Espionage Icon, what does it signify?

[shulec]

On the main game play screen of BTS, where all civilizations that have been contacted appear (in the lower right corner above the map), there are several icons that appear after the name of the civilization leader's name. There can be the open border icon, the trade route icon , the defensive pact icon, the religion of the civilization icon and the espionage icon.

What is the significance of the espionage icon ""? When does is appear, and what does it mean when it is present?

 

[ParadigmShifter]

It means that you have more EPs against them than they have against you.

EDIT: And welcome to CFC!!!

 

[shulec]

Thanks. Makes sense now

 

[Sm0ke]

and the benefit is?

 

[pxpdoo]

and the benefit is?

The benefit of the icon is simply to tell at a glance if you're ahead or behind a particular opponant. The benefits of an EP advantage over an opponant is the various passive missions start to become available, the various active missions are cheaper to pull off, and the missions an opponant might try against you become more expensive.
(It's all in the manual.) (Just ignore the "Kill Spy" and "Spies Cannot Enter Our Borders" in there, as they don't exist in the game...)

 

[one2tieyourshoe]

The benefit of the icon is simply to tell at a glance if you're ahead or behind a particular opponant. The benefits of an EP advantage over an opponant is the various passive missions start to become available, the various active missions are cheaper to pull off, and the missions an opponant might try against you become more expensive.
(It's all in the manual.) (Just ignore the "Kill Spy" and "Spies Cannot Enter Our Borders" in there, as they don't exist in the game...)

I never knew why it appeared and disappeared. I figured it had something to do with ranking or points or the possibility of success or something but this makes a lot of sense.

And "a man a plan a canal panama". Theres a palindrome for you. My favorite one actually.

 

[pxpdoo]

I never knew why it appeared and disappeared. I figured it had something to do with ranking or points or the possibility of success or something but this makes a lot of sense.

And "a man a plan a canal panama". Theres a palindrome for you. My favorite one actually.

Nice one

 

[Supr49er]

... EDIT: And welcome to CFC!!!

At least welcome to posting shulec.

 

[Der Schloss]

I'm way ahead in EPs (all the AIs are below 90% in the Espionage Screen), yet the Spy symbols dropped off for the AIs except for my vassal.
Now, I keep catching spys, some of whom their country of origin is known, and there hasn't been any mysterious incidents (successful espionage acts) for a long time.
I haven't sent any spys into other empires since I lost the last two on the next turn many turns/years ago. I do put a spy in each city, and on oil, iron, copper, coal and aluminum deposits with a mil unit.
Could the Espionage icon indicate when they have more spys than the human and disappears when the human has more than the AI? They all didn't disappear at once.
Or could it mean that that leader/empire has a spy in the human's empire?
Thank you for your response and advice in advance.

 

[Bushface]

The icon definitely has nothing to do with the number of spies: it does appear (as stated above) when you have more EPs against an opponent than he/she has against you, and mousing over the opponent's name in the scores list shows the actual values.

The 90% (or whatever) cost modifier in the espionage screen is, I believe, based on the amount of EPs you have allocated to an ooponent during the game, not the ratio or difference of the current values (yours and theirs). Allocating lots of EPs brings your costs down, but they may have done the same, with the result that you get a discount but have less available EPs than the enemy and so the icon disappears. Note that this also means that they will get a discount on mission costs, which is unknowable to you: use the "counterespionage" mission to counteract this.

 

[Der Schloss]

Beating this espionage horse, I read the Bhuric description of 'Spy and Espionage Calculations' (or sumting like dat via da link) and I understand your explanation (I tink), so I send in four spys to a city with whose Empire I have closed borders (CB) and the first gets caught and the next three have successful missions (all four done consecutively on the same turn). Then I send in four spys to a city with whose Empire I have OB and get the same result. So, more spys is directly related to more successful missions (Bhuric's conclusion).
Then I got to wondering, since all the spys that are caught by my spys/Sec Bureau and identified are from the Empire with which I have CB, and since CB enters into Bhuric's calculations, and since the Empire with OB is the highest on the Espionage chart so it must be conducting espionage missions, could I correctly conclude that the unidentified spys that were caught were from the other Empire with OB? This may be s-s-strech-ing the parameters to fit my observations, but there's a heck of a lot more spys caught and no country mentioned which causes me to think that I have a bigger problem with my 'friendly' neighbor than with my 'cold shouldered' neighbor.
Now, if there is some way we could waterboard that unidendified alien sabeteur........

Thank you in advance for your response.

 

[Bushface]

It does not follow that the civ with most EPs against you (I presume that's what you meant by "on the espionage chart") is sending the most spies; they could be saving up for a mass attack, on the basis that more spies = more successes and that more EPs = less cost. But certainly you should conduct counter-espionage agains them, to make any attack much more costly. As you're catching lots of spies, it appears that you already have good defence against their efforts anyway.

 

[GIO888]

This thread has certainly helped me - I always idly wondered why the Espionage icon appeared/disappeared, so snaps to Shulec for asking the question.

And Party on.