Dear Mr. Governor, STOP WITH THE SPIES!

[shulec]

I am consistently frustrated with the governor assigning me the spy specialist. Before BTS it was the priest, which I would certainly prefer to the spy.

It seems to me that I usually have the excess population or free specialist later in the game (Statue of Liberty, Mercantilism). Usually, I have a firm advantage with espionage or have sacrificed developing my espionage network to try to fuel my economy or research.

I micromanage enough, and don't want to have to watch the specialists either. Generally it is not a big deal to have the specialist assigned (and even helps somewhat).

Am I undervaluing the Spy specialist the governor consistently assigns me? I felt the same way on Vanilla about the priests until I played the OCC. Thoughts?

 

[Matthew5117]

It is often Spies because you always build Courthouses in your cities, and thus the only option your city has is the Spy (assuming you didn't build anything else)?

This happened to me...

 

[AfterShafter]

The governor is obviously going for re-election, using those spies to dig up dirt on political rivals. Damned opportunist politics!

 

[ezwip]

Spys are not bad just build the Scotland Yard everywhere.

 

[nanomage]

Turn on "emphasize food" and "amphasize hammers"
Governor will then evade specs as long as there are any food-producing tiles, and then assign AWat priests, Engineers, regular priests (in this succession).
However if you want to run spec when there are still food-producing tiles in BFC i guess you should manually force them.

 

[whitelaughter]

Great Prophets can create a maximum of 7 unique buildings, one per religion you've founded. Spies can create Scotland Yard in evey city you have, so effectively unlimited. So, yes, I'd say you're undervaluing Great Spies - or possibly not getting enough GP to hit maximum usefulness for each type.

 

[helemaalnicks]

gg governor, unless if you're trying to farm something usefull like a scientist, spies are the way to go. Spies are simply the best specialist, that's why governor picks em.

 

[Antilogic]

If you forcibly assign a specialist type (get the yellow outline) your governor will not reassign them when the city grows. This angered me as well, because I had a couple cities that were only running scientists and this messed up my system.

Great Spies do have their uses, though, although my favorite early on is to settle one and then build Scotland Yard in the same city. The extra beakers help, and the settled great spy creates 12 EP/turn, which is usually more than the +100% EP gives me early on.

I started nicknaming my governors after Stalin and other paranoid dictators. Why else would they need that many spies?

 

[shulec]

Great Prophets can create a maximum of 7 unique buildings, one per religion you've founded. Spies can create Scotland Yard in evey city you have, so effectively unlimited. So, yes, I'd say you're undervaluing Great Spies - or possibly not getting enough GP to hit maximum usefulness for each type.

I do not undervalue an early to mid game great spy. They are very useful, especially if you build the Great Wall. My post/the problem does not pertain to the production of great people. It pertains to the benefits of running a particular specialist. Later in the game, I generally run engineers and priests in production cities, scientists in science cities, and merchants in cottage cities, and spies in espionage cities. Obviously if you are running an espionage economy, you run spies. I run artists in recently conquered border cities and in cultural victory attempts. I find the AI usually puts a much greater emphasis than I do on espionage late in the game. In that situation the +4 espionage points from a spy specialist doesn't help me.

For example, when I am running three engineers in a production city (forge 1, factory 2), if my population goes up, I would want my next specialist to be assigned as a priest. Inevitably, it gets assigned as a spy. So for a few turns before I realize this, this specialist is wasted since my city does not have espionage point modifiers from Security Bureau, Intelligence agency or Scotland yard.

Late in the game, I primarily use my great people for Golden ages or making great specialists. There is usually not a great benefit for bulbing or using the GP for their specialized function (poss exception is engineer). I am happy to pop a great spy. I will usually couple this with a great scientist and/or a great artist for a golden age.

 

[whitelaughter]

I see....does this still occur if you've got Angkor Wat and/or the Spiral Minaret? Perhaps increasing the value of Priests will encourage the AI to assign them?

 

[Xellos-_^]

I see....does this still occur if you've got Angkor Wat and/or the Spiral Minaret? Perhaps increasing the value of Priests will encourage the AI to assign them?

i usually built both and the governor still assign gs when i have slots open for gp.

 

[r_rolo1]

This is most likely a problem with the value that the AI gives to the EP generation. There are some mods that have the same issue with EP generating specs ( like the Hacker in Planetfall )......

 

[Antilogic]

I see....does this still occur if you've got Angkor Wat and/or the Spiral Minaret? Perhaps increasing the value of Priests will encourage the AI to assign them?

To my understanding, the game doesn't have a second "value" for specialists. The AI sees 4 EP and 3 beakers and says 4 > 3. Unless you say emphasize production, it will say 4 EP > 2 hammers as well.