double edged sword.

If only I could lower its price in ancient and medivial era only.

[Coracle]

Originally posted by WarpStorm
No, the espionage system works fine. My only gripe is that the default prices are too high, but that's what the editor is for.

Exactly why do we have to edit so much of the game because Firaxis got it wrong owing to not enough playtesting?? I have spent many hours just editing their non-historical unit values.

Espionage has always been good for one thing - getting other civs mad enough to declare war on you.

One of the most annoying aspects of Espionage is when you look for a mole and don't find one. It always causes an incident as all the game does is say it "failed". It has always been screwed up.

[Theseus]

Tonight, I planted spies with 3 civs (got caught on the 4th but didn't care), stole 2 techs, and checked troop positions of my biggest enemy, all on one turn.

Uh, what's broken again?