Intelligence gathering

[Dis]

someone help me please. I'm trying to find out info about the ai civs. I have embassy's. How can I find out what techs they have and what they are researching? I know you need to plant a spy to find out about their military- that is no big deal. What about finding out about strategic resources and such? I think you can only find out about those on the diplomacy window

and yes I know: read the manual. already did. they put stuff in funny places in this game. Like the draft button in the city screen. one of these days I'll accidently hit that.

and I didn't post this in general because that is a hellhole over there

and this is an important strategy to find out about the ai civs.

[deadseasquirrel]

"How can I find out what techs they have and what they are researching?"

don't think there's a way to do this. one way to *kinda* tell is to try offering one of your techs to them. if they offer 1 gold for it, and they aint broke, there's a pretty good chance they're about to finish researching it themselves. china did this to me, so i figured they'd get democracy on the next turn or so, so i just went ahead and sold it to the rest of the civs b4 they got to.

"What about finding out about strategic resources and such? I think you can only find out about those on the diplomacy window"

that will only show you the resources *you* could get from them... not all their resources. you gotta do the ctrl-shift-m thing to see all the resources in their territory.

also, when u investigate the city it will show you what resources (luxury) are coming in to that city and the happy ppl they make.

then, u gotta go to the foreign advisor screen and see who is trading with whom to get some kind of idea where the extra resources (lux and strat) are coming from.

not a perfect, know-it-all solution but i like the challenge of having to take a guess.

dss

[mr.buddylee]

another thing

It took me a while to realize this, but by pressing F8 (I think... It may be F9 or another key) you can see all the wonders of the world, and which cities are building them and I THINK you can see how close they are to completion, although I don't remember for sure. Either way, its a good way to plan an attack if you're just looking to weaken one civ and strengthen your own.

[Grim Legacy]

No I don't think the Wonder screen shows how far they are, only who, what and where.

[BigRich]

Re: Intelligence gathering

*snip*

and I didn't post this in general because that is a hellhole over there

Urggh,

You're not wrong there . Its starting to bear a nasty resemblance to the D2 general discussion forum. Glad I switched over to this board, reading about the game situations that are coming up is good. Going to war over resources, short surgical wars, an AI you can actually bargain with if it offers a ridiculous ultimatum, playing peacefully(?) with culture! Sure a lot of this was anticipated but its great to see it working out and making for a much different game.

Can't wait to get the game, the only problem is the new computer I need to run it

Maybe by the time I get it, the Velocyrix guide version 1.0 will be out to help me get past Regent level

Rich

[eMarkM]

Use the F8 key to see who's building what wonder where and than use embassy to investigate city. Cost some $$, but if you see they're 5 turns away and you're 20 away, you know to stop and save some shields. Or do what you can to stop them from finishing.

I've used an Explorer to get intell from the field on AI civs, typically ones on another continent. The AI will tell you to get off his land, but not force you. After that they never complain again about Explorer and he's free to roam. At least in my experience of doing this twice. You can watch AI foreign wars and be updated on their units--of course makes for longer wait between turns... Ok, a limited use, but then what the heck else can you use Explorer for, exploring? Ha, nothing left by then.

e

[Dis]

was someone asking me something about this thread. I'm sorry I accidently closed the ICQ window, so I'm not sure what the question was.

something about espionage. after you discovered espionage tech, and have established embassies (you have to double click the star icon next to the box by your capitol city on the world view screen- terrible place to put it I know). There should be a little box that comes up in the lower right corner of the screen while in world view. I'm not sure, but I think it is a box with an e in it. Click that to bring up spy options. Many are expensive. I have never really used them myself.

[wisecat]

BTW when you have the tech permitting to see a resource on map it also shows resources within your "friends" borders, as long as you have a map of that part of the world. Same goes for extra resources and luxuries. So, buy maps and visually scan them for goodies.