Rate of success of technology stealing, results of a basic test

[Bamspeedy]

Originally posted by rilnator
I think the money is better spent on researching the tech coz spying can be pretty expensive and I'm bad with money.

But sometimes you just can't research as fast as the AI (especially on higher levels), but you do have extra money from trade deals or something. It costs more for you, the human to research on your own, and the AI charges higher prices for their techs on the higher levels. On the highest levels, it can be cheaper to do espionage than to research or buy them, even if you fail on stealing the tech half the time. Sometimes you have extra money lying around, but you need a tech NOW (like you have a leader or pre-build ready for a wonder, but not the tech), you just can't instantly turn that gold into beakers.

I may try a game where i steal EVERY tech (no tech trading or self-research allowed at all). Edit: Well, I guess I would need to research/trade for Writing to get the diplomats/embassies.

 

[anarres]

Tech stealing makes me lose my tech lead in PBEM's - it is overpowered against humans.

 

[Aggie]

Originally posted by anarres
Tech stealing makes me lose my tech lead in PBEM's - it is overpowered against humans.

Exactly anarres. That was my main reason to test it. I wanted to have proof of my suspicions that the chance of success is quite high.

 

[Michael York]

It is a method of reducing the cost of techs both in trade (as in trade from tiles) and in reducing the infastructure necessary.

I've made great use of it on both deity and emporer. Lower than that tech parity isn't too dificult.

 

[goyal]

what about the sentry effects???

 

[The Economist]

I think the money is better spent on researching the tech coz spying can be pretty expensive and I'm bad with money.

Well, sometimes you desperately need a certain technology right away, and it can't wait 5 - 20 turns. If an enemy stack o' death is 1 turn away from declaring war (ah the ever-subtle AI), you might *need* to steal a tech to get access to a new defensive unit (which you would upgrade to in the nearby cities.) Sometimes trading isn't an option- if the only AI that has the tech is at war with you, or if nobody is willing to part with it for a price that you can afford.

But, generally I think most players would agree that researching and buying/trading techs is the norm.

 

[Moonsinger]

Aggie: Thanks for doing the test! I think this thread should be moved to the article forum so that we can dig it up for more later.

 

[Arathorn]

Moonsinger, this article (while incredibly valuable at the time it was written) has been superceded by Oystein's work in the article forum, which is more comprehensive and shows a few inaccuracies in Aggie's work. You really should check that out.

Arathorn

 

[Moonsinger]

Thanks Arathorn! Sorry, I have been gone for a long time and not really paid much attention to Civ. I just encountered this thread by accident; I didn't mean to dig up old thread.

 

[Aggie]

Thanks for the compliments Moonsinger. But like Arathorn said, Oystein took it a few steps further and wrote an excellent article on this topic. Definately a must read Still I'm glad that my findings were informative for a whole year.