Realism Invictus

[fnsnad]

Does this mean in the industrial era you need way more and different Ressources as before and can etabluate a sort of value chaine?
That sounds awesome.

Yeah. While you don't need an excess of fuel and other resources to wield an army (you just need one of each), it is very helpful in order to becoming a dominant power since it is greatly bolsters your economy/industrial output and is many times the backbone of it.

 

[doctoraristotelicus]

Do you have some tips for dealing with enemy espionage more effectively? I usually play on lower difficulty levels because I'm normally very incompetent at games in general, but even then enemy spies become such a pain in the arse that I feel like giving up on certain things. I'll have 2-3 spies allocated in each city (more in the capital), and if I don't invest between 30% and 40% in espionage, I'll be harassed every single turn. In my strategy, I usually give up on saving gold and having a treasury, because I know it will all be pillaged, so I'm always at negative gold per turn. I also don't focus on being ahead in technology, because so much of it gets looted too. Things only calm down a little once I build an Intelligence Agency and a Security Bureau in every city and am at around 40% espionage investment, but I'll still get in trouble from time to time and before that it's a nightmare. Curiously enough, one of the worst espionage nightmares I've ever been at was when I was playing with Stalin, who is supposed to have espionage bonus. Can anyone give me some light?

 

[fnsnad]

Do you have some tips for dealing with enemy espionage more effectively? I usually play on lower difficulty levels because I'm normally very incompetent at games in general, but even then enemy spies become such a pain in the arse that I feel like giving up on certain things. I'll have 2-3 spies allocated in each city (more in the capital), and if I don't invest between 30% and 40% in espionage, I'll be harassed every single turn. In my strategy, I usually give up on saving gold and having a treasury, because I know it will all be pillaged, so I'm always at negative gold per turn. I also don't focus on being ahead in technology, because so much of it gets looted too. Things only calm down a little once I build an Intelligence Agency and a Security Bureau in every city and am at around 40% espionage investment, but I'll still get in trouble from time to time and before that it's a nightmare. Curiously enough, one of the worst espionage nightmares I've ever been at was when I was playing with Stalin, who is supposed to have espionage bonus. Can anyone give me some light?

It depends on what you mean by harassed. I found that the AI harasses me often by destroying a clock tower very often - but clock towers are not that useful to sweat about. If they are doing more than that though, that's sort of curious, because I've never experienced anything like what you describe - barring the possibility we have very different definitions of 'harass'. That said, a practical help would if you have an idea on who is really harassing you, you can use your spy, go to their land and run the counter espionage mission. You have to do this every once in a while to the harasser, but that usually makes it very difficult for them to keep doing harm to you and you end up catching a lot of their spies. Then everything should be good again... until another AI starts messing with ya

 

[doctoraristotelicus]

It depends on what you mean by harassed. I found that the AI harasses me often by destroying a clock tower very often - but clock towers are not that useful to sweat about. If they are doing more than that though, that's sort of curious, because I've never experienced anything like what you describe - barring the possibility we have very different definitions of 'harass'. That said, a practical help would if you have an idea on who is really harassing you, you can use your spy, go to their land and run the counter espionage mission. You have to do this every once in a while to the harasser, but that usually makes it very difficult for them to keep doing harm to you and you end up catching a lot of their spies. Then everything should be good again... until another AI starts messing with ya

I've read about the clocktower incidents here before, and found it quite curious, because it had never happened to me. What I get hit with the most is treasury and tech looting, but right now, for example, I'm playing as Louis XIV and my economy is always on the verge of collapse, so once in a while the Finanzamt (I'm playing in German, I don't remember the English name of that building) gets destroyed every 5 turns or so, making everything worse. But you're right, I haven't done a lot of counterespionage missions this time, I guess I forgot since I'm kind of overwhelmed by everyone attacking me. Thanks for your reply!

P.S.: By "harrass" I meant having an espionage mission against me completed successfully.

 

[JohnCarterOfMars]

Do you have some tips for dealing with enemy espionage more effectively? I usually play on lower difficulty levels because I'm normally very incompetent at games in general, but even then enemy spies become such a pain in the arse that I feel like giving up on certain things. I'll have 2-3 spies allocated in each city (more in the capital), and if I don't invest between 30% and 40% in espionage, I'll be harassed every single turn. In my strategy, I usually give up on saving gold and having a treasury, because I know it will all be pillaged, so I'm always at negative gold per turn. I also don't focus on being ahead in technology, because so much of it gets looted too. Things only calm down a little once I build an Intelligence Agency and a Security Bureau in every city and am at around 40% espionage investment, but I'll still get in trouble from time to time and before that it's a nightmare. Curiously enough, one of the worst espionage nightmares I've ever been at was when I was playing with Stalin, who is supposed to have espionage bonus. Can anyone give me some light?

The biggest thing you can do to inhibit enemy espionage is to perform counter-espionage against them.

Here is what I do.

1. Go to your Espionage list and find the civilization that you want to block.
2. Look at the cities in that civilization to find one with the lowest counter-espionage cost.
3. Send one of your spies to that city.
4. Give your spy the counter-espionage mission.
5. Set a reminder for 70 turns to repeat the counter-espionage mission (it expires after about 75 turns).
6. Go back to step 3.

 

[Hafenguy]

How can I Set a reminder?

 

[JohnCarterOfMars]

How can I Set a reminder?

ALT+R

 

[doctoraristotelicus]

The biggest thing you can do to inhibit enemy espionage is to perform counter-espionage against them.

Here is what I do.

1. Go to your Espionage list and find the civilization that you want to block.
2. Look at the cities in that civilization to find one with the lowest counter-espionage cost.
3. Send one of your spies to that city.
4. Give your spy the counter-espionage mission.
5. Set a reminder for 70 turns to repeat the counter-espionage mission (it expires after about 75 turns).
6. Go back to step 3.

Thank you for your very detailed answer. I will definitely try that out.

 

[Panzeri]

Is it possible to change the difficulty level of a game in progress? (increasing)

 

[fnsnad]

Is it possible to change the difficulty level of a game in progress? (increasing)

Depends on what you exactly mean by difficulty. But in general, yes, I've done something that probably fits your bill, see my post on pg 482. But to highlight the changes and save you a click, "... I wouldn't feel bad about changing the files to creating an AI you'd like to play; it's for enjoyment after all. Though, the file is in XML>GameInfo>CIV4HandicapInfo. I myself play on a custom difficulty that is a blend of all difficulties, where it scales better. If you're interested in the changes, I made it so that the AI starts off around monarch level, but scales so that by the end game they are around immortal level. I put a deity level research nerf on the player (me) and removed all AI starting bonuses."

Making the difficulty scale is a pretty easy change to make, thankfully.