Tech Steal Poll 1: How many turns to steal a tech (No spy protection)

[Stalker0]

This is a quick series of polls to assess how "fast" should tech stealing actually be.

For this poll, we are looking at when a civ gets their 1st spy in renaissance, so no constabularies or spy protection is up yet.

Assume you are decently behind in tech, and are using tech steals as a rubberband. For the poll, include ALL turns to generate the tech steal, including travel time, setup time, etc etc. Aka this is a spy you have just added to a civ to do tech steals.

 

[andersw]

I assume these polls are per spy and that you can have several or lots of spies stealing techs at the same time from different cities?

 

[Stalker0]

yes assume 1 spy

I assume these polls are per spy and that you can have several or lots of spies stealing techs at the same time from different cities?

 

[ma_kuh]

Assuming a level 1 Spy as well, correct? I feel like my opinion for a simple system is that each building would roughly be canceled out by a spy level.

 

[Stalker0]

Assuming a level 1 Spy as well, correct? I feel like my opinion for a simple system is that each building would roughly be canceled out by a spy level.

yes this early in the game it would be al evel 1 spy

 

[andersw]

How many can we get at most?
+1 as england
+2 at gunpowder and +1 per era after that
+1 statecraft
+3? order ideology (not sure if this changed)
I assume some wonder also add spies

Sorry if a bit offtopic but I wanted to highlight that this can add up a lot.

 

[Phosphoraptor]

Is this turns for a chance to steal or average turns for 1 successful steal?

 

[Stalker0]

Is this turns for a chance to steal or average turns for 1 successful steal?

1 successful steal on average per x turns (including any setup or travel time)

 

[martindo]

I can't answer specifically, but stealing is painfully slow late in the game, like 50 turns or more even with a level 3 spy.

Also, one aspect to address is "reset" of the remaining turns. This happens if you catch up to the target's tech during the long wait: you end up getting "no techs to steal" -- but if you don't watch the Spy screen, you might no notice -- then you suddenly see that 10 turns went back up to 50 when the AI discovered a tech that went beyond you again.

 

[alchx]

In the beginning, technology must be stolen quickly. Conventionally, the time has come for cultural and technological exchange between empires. This will allow lagging empires to catch up with the leaders, so that there are no situations where after 100-150 turns someone is 10-12 technologies behind and a war against him is a beating.

It seems to me that over the entire duration of the game, each empire should be able to steal at least 5 technologies in addition to all other possible missions, CSs coups, spy leveling, counter-espionage. Approximately 1 technology each era to reduce technological gaps so that the game is always interesting and keeps you on your toes. Still, fighting against an alliance of two or three empires that are technologically equal to the player is quite difficult and will require the creation of your own alliance or diplomatic tricks.

 

[statusquo]

For me the idea of stealing tech is kinda strange, let say you wait 50 turns, and now you steal random tech, that you didn't know of, 50 turns back..
Usually, a spy have some specific task, and if you steal, you usually already know what you want. I never risk, because "you know, eventually there will be something valuable"..
Imo, would be better, to give player something faster, less powerful, but giving you some amount of progress, for tech that currently your opponent have, and you want, something like eurekas from civ 6..
It would be technically tech stealing, just not as powerful.
Basically tech stealing, is stealing science equivalent of whole technology, let say it is 3000 science for some Industrial tech. Why is it have to be 3k? It is kinda OP,
it could be like 600-1000, still would be impactful..Or it could be some progress towards multiple technologies you dont have, which would be like equivalent to multiple eurekas.
Honestly, i like the current system, when spy after some turns give you some precent of city science, for fixed amount of turns..
If you gather enough spys, it can be significant amount. My last game with England i was able to steal so much that almost doubled my science.