How to disable diplomats/spies from stealing techs...

[Hendrik the Great]

Well, at the time I am trying to make a scenario and all the cives have different
units, etc...That works fine.
However I would also like to include diplomats/spies in the game.
The problem now is that I see no way to make
sure that they wont steal any technologies.
So, does anyone know if it is possible to
disable the steal tech option for diplomats
or spies?
And if how?

Hendrik the Great

[Paul Hanson]

Mmmm... a good question there. As far as I`m aware, the only diplomat action that can be disabled is bribing cities, due to it`s position in the diplomat options list (the bottom, so you can just delete the line. See Harlan Thompson`s Mongols scenario for a good example of this). The only other ways that I could think of are a) disabling the production of diplomats, or b) making all techs have the prerequisites "No". However, they`re both drastic, and I doubt that you want to do either of them.

------------------
"I`m a rugged individualist, just like everyone else".

-Bart Simpson`s Guide to Life

[Hendrik the Great]

Paul Hanson
you are correct. I considered making all the
techs no, no's or something like that but that would a) totally mess up my nice little tech tree(I had to start over again basicly) and b) it would prohibit the kind of research I would like to take place.
Hmmm...Guess I have to spend my two weeks of autumn holiday to hack through the game files or find a better way of achieving what I want.
Thanks anyway.

I wonder: Maybe there's someone out there who
knows? Yes? You? Please!

Well, gotta quit for today!

Hendrik the Great

[Allard HS]

You could play a bit around with the game.txt file and remove all lines that confirm the bribing. Just like the disabling of the cheat menu in some scenarios. Just remove the line and you won't be able to choose it any more.
Two problems with this thing, I'm not sure if it also works for the AI. And 2ndly you gotta be careful on how to remove the line, cause editing game.txt can be a difficult job.
jezus, er zijn er hier ook meer en meer NL'ers..

[Hendrik the Great]

I have tryed changing it in the game.txt
but when I tried the scenario didn't work
for some strange reason.
Windows told me that there was some sort of
"Unknown Error". What kind of error is that?
Doesn't matter. I will go on trying.
If I get it to work I will surely post it.

Ja Allard HS! Er zijn meer mensen in Nederland die CivII spelen. Alleen maar: ik
ben geen Nederlander.

Hendrik the Great

[Allard HS]

Hoe meer nl'ers (of wat dan ook, als je maar in nl woont is 't goed) des te beter, zou ik zeggen.
Maybe you could post the specific lines of your game.txt here so that we can find out what the problem is. There must be a way to do this neatly. After all, these kind of things are the most fun part of scenario designing.

[Paul Hanson]

Hey come on guys, less of the Dutch, alstublieft! (Bet you couldn`t see that one coming)!

Anyway, it`d be interesting to see how many diplomat functions can be disabled. Actually, messing around with the game.txt file can radically change a game. In one scenario I made, I tried to prevent settlers from building cities. Although I failed, I did manage to prevent people from naming and renaming cities, which could have it`s uses (but none I can think of)

By the way Allard, in your scenario about the Golden Age of the Netherlands, the units file contains a graphic and a small explanation of a Kenau S. Hasselaar unit. Who is she? All I know is that Kenau means amazon, but I`m intrigued as to who Sonja (I believe that is what the S stands for) Hasselaar is!

[Allard HS]

Kenau "Simonsdochter" (which obviously means Simonsdaugter) Hasselaar is quite a legend over here. She was extremely active in kicking off the Spanish during the siege of her town (Haarlem if I'm not totally wrong). I had included her in the original scenario, but unfortunately after some better and more precise research, she was only important just a few years too early so I had to remove her and hope for an update later. As well as some other features (like dikes which make inundiations etc.).
Yeah, in Dutch Kenau means something like a woman that's more like a man, mostly negative. Is it too in other languages? That would be fun..
[This message has been edited by Allard HS (edited October 19, 1999).]

[Hendrik the Great]

Nou, ben terug!

Alright, yesterday night I tried to change it. I simply deleted the lines in which it says " Steal Technology " and left it empty. Result: I, the human controled player
cannot, under NO circumstances, steal a tech.
Great! I thought. I then gave the AI lots of
spies and diplomats to see if the AI can't steal techs either. Of course the AI can!
But, at least I made some progress!

You wanted to see the concerned lines?
Here they are:

@SPYOPTIONS
Establish Embassy
Investigate City
Steal Technology
Industrial Sabotage
Poison Water Supply
Plant Nuclear Device
Incite a Revolt

If you need more insight into it just ask and
I will post the entire part that concerns diplomats and spies. However, there wasn't
much left that has do with stealing techs.

Basicly I believe now that to disable any function for the human player only requires one to delete the necessary lines and then leave them empty. But how to disable the AI??
Lets wait and see.

Hendrik the Great

[Allard HS]

Yes, obviously the AI is not obstructed by game.txt changes. But for the human player this is a very neat way.
As for the AI there are still a number of less neat ways.
-You could add a large number of "dummy" techs, which do nothing at all but have high numbers for AI popularity. Of course you need to have quite a few unused techs for doing this and it's only a very last way.
-You could try if there's really no way of using unstealable techs (2x "no").
-You could make the techs to be stolen by the AI obsolete for the AI. Obviously, this can only be used if the human player is assigned to one or at most two civs.
-Can't think of more right now, but you'd just have to improvise a bit. The more of these little things you have in your scenario, the better it will be!

[Mark von Wagner]

The only technologies that I've seen the computer steal frequently are space flight, plastics, and superconductor. If you remove those from the tech tree, that should cut down on the rate of technology theft.

Mark

[Hendrik the Great]

Are you sure about that? I mean that the AI
will mostly steal only those 3 advances.
In my latest game the AI stole more or less
everything it could get its hands on.
Really everything.

Further, I have been working through the game.txt file and discovered that when you
delete the entire Spyoptions menu the human
player can't do anything at all against AI
cities. If however you delete all the options
but leave "SPYOPTIONS" in place the human
player cannot do anything either. With the
exception that it is possible to investigate
a city.

Basicly I will now try to give diplomats only
to the human player. Most likely trough some
event or so.

I think there are really no exceptions from the fact that one can disable any funtion of
the game.txt for the human player but it will
still always work for the AI.

Hendrik the Great

[Allard HS]

No, the AI has stolen a lot more from me than just those 3.

Good solution.