[BTS] The Complete Guide to Espionage

Kaitzilla · Nov 19, 2018

Beyond the Sword introduced Civ 4 to useful Spies and Espionage Points :espionage:

, but never really explained the best way to use them. (Spies were useless in Warlords!)
This guide is intended to cover every aspect of Espionage once and for all. :cowboy:

(BtS Patch 3.19)

A list of all the nice threads that came before:

Spoiler :

1) Start of the Game and Passive Missions
Even before the era of spies starts, it is possible to use the espionage screen and scouts to get some info on your neighbors.

The Palace, which every civilization's capital starts with, provides +4 points.
Once the player meets an AI for the 1st time, both the AI and the player automatically start putting +4 :espionage:

per turn on each other.
This event also unlocks the slider below the tech slider.

Press Control + E or the :espionage:

button in the top right corner to open the Espionage Window.
So far only the passives "Can See Demographics" and "Can See Research" are available after meeting an AI on Turn 1.

Spoiler :

Can See Demographics has a 0.3 modifier and starts at 0.3*(100+0) = 30
Unlocking this allows the player to see secret AI stats graphically compared to the player in the Info Screen (F9).

Spoiler :

The Info Screen (F9) includes GNP each turn (total commerce + total culture + total espionage + (total research * research bonus) – expenses), Manufactured Goods each turn (Total Hammers Produced), Crop Yield each turn (Total Food Produced), Culture each turn (Total of all Cities combined), Espionage (Cumulative Total produced over the game), and most importantly Power (Represented by Soldiers).
Robi D's Demographics Guide explains Soldiers here.

Spoiler :

Can See Research has a 0.75 modifier and starts at 0.75*(100+0) = 75
Unlocking this allows the player to see what the AI is currently teching in the scoreboard in the bottom right of the screen and how many turns to finish the tech at their current tech rate.
If this is ever activated but blank, that means the AI has not put 1 turn into a new tech yet.

Go forward a single turn to Turn 2, and both the AI and the human player put +4 :espionage:

into each other.
Can See Demographics now costs = 31 :espionage:

Can See Research now costs = 78 :espionage:

Spoiler :

Passive Mission Costs are governed by the formula:

Base Factor * (100+How much they have against you) * Modifiers

Base Factors for Passive Missions
Demographics=0.3
City Visibility=1.2
Investigate=2
See Research=0.75

On Turn 1 Tokugawa has 0 :espionage:

accumulated against the player.
His Passive 'Can See Demographics' cost the player 0.3*(100+0) = 30 :espionage:

to see.
His Passive 'Can See Research' cost the player 0.75*(100+0) = 75 :espionage:

to see.

On Turn 2 Tokugawa has 4 :espionage:

accumulated against the player.
His Passive 'Can See Demographics' cost the player 0.3*(100+4) = 31 :espionage:

to see.
His Passive 'Can See Research' cost the player 0.75*(100+4) = 78 :espionage:

to see.

If the AI has met another AI besides the human player, they will likely put +2 :espionage:

per turn into the human or even +0 :espionage:

per turn.

It is also possible to see how many total points the AI has built up against the player at any time.
Merely hover the mouse pointer over the AI in the scoreboard and the popup will give the Ratio of AI espionage points against the player / player espionage points against the AI.

Spoiler :

In this example, Tokugawa clearly met another AI.

After 11 turns, Tokugawa has 20 :espionage:

on the player instead of 44 :espionage:

!

Passive missions like 'See Demographics' and 'See Research' are based entirely on how much Espionage Points the human and AI have stored up against each other.
If the human player blows all their :espionage:

they have stored up against the AI in a spy mission, all those passive bonuses go away until the pool of espionage points builds back up.
If the AI blows all their :espionage:

points they have stored up against the human with a spy mission, the cost to see their Demographics resets back to 30 :espionage:

and the cost to see their Research resets back to 75 :espionage:

.

2) The 1st AI City
Before Open Borders, it is possible to get vision on an AI city to see what they are doing.
This is possible by standing on a hill to get +1 vision, staring across a lake to get +1 vision, the city being on a hill, or getting a good angle on the coast.

Spoiler :

Note that a forest or jungle can block vision on the city and a straight coastline is not enough to get city vision.

Spoiler :

Once vision is achieved on the 1st AI city, 3 things immediately happen.
1st, the Espionage Screen is immediately updated with the final 2 of 4 Passive Missions.

City Visibility has a 1.2 modifier and starts at 1.2*(100+0) = 120.
Unlocking this allows the player to view any AI city uncovered from the black fog as if the player had a unit standing inside that city. (Best with cities on a hill or next to a lake to see more than 9 tiles)
Investigate City has a 2.0 modifier and starts at 2.0*(100+0) = 200.
Unlocking this allows the player to double click on any AI city uncovered from the black fog and view its intimate details as if the AI city were the player's own city. :cool:

If the AI regularly accumulates +4 :espionage:

against the player, the player must accumulate more than +5 :espionage:

per turn against the AI to eventually unlock 'City Visibility'.
If the AI regularly accumulates +4 :espionage:

against the player, the player must accumulate more than +8 :espionage:

per turn against the AI to eventually unlock 'Investigate City'.
Don't expect to unlock these 2 passives against an AI with the measly +4 :espionage:

per turn from the Palace.
The 1.2 modifier and 2.0 modifier are brutal.

City Visibility and Investigate City's passive costs are always increased by the Distance Penalty! :cry:

The farther the AI cities are from the player capital, the more :espionage:

it will take to reveal them.

In addition to the distance penalty modifier, City Visibility/Investigate City are also affected by __% Cost espionage point spending, counterespionage mission by AI spy, security bureau building, trade routes, state religion, and city culture ratio modifiers.
In comparison, Can See Demographics and Can See Research are only affected by __% Cost and Counterespionage mission by AI Spy modifiers.
For more information on cost modifiers, read Section 6) Mission Costs After Modifiers later in this guide.

To illustrate the distance penalty in an example, Tokugawa has +4 :espionage:

accumulated against the player with 'City Visibility' costing 179 :espionage:

and 'Investigate City' costing 301 :espionage:

.

Spoiler :

City Visibility = 1.2*(100+4)*Distance Penalty = 124*Distance Penalty = 179
Investigate City = 2.0*(100+4)*Distance Penalty = 208*Distance Penalty = 301

Distance Penalty from player capital to Tokyo is 179/124 = 301/208 = 1.45 = +45%
124*1.45 = 179.8 = 179
208*1.45 = 301.6 = 301
Distance Penalty is also able to be calculated easiest through the Counterespionage Mission cost at the start of the game when everyone is still producing +4 :espionage:

per turn.

Spoiler :

Here is the hard way to calculate distance penalty by counting tiles if you know what map you are playing.
This is mainly for the mid-game when there are too many modifiers to subtract out, or the distance modifier needs to be known for a gift city.

Spoiler :

The AI tends to spend :gold:

on their Espionage Slider whenever the player unlocks 'See Research', so 'City Visibility and 'Investigate City' are almost never unlocked until the midgame.
Causing the AI to use their :espionage:

slider is one of the few ways to directly hurt an AI's teching speed by 10% or 20%.

The AI will never increase their Espionage Slider over 20% due to coding as pointed out by Coanda.

Does reaching 'City Visibility' passive threshold reveal undiscovered cities?
No.
Cities have to be manually seen with units or through a map trade before cities are visible.

Spoiler :

The 2nd thing that occurs when a city is unfogged from the blackness is that the population of the city is forever known to the human at all times.
When an AI 3-pop whips their capital and the player doesn't have a single unit nearby, the Population of the city instantly updates in the gray fog.

This is a surprising result, but knowing the total population of a neighbor is a good way of judging overall strength.
So get vision on all those cities!

The 3rd thing that occurs when a city is unfogged is that it is possible to zoom all the way in and see which buildings a city has.
Zoomed-in city buildings guide here

Finally, it is worth mentioning the effects of the Total Player Espionage Spending vs. the AI.
This is a record of all the espionage points ever produced and is not affected by spending points in spy missions in any way.

Costs for all 4 Passive Effects are affected by the Total Espionage Spending Ratio for the Player/AI. (Counterespionage mission also affects all 4 Passive Effects, but AI never uses it)
This Ratio becomes important when it deviates from 100% and can be viewed directly at any time in the Espionage Screen.

Total Player Espionage spending vs. the AI Total Espionage Spending (__% Cost) is governed by the formula:

(2 * TargetsTotalEPpoints + PlayerTotalEPpoints) / (TargetsTotalEPpoints + 2 * PlayerTotalEPpoints)

In this example on Turn 3, the player has 15 :espionage:

in Tokugawa and Tokugawa has 8 :espionage:

in the player. (Met Tokugawa on Turn 1; Player has extra 7 :espionage:

due to slider)

Spoiler :

Note that Tokugawa has (86% Cost) next to his name.
This means that the player has accumulated more TOTAL Espionage Points :espionage:

in their history than Tokugawa has, so the number will be smaller than 100%.
Due to this, the player gets a bonus against Tokugawa for the 4 Passive Effects and also when conducting Espionage Missions with Spies!

Now one would be tempted to plug in 15 :espionage:

for the human and 8 :espionage:

for Tokugawa, but the +4 per turn that the Palace Generated from turn 0 counts even before we met the 1st AI.
So for this example it would be 19 :espionage:

for the human and 12 :espionage:

for Tokugawa to correctly calculate __% Cost.
(__% Cost) = (2*12+19)/(12+2*19) = (24+19)/(12+38) = (43/50) = 0.86 = (86% Cost)
Precisely correct

With the bonus provided by (86% Cost), instead of needing 81 :espionage:

to view Tokugawa's tech research, we only need 0.86 * 81 = 69.66 = 69 :espionage:

3) Knowing what the AI city is producing using 'Sabotage Production' Mission
Let's take another look at the Espionage Screen after revealing the 1st AI city.
The Passive Effects information at the top no longer interests us, we only care about the Spy Mission Costs and what can be gleaned from there.

Spoiler :

There are 13 possible Spy Missions.

Sabotage Tile
Sabotage Building
Sabotage Project
Sabotage Production
Steal Treasury
Spread Culture
Poison Water
Foment Unhappiness
Support City Revolt
Steal Technology
Influence Civics
Influence Religion
Perform Counterespionage

All of these will be explored in detail later in this guide, but for now only Sabotage Production and Perform Counterespionage are interesting.
'Sabotage Production' lets you know how many an AI city has in their build.
This indirectly lets you know what they are building.

If Sabotage Production is blank, that means the item the AI is currently building has 0 hammers placed into it so far.
This is irritating if the AI is completing an item every single turn as the 'Sabotage Production' information will remain blank. :cringe:

=============================

What is the foolproof formula for calculating in a AI City build?

in AI City build = (Sabotage Production / City Revolt) * (650/6)

Oh nice, why does that work? (LowtherCastle :hatsoff:

)
It works because of Algebra.

1) :hammers:

_in_city_build * 6 = Sabotage Production Base Mission Cost
2) Sabotage Production Mission Cost seen in the city screen = Sabotage Production Base Mission Cost * modifiers.
3) Sabotage Production Mission Cost seen in the city screen = :hammers:

_in_city_build * 6 * modifiers
We are trying to figure out :hammers:

_in_city_build, so how do we get rid of the unknown quantity 'modifiers'? (modifiers is __% Cost, distance penalty, etc.)

The base cost of 'City Revolt' is 650 for all game speeds.
City Revolt cost on the city screen = 650 * modifiers
We could divide Sabotage Production Mission Cost seen in city screen by City Revolt Cost seen in city screen to remove the hidden modifiers from both of them, then multiply by 650 to get just Sabotage Production Base Mission Cost.
Sabotage Production Base Mission Cost is equal to :hammers:

_in_city_build * 6.
Divide Sabotage Production Base Mission Cost by 6 and we instantly have :hammers:

_in_city_build,

Best of all, Sabotage Production is always available if a city has hammers in a build, and City Revolt is also always available.
The formula is correct for all game speeds and settings.
Round up or down to the nearest integer to get the :hammers:

in the AI city build.

For our example with 7 :espionage:

sabotage production cost and 806 :espionage:

revolt city cost, we can calculate the hammers in Tokyo's city build to be = ((7/806)*(650/6)) = 0.94 or 1 :hammers:

A Great Spy infiltration confirms the city is indeed producing 1 :hammers:

in an Archer. :goodjob:

The formula worked.

=============================

Once you know how many hammers are in an AI build, then you need to look up how many :hammers:

the various AI builds cost on the difficulty you are playing.

The game difficulty modifiers are described here: (Civ4HandicapInfo)
http://modiki.civfanatics.com/index.php?title=Civ4HandicapInfo

The best way to get the direct AI difficulty modifiers is to consult the Civ 4 XML Reference and see they are stored in Assets\XML\GameInfo
http://modiki.civfanatics.com/index.php?title=Civ4_XML_Reference

Here is the copy+pasted handicap information from the Civ 4 BTS 3.19 game files

Spoiler :

AI build costs on Deity
In the Ancient Era
Units (iAITrainPercent) cost 60% of normal
Buildings (iAIConstructPercent) cost 60% of normal
Wonders (iAIWorldConstructPercent) cost 100% of normal
City Growth (iAIGrowthPercent) costs 80% of normal :food:

Settler is a special case at 92 :hammers:

..

Archer 25*0.6 = 15 :hammers:

Work Boat 30*0.6 = 18 :hammers:

Barracks 50*0.6 = 30 :hammers:

Worker 60*0.6 = 36 :hammers:

Pyramids 500*1 = 500 :hammers:

Size 1 = 22*0.8 = 17 :food:

to Size 2
Size 2 = 24*0.8 = 19 :food:

to Size 3
Size 3 = 26*0.8 = 20 :food:

to Size 4

Once a city is calculated to have between 37 :hammers:

and 91

it is probably a Settler.
Once a city is calculated to have over 92 :hammers:

it is probably a Wonder.

What makes Deity AI even more terrifying is the Era bonus they get.
On Deity, for every era that the AI advances, they get a (-5%) to almost everything bonus. :eek:

This is the infamous iAIPerEraModifier

All the AI have to do is get an appropriate tech, advance to a new era, and they get a 5% bonus to almost everything.

iAIPerEraModifier does not affect the cost of tech the AI is researching :science:

List of Techs to advance to the next Era

Spoiler :

So if the AI gets Nationalism and enters the Renaissance Era (Era = 3), they get a 3*5 = 15% bonus to production, food, units, and even Wonders!
For a Renaissance Era Deity AI, build costs become:
Units (iAITrainPercent) cost (0.6*0.85) = 51% of normal
Buildings (iAIConstructPercent) cost 0.6*0.85) = 51% of normal
Wonders (iAIWorldConstructPercent) cost (1.0*0.85) = 85% of normal
City Growth (iAIGrowthPercent) costs (0.8*0.85) = 68% of normal :food:

Archer 25*0.51 = 12 :hammers:

Work Boat 30*0.51 = 15 :hammers:

Barracks 50*0.51 = 25 :hammers:

Worker 60*0.51 = 30 :hammers:

Pyramids 500*0.85 = 425 :hammers:

Size 1 = 22*0.68 = 14 :food:

to Size 2
Size 2 = 24*0.68 = 16 :food:

to Size 3
Size 3 = 26*0.68 = 17 :food:

to Size 4

The best way to keep track of the era of the AI is monitoring the AI's completed techs through the trade screen. ("Can Research" shows all the techs the AI has the prerequisites to research :eek:

)
City models only update for some eras and are not a great way to keep track of the AI's era.

Spoiler :

Kaitzilla · Nov 19, 2018

4) Writing is teched and Open Borders is signed.

This is a major milestone for gathering intelligence.
Send a Scout in and reveal every AI city.
Now all AI production, buildings, and population can be monitored.

Can See Demographics
Can See Research
City Visibility
Investigate City

The 1st Passive Effect of 'Can See Demographics' is usually reached by the time Writing is teched.
If both the AI and the player put +4 :espionage:

per turn on each other, they will both reach the 'Demographics' threshold after 11 turns.
+4 :espionage:

* 11 turns = 44 :espionage:

the player and AI have on each other after 11 turns.
0.3*(100+44) = 43 :espionage:

needed to activate 'Can See Demographics'

To view Demographics, press the F9 key or click on the Info Screen button in the top right of the game.
The graphs let the player view their GNP, Production, Food, Power (Soldiers), Culture, and Espionage compared to the AI.

Spoiler :

The 2nd Passive Effect of 'Can See Research' is occasionally reached by the time Writing is teched.
If both the AI and player put +4 :espionage:

per turn on each other, they will both reach the 'View Research' threshold after 75 turns.
+4 :espionage:

* 75 turns = 300 :espionage:

the player and AI have on each other after 75 turns.
0.75*(100+300) = 300 :espionage:

needed to activate 'Can See Research'.

The only way to really see an AI's current research is to use the :espionage:

slider to go far beyond +4 :espionage:

per turn, or hope that the AI puts their +4 :espionage:

per turn onto a different AI and not the player.

Spoiler :

The 3rd and 4th Passive Effects 'City Visibility' and 'Investigate City' are almost never achieved by the time Writing is teched.

There is one more final way to use Open Borders to gather intelligence that hasn't been mentioned here before.
It is possible to tell if an AI has Horse, Copper, or Iron before the player techs Animal Husbandry, Bronze Working, or Iron Working.
It is all about abnormal tile yields.
Every time the AI gets Animal Husbandry, Bronze Working, or Iron Working, any Horse/Bronze/Iron tiles in their territory will get an additional +1 that the player can see.

First turn on the Tile Yields button in the bottom right of the screen or press Control + Y.
Then search for any abnormal +1 :hammers:

tile.
As long as the black fog is removed, the tile yield will update in the grey fog even if a scouting unit is no longer there and the AI researches the necessary tech.

Spoiler :

5) Which AI are likely to use the Espionage Slider aggressively?
Civ Illustrated has claimed for 6 years that different AI spend different amounts of resources on espionage.

Here is a list of AI from lowest to highest for iEspionageWeight

Spoiler :

Constructing a test game, let's test real quick how the various AI respond to heavy pressure.
Gandhi + Boudica + Asoka + Brennus + Catherine + Stalin will give us a nice spread of iEspionageWeight (50/70/90/110/130/150)
Set up the capital to produce +72 :espionage:

per turn, split it to +12 :espionage:

per turn vs. each AI, and press next turn repeatedly until a nice graph is produced.

Spoiler :

The results are not what I expected! :eek:

The espionage leader on Turn 125 was Brennus.
Catherine and Stalin were last.
Gandhi, Boudica, Asoka, and Brennus all put 20% slider into :espionage:

Catherine and Stalin kept their espionage slider at 0%

I guess iEspionageWeight isn't a useful measure of AI espionage after all? :dunno:

**Edit**
Coanda says it is still useful.

https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/the-complete-guide-to-espionage.638613/#post-15294465

6) Alphabet and Spies
Once the player techs or trades for Alphabet, they can produce Spies and start spending the :espionage:

points they have built up against the AI.

Immediately 4 questions appear.

What are the odds my Spy will be captured and killed each turn?
What are the 13 Spy Missions and what do they cost?
What are the odds of success for each Spy Mission?
What are the modifiers to the cost and odds of success for each Spy Mission?

95% of the work on this has already been done on this by Bhruick , Roland Johansen, and KrikkitTwo.
I will try to sum it up below.

Spy Death Odds Each Turn while in AI Territory

When the player presses next turn, they always hold their breath wondering if their spies in AI territory will spontaneously die. :please:

This death check only occurs twice.
Once at the end of every player turn for spies in AI territory, and once after successfully completing a spy mission when the spy tries to return to the player capital.

Horrifying Math: :sad:

Spoiler :

Check the Espionage Screen to see what your (% Cost) with the target AI is, then add up all 4 factors to determine Spy Death Odds based off if you have Open or Closed Borders with the target AI.

Examples
With 84% Costs, Open Borders, and 3 spies on the same city tile, the odds of one of them dying after pressing End Turn or after completing a spy mission are:
0.9% + 1.5% + 0% +0% = 2.4% chance to die

With 112% Costs, Closed Borders, spy has 2 :move:

but still doesn't have a -10% or greater wait bonus yet, and was unlucky enough to stand on the same tile as an invisible enemy spy, the odds of dying are:
3.5% + 3.75% + 0% +3.75% = 11% chance to die

Can spies on boats die in AI territory?
Nope! :cool:

Spies on ships can not be caught.

They also can not build up -__% wait bonuses. :sad:

Even if the player ship+spy stays in the AI city for 5 turns, the spy gains no wait bonus.

On the plus side, the ship can sail into the AI city, unload the spy, and the spy will have -10% wait bonus the following turn because it used no :move:

to enter the city.

Can spies on boats die the instant after successfully completing a mission?
Yes. :sad:

The boat helps them avoid the death check in between turns, but they die just as often as regular spies after completing their mission.

Do AI non-spy units like workers and military units increase the odds of detecting player spies if they occupy the same tile?
No.
As far as units go, only 1 enemy spy sharing the same tile as the player spy increases the odds of the player spy dying.

Spy Mission Base Costs and Base Mission Success Odds + Strategy Comments
(Valid for all game speeds and map sizes unless told otherwise)

13 Spy Missions.
What are the best way to use these missions, and which are just a waste of resources?

1) Sabotage Tile - Can destroy any tile improvement outside an AI city.

Base Cost is 75 :espionage:

on Normal Speed, 50 :espionage:

on Quick Speed, 112 :espionage:

on Epic Speed, and 225 :espionage:

on Marathon Speed.
Base Mission Success Odds for 1 Spy with -10% wait bonus is 88% (AI :espionage:

_% Cost = 100%)

Deity AI workers build improvements twice as fast.
That means Mines/Pastures take 2 worker turns and Farms take 3 turns.
Blowing up Towns might be fun since they take so long to grow back, but it is a bit wasteful for spy deaths, espionage points, and possible pillage gold.

Best use is right before a war, blow up a tile near the border. AI Workers will rush there to repair the tile and can easily be gobbled up with a war declaration.
Next best use is to use a Spy to destroy a strategic tile during war. If the AI only has 1 source of Iron and it gets blown up, then all those Sword whips get put on hold until the mine gets rebuilt. Perhaps the AI will even switch builds to something else.
3rd best use is causing a reign of terror by blowing up all happiness resources after running "Forment Unhappiness" in all the major AI cities. The AI does not know how to handle extreme unhappiness problems in cities by running 100% culture slider.
4th best use is if the AI has cities full of air units and has Forts with air units. Blow up a Fort and AI units rebase to open cities or forts. If there are no open cities or forts, the units vanish. AI air units will not rebase to other civs cities, nor will they rebase to Aircraft Carriers. They just go poof!

2) Sabotage Building - Can destroy any building in a city.
Can't destroy World Wonders, National Wonders, or buildings created by Great People like Academy or Scotland Yard.

Base Cost is 6 * :hammers:

_cost_of_the_building_for_the_player :espionage:

Base Mission Success Odds for 1 Spy with -10% wait bonus is 87%

Very expensive! Almost not worth doing.

Sabotaging Walls takes the Castle defense bonus down until the Walls can be rebuilt. That means Catapults can easily bombard a city down to 0% defenses in 1 turn with no Wall or Castle blunting bombardments. This costs 300 on normal speed and is a cheaper alternative to revolting a city for 650. Cost effective if taking a city in 2 turns instead of 1 is acceptable.

3) Sabotage Project - Can destroy any completed Spaceship Part! :cool:

Spoiler :

This mission can occur in any of the AI's cities.
It doesn't have to be in the city that completed the spaceship part.
One might also think 'Sabotage Project' would destroy all progress a city has in The Manhattan Project, The Internet, Apollo Program, SDI, or any Spaceship Part, but that is Sabotage Production.

Base Cost is 6 * :hammers:

_cost_of_the_spaceship_part_for_the_player :espionage:

Base Mission Success Odds for 1 Spy with -10% wait bonus is 85%

Also extremely expensive.

Best used when the AI is down to 1 essential space part left. The 1st SS Engine or the SS Stasis Chamber have no production bonuses, so those are the best to target. Don't forget that in the Modern Era Deity AI will get 25% cheaper space parts.
If the AI still manages to launch the Spaceship, don't forget that capturing the AI capital will destroy the already-launched Spaceship, and the AI will have to rebuild it from scratch.

Spoiler :

4) Sabotage Production - Can destroy all progress a city is producing for a unit, building, wonder, or project.

Base Cost is 6 * :hammers:

_currently_in_the_production :espionage:

Base Mission Success Odds for 1 Spy with -10% wait bonus is 88%

Again, extremely expensive.

Best used to sabotage critical wonders from being built like SDI before a nuclear attack. I don't recall ever using this spy mission in a game.

5) Steal Treasury - Can steal the AI's stockpile of gold based off the ratio of the city population / empire population.
That means a spy located in a 10 population city in a 50 population empire can steal 20% of a civ's total :gold:

supply.

Base Cost is 3 * :gold:

_amount_being_stolen :espionage:

.
Base Mission Success Odds for 1 Spy with -10% wait bonus is 85%

Good for taking the entire treasury of a defeated AI with only a few cities left if the Espionage Screen indicates they are rich. With such little population, the defeated AI will only ever trade 0 until their population recovers to pre-war levels.
To get that gold stash they are no longer will to trade, conquer a civ down to 1 city. Sign a Cease Fire and gift them a city full of spies with wait bonuses. Declare war, conquer the final original AI city, steal the treasury from the gift city (100% of the AI's total since the AI has 1 city), then conquer the gift city to kill the AI off completely. If the gold pile is far too large to steal because you don't have enough , then take it a piece at a time from the gift city while the AI still has 2 cities.

6) Spread Culture - Increases the player's city culture inside the target city by 5% of the target city's Total city culture (human + AI).
This mission only activates once a player city reaches 100 :culture:

or more and the border expansion engulfs the target city.
In cases where the target city was recently gifted away to the AI, a 1 turn wait is required before the Spread Culture Mission is activated.
The Spread Culture Mission will also not activate if the target city has less than 20 total city :culture:

, or if the mission costs less than 1 :espionage:

due to extreme mission cost reduction.

Spoiler :

Base Cost is 3 * :culture:

_amount_being_spread :espionage:

Base Mission Success Odds for 1 Spy with -10% wait bonus is 88%

Good for winning a culture victory with Spies! The strategy to accomplish this is long enough to require a whole extra post.
Spread Culture mission is also good for reducing occupation revolt times in large population AI cities that get conquered near the player border. It will also increase the odds that buildings will survive the city being conquered once the player city culture equals or exceeds AI city culture. That means even a National Wonder that the player does not have can be acquired.

I can hear you lurkers screaming for details on this.
Dhoomstriker explained it well here.

Basically, when the player captures an AI city that has none of the player's city culture inside it, the following occurs:

Spoiler :

The earliest Culture Victory ever achieved with spies was 1300BC.

The spread culture mission does not add any plot culture to the city tile.

7) Poison Water - Poison's the target city's water supply causing 8 :yuck:

.
This reduces by 1 :yuck:

every turn until 8 turns later the city is back to full :health:

.
Can not be repeated until the city regains full :health:

Base Cost is 120 :espionage:

for all game speeds
Base Mission Success Odds for 1 Spy with -10% wait bonus is 94%

A waste of precious espionage points. Deity AI cities have +2 and +4 at the start of the game just like the player, but destroying an AI's food is better accomplished with Forment Unhappiness by far. If used anyway, remember to avoid AI cities with a lots of forests in the big fat cross that give +0.5 each and target the cities with lots of flood plains +0.4 and jungle +0.25.

8) Forment Unhappiness - Causes 8 :mad:

to the target city.
This reduces by 1 :mad:

every turn until 8 turns later the city is back to full

Can not be repeated until the city regains full happiness.

Base Cost is 120 :espionage:

for all game speeds
Base Mission Success Odds for 1 Spy with -10% wait bonus is 94%

Vicious on normal and quick speeds against Size 6 and Size 7 AI cities at the happiness cap since those cities can lose population starving. Best for high production cities with not much food surplus to regrow quickly.
7 angry citizens still eat 14, more than half a Population 7 cities' 25 Deity AI food bin. The city quickly empties the food bid and then starves down to Size 4 or Size 5 . Pair this with Sabotage Tile blowing up Gold or Gems once the cities start starving (assuming more than 1 city was hit with Forment Unhappiness), and the cities will usually starve 1 more population.
Also good for slowing down Wonder production in an AI city. Don't forget Oracle can be whipped complete if Marble is available.
Don't bother blowing up a Granary for 360 after the starvation ends. It is too expensive. Just Poison Water after 4 turns of Forment Unhappiness to keep the food bin from refilling quickly, then forment Unhappiness again 4 turns later to take an AI city to Size 1 or 2 if you really want to hurt it badly.

9) City Revolt - Causes city to revolt for 1 turn.
City defenses temporarily drop to 0% for 1 turn.

Base Cost is 650 :espionage:

for all game speeds
Base Mission Success Odds for 1 Spy with -10% wait bonus is 88%

A spectacular way to take a fortress city with high defenses in 1 turn! Very expensive though.

10) Steal Technology - Instantly steal a technology that the target AI owns.

If a new technology is unlocked by a tech steal, that new technology can also instantly be stolen by a 2nd Steal Technology mission.
In theory the entire tech tree could be stolen by an army of Spies in a single turn.

Stolen techs are not counted against "We Fear You Are Becoming Too Advanced"
Much like bulbing a technology, stolen techs can only be traded to other AI the following turn.
Partially teched technologies do not get an extra discount when stealing technologies.

Base Cost is 1.5 * :science:

_cost_of_the_technology_for_the_player :espionage:

Base Mission Success Odds for 1 Spy with -10% wait bonus is 85%

Extremely expensive way to get techs. If far behind the AI, consider a gift city full of spies. The gift city must be less than 10 tiles from an AI city on the same land mass or the AI won't take the gift city. This limitation does not apply if the AI civ has 3 cities or less.
A gift city full of spies can have lots of bonuses to make stealing techs cheap. 1) If the gift city has lots of player city culture, then the -50% city culture bonus is available for 1 turn until the AI starts generating their own city culture. 2) If the gift city has the player religion and the AI is not running that religion, then -15% religion bonus (or -40% if the player has the holy city!) is available. 3) If the spies have been waiting patiently for 5 turns in the gift city, then they will be able to steal technologies with the -50% wait bonus.

11) Influence Civics - Force target AI to adopt a civic the player is currently running.
Target civ must have the required technology to be forced to switch to the player Civic.
This does not cause the target AI to experience 1 turn of civilization-wide Anarchy.

Base Cost is 600 :espionage:

on Normal Speed,402 :espionage:

on Quick Speed, 900 :espionage:

on Epic Speed, and 1200 :espionage:

on Marathon Speed.
Base Mission Success Odds for 1 Spy with -10% wait bonus is 82%

Extremely strong. Can force an AI out of emancipation. Can force an AI into Caste if the player is running that, then the player can switch to Slavery and DOW an AI that can't whip. Can force an AI into Free Religion breaking their favorable religious situation or double AP votes.
Even worse, being forced to change civics by a spy also triggers the 5 turn "Cannot Change Civics Because of Revolution" timer. The AI is stuck with its new civic for 5 turns.
Even worse, the player can switch the AI's civics and reset the 5 turn "Cannot Change Civics Because of Revolution" timer.

Spoiler :
When an AI grows weary of running whatever civic they were forced into by the player, they will switch back to what they like the most and experience civilization wide Anarchy if not Spiritual, a huge deal for large empires. This tends to occur 25 turns after the last natural civic change (or 10 turns for Spiritual AI) at the earliest if the AI gets a new civic they want to switch into. If the AI natural civic change timer is less than 10 turns and the player bribes the AI to change civics (this does cause civilization-wide Anarchy to non-spiritual civs , unlike the spy influence civic mission which does not), then the AI natural civic change timer is reset to 10 turns and not 25.
Testing indicates a spy influence civic change does not reset the AI's natural civic change timer. In testing, Bismark naturally generated changed civic messages for the player on turn 25, turn 51, turn 77, turn 103, etc. A spy flip to Caste on turn 49 by the player delayed Bismark from naturally changing civics on turn 51, so he generated a changed civic message on turn 55 instead of turn 51. This can be understood by Bismark getting a "Can't change civics for 5 turns" message on his turn 49, Bismark changing his civic on his turn 54, and the human getting the message about the civic change on turn 55. In testing, a spiritual civ Isabella generated natural civic change messages for the player on turn 11, turn 22, turn 33, turn 44, etc.

12) Influence Religion - Force target AI to adopt the state religion the player is currently running.
Target civ must have the player's state religion present in at least one city in their empire.
This does not cause the target AI to experience 1 turn of civilization-wide Anarchy.
Player spy can perform Influence Religion mission in any AI city and not just the one containing the player's state religion.

Base Cost is 600 :espionage:

on Normal Speed,402 :espionage:

on Quick Speed, 900 :espionage:

on Epic Speed, and 1200 :espionage:

on Marathon Speed.
Base Mission Success Odds for 1 Spy with -10% wait bonus is 82%

Very strong. Forcing an AI to adopt the player's religion can instantly change the diplomatic situation. Getting an AI to Friendly this way also allows for monopoly tech trading.
Being forced to change civics by a spy also triggers the 5 turn "Cannot Change Religions Because of Revolution" timer. The AI is stuck with its new religion for 5 turns.
The natural religion change timer for an AI is completely separate from the natural civic change timer. A natural civic change by the AI did not delay the natural religious change timer. Natural religion changes tends to occur 15 turns after the last natural religious change (or 10 turns for Spiritual AI). In testing, Alexander switched religions on turn 15, turn 31, turn 47, etc. Isabella switched religions on turn 2, turn 13, turn 24, etc. etc.
The AI can't change both civics and religion on the same turn naturally. If the natural religion change needs to be delayed 1 turn for AP reasons and no spies are available, try bribing the AI to switch civics with gold or techs. This causes civilization-wide Anarchy for at least 1 turn and will definitely prevent a religious switch for 1 turn.

13) Perform Counterespionage - Increases costs of espionage missions against the player by 100% (doubles the cost), increases odds of AI Spies in player lands being caught, and lowers odds of AI Spy Missions in player lands being successful.
Lasts 10 turns on Normal Speed, 6 turns on Quick Speed, 15 turns on Epic Speed, and 30 turns on Marathon Speed.

Base Cost is 100 :espionage:

on Normal Speed, 67 :espionage:

on Quick Speed, 150 :espionage:

on Epic Speed, and 300 :espionage:

on Marathon.
Base Mission Success Odds for 1 Spy with -10% wait bonus is 100%

Under all possible penalties Mission Success Odds are also 100%
Perform Counterespionage can never fail.

Best used at the end of the game to keep any AI that builds up a huge point supply against the player from stealing techs or sabotaging a spaceship part. Paired with closing borders, it can also stop a pesky neighbor from poisoning the water supply in a city or blowing up oil wells so easily.

Wow, spies ought to be banned in multiplayer.

Kaitzilla · Nov 19, 2018

Mission Success Odds after modifiers
Mission failure odds are extremely close to how Spy death odds are calculated.
Instead of a Closed Border or Open Borders modifier, a mission difficulty modifier is applied to get mission failure odds.

Mission Success Odds are equal to (100 - Mission Failure Odds)
Chance of Success: 93% is the same as Chance of Failure: 7%

Here is the table completely describing Mission Failure Odds:

Add up the 4 factors and then multiply by the mission's difficulty modifier to get the odds of the mission attempt failing.
Next, round the answer down to the nearest whole number. (2.5% failure odds becomes 2% failure odds)
Finally, perform the calculation (100 - Mission Failure Odds) to get Mission Success Odds.

For example, I have 1 Spy with -30% wait bonus attempting to sabotage a corn farm.
What are the mission success odds if I have 100% :espionage:

cost with the AI? (We both produced the same amount of :espionage:

points over the course of the game)
From the table, my 4 factors are 12%, 0%, 0%, and 0%
12+0+0+0 = 12%
Multiply by the factor for Destroy Improvement (1.0) since that is the spy mission to destroy a tile outside the city.
12 * 1.0 = 12
The Mission Failure Odds are 12%
The Mission Success Odds are (100 - 12) = 88%

Another example.
There are 5 player spies in a city trying to change an AI's religion to the player's religion.
The AI has both a Security Bureau in the city and has performed the Counterespionage Mission against the player (This never happens).
The player has 175% :espionage:

costs with the AI because the AI has produced 10 times as much espionage as the player over the course of the game.
From the table, my 4 mission failure factors are +22%, +15%, +20%, and +15%
22+15+20+15 = 72
Multiply by the difficulty multiplier for Influence Religion (1.5)
72 * 1.5 = 108
The Mission Failure Odds are 108%
The Mission Success Odds are (100 - 108) = -8% or 0% Mission Success Odds. :crazyeye:

If the mission was counterespionage instead, that would be a difficulty modifier of 0
72 * 0 = 0
Mission Success Odds are (100 - 0) = 100% Mission Success Odds. :goodjob:

Mission Cost after modifiers
There are 8 mission cost modifiers that adjust the base cost of the spy mission.

Note that for each extra team member the player has, the final mission cost is multiplied by the number of team members. So 3 team members means triple the mission costs.
Getting a Permanent Alliance with an AI is the same as adding them to the player's team mid-game. Be very careful doing this if playing with "Permanent Alliances" enabled and running an espionage based economy because it will double espionage costs.

Spoiler :

1) Trade Routes (-20% bonus)
The player will get a -20% Trade Route bonus if the AI target city shows up as a trade route in one of the Player's city screens. (Thanks Elitetroops!)
In the above screenshot, the player capital is getting a +2 :gold:

trade route with Elizabeth's city Tiwanaku (Open Borders), so the player gets the -20% espionage bonus in that city.

An advanced knowledge of trade routes is needed to achieve this bonus reliably. :hmm:

AI cities have a +150% sustained peace bonus with the player cities once Open Borders is signed.
This bonus goes to 0% once the AI and player go to war, and once the war is over it recharges +3% per turn for 50 turns until returning to +150%.

Player has no island cities:
To get the player cities to form a trade route, closing borders with all AI except the target AI should make the player cities form trade routes with the target AI's cities.
This requires the target AI and player to be at peace for 25 turns.

If the AI and player have been at peace for 25 turns after a war, the sustained peace bonus will recharge to 75% and combined with 25% connection to capital the total trade route bonus will be +100%.
So the domestic player cities will have +1 :gold:

trade routes and the AI city with +100% bonus will have +2 :gold:

trade routes.

If the human player has not been at peace with the target AI for 25 turns after a war, the player's own domestic cities will take priority over AI's cities since every trade route is +1 :gold:

Player has island cities:
Due to overseas bonus of +100%, all domestic trade routes will be +2 :gold:

and no trade routes with AI will form unless the AI cities are larger than 10 population. (each population over 10 increases the base trade route amount before bonuses by +0.1 :gold:

)

To get trade routes to the AI cities, close borders with all AI except the target AI.
Then build Harbors in all island cities.
The island cities will try to form trade routes to the player's mainland cities with +125% bonus and get +2 :gold:

trade routes.
If peace with the AI has been around 50 turns or there was never a war, the +150% sustained peace can be combined with +25% connection to palace and +50% harbor to get +225% and +3 :gold:

trade routes.
So the Harbors should cause the player island cities to choose a +3 :gold:

trade route with the AI cities instead of a +2 :gold:

trade route with a domestic city, thus activating the -20% trade route espionage bonus in those AI cities.

Things that will ruin -20% Trade Route bonus:
If the player OR the target AI adopts mercantilism, then foreign trade routes disappear along with the -20% bonus.
If the player goes into civilization wide anarchy by switching civics or religions, the trade routes are suspended and the -20% bonus disappears.
If the Target AI city goes into a 3 turn revolt due to culture pressure, it goes to the bottom of the trade route priority list and the human empire will form trade routes with every target AI city before finally forming trade routes with the revolting city.
So the revolting city becomes last among equals.

2) State Religion (-15% Bonus, -25% Bonus, or -40% Bonus)
If the player is running a state religion and the target AI city has the player's state religion, but the target AI is NOT running that state religion, then the player Spy will have a -15% bonus in the target AI city.

If the player also owns the Holy City of the player's state religion, but the target AI is NOT running that state religion, then the bonus is -40%.

If the player has a state religion and the target AI city also has the state religion, but the target AI IS running that state religion, then the player Spy will have no bonus. :cry:

If the player has a state religion plus the Holy City, and the target AI city has the state religion, but the target AI IS running that state religion, then the player Spy will have -25% bonus. :thumbsup:

So owning a Holy City can be a huge plus for espionage!

If the player and AI are both running the same state religion, and the AI has the Holy City, there is no penalty to spy mission costs.

3) City Culture (0% Bonus up to -50% Bonus)
This espionage bonus is governed by the formula: floor[(YourCultureInTheCity * 50) / max(1,OwnersCulture + YourCulture)]

If the player has 5 :culture:

in the target city and the AI has 100 :culture:

in the target city, then the bonus becomes floor(5 * 50 / max(1, 100 + 5)) = floor(250 / 105) = floor(2.38095) = 2
So a -2% City Culture bonus.

If the player has 0 :culture:

in the target city and the AI has 0 :culture:

in the target city, then the bonus becomes floor(0 * 50 / max(1, 0 + 0)) = floor(0 / 1) = 0
So no City Culture bonus.

If the player has 50 :culture:

in the target city and the AI has 50 :culture:

in the target city, then the bonus becomes floor(50 * 50 / max(1, 50 + 50)) = floor(2500 / 100) = floor(25) = 25
So a -25% City Culture bonus.

If the player has 4000 :culture:

in the target city and the AI has 10 :culture:

in the target city, then the bonus becomes floor(4000 * 50 / max(1, 4000 + 50)) = floor(200000 / 4050) = floor(49.3827) = 49
So a -49% City Culture bonus.

There are 2 ways for the player to get city culture in the target AI city.

The 1st is to generate city culture while the city is under player control, then gift the city to the AI.
Gifting away a city causes the plot culture on the city tile to go to 0, but the City Culture remains.
A good way to ensure a very high bonus is to perform a Great Work with a Great Artist for +4000 :culture:

in the city, then gift it to the target AI.

The 2nd way to generate city culture in the target city is with the Spread Culture mission.
Using spies, if the target city is inside the border influence of the player, then 5% of the total culture of the target city can be generated as the player city culture and added to the target city with spy missions.

4) City Espionage Defense (+50% Penalty)
If the target AI has a Security Bureau building (Democracy), then player spy missions have a +50% penalty to espionage costs.

The only way around this penalty is the Sabotage Building spy mission to blow up the Security Bureau.
This is expensive, but if further espionage missions are planned it might be worth the cost.

5) Distance (+1% up to +100% Penalty)
This penalty is governed by the formula: (1+Target City distance to Player Capital / Max Distance)
Max distance is the maximum number of tiles that one city on the map can be from another. (diagonal tiles count as 1.5 tiles)

If the target city is 17 tiles from the player capital, and the max distance on the map is 66 tiles, then the distance penalty is floor(1 + 17/66) = floor(1.25758) = 1.25
So the distance penalty is +25%
If the target city is 3 tiles from the player capital, and the max distance on the map is 78 tiles, then the distance penalty is floor(1 + 3/78) = floor(1.038462) = 1.03
So the distance penalty is +3%

6) Stationary Spy (-10% Bonus, -20% Bonus, -30% Bonus, -40% Bonus, -50% Bonus)
If a player spy ends a turn with the full 2 :move:

movement points, the following turn they will have a -10% bonus for any espionage missions performed on that tile.
This bonus builds for 5 turns up to a maximum -50% bonus.

A good way to build this bonus fast is for a ship to unload the player spy in the target city and the spy will have a -10% wait bonus the following turn.

This bonus does not build while the player spy is inside a boat. :sad:

This bonus does build up while the player spy is inside player borders.
If a player keeps their spy inside a city without moving for 5 turns and gives the city to the AI, the spy will instantly have -50% stationary spy bonus for the AI city.

7) Espionage Point Spending (-50% Bonus up to +100% Penalty)
This penalty or bonus is governed by the formula: (2 * TargetsTotalEPpoints + PlayerTotalEPpoints) / (TargetsTotalEPpoints + 2 * PlayerTotalEPpoints)
PlayerTotalEPpoints is the total number of :espionage:

that the player has produced the entire game.
TargetsTotalEPpoints is the total number of :espionage:

that the target AI has produced the entire game.

This Ratio can be viewed directly at any time in the Espionage Screen

The (_% Cost) IS the Espionage Point Spending amount.

86% Cost means the player has generated a lot more :espionage:

than the target AI and results in a -14% bonus.
52% Cost means a -48% bonus.
137% Cost means a +37% penalty.
100% Cost means no bonus or penalty.

8) Counterespionage (+100% Penalty)
If the target AI performs a Counterespionage Mission against the player, then for 10 turns on normal speed the player will have a +100% cost penalty when performing spy missions against the target AI.

There is no notice on the espionage screen to indicate this has occurred.
It does show up as an in game announcement and in the event log though.

Spoiler :

To experiment with this, the only way I could figure was a Multiplayer -> Hot Seat game where a player can play a Civ 4 game against themselves.
The AI never uses the counterespionage mission that I've ever seen. :hmm:

Correctly Calculating Espionage Mission Costs
Being able to know how much your future missions will cost is very helpful when allocating resources.

Civ 4 makes this extremely difficult.
Thankfully, Pollina discovered the formula long ago!

The cost modifiers are applied to the number 100 one at a time. (why 100? who knows ... :hmm:

)
The result is rounded down each time to achieve a final modifier number.
The final modifier number is multiplied by the Base Cost of the espionage mission and then divided by 100 to get the Total Cost of the espionage mission.
Total Cost of the espionage mission is what :espionage:

must be spent to perform the espionage mission.

Note that a -23% bonus translates to multiplying by 77%, or 0.77
Note that a +34% bonus translates to multiplying by 134%, or 1.34

Diplomatic Consequences of Spy Missions
The dreaded "Your spy was caught causing trouble" -1 diplomatic penalty.

Spoiler :

How long does it take to fade away?
Forever! :cry:

Some people think it decays, but they are wrong.
It lasts the entire game.

So, what triggers it?
Basically, whenever a spy is stumbled upon and killed, there is a chance that the AI that caught it will give a -1 diplo penalty to the player.
This occurs between turns when a Spy is caught and killed, if the espionage mission failed and the spy was killed, or when the spy completes a mission and dies attempting to return to the capital.

What are the odds that a killed spy will trigger the "Your spy was caught causing trouble -1 diplo penalty"?
I couldn't find a piece of code describing this, so I tested it extensively in BtS 3.19 unmodded using 1000's of spies.

Most AI tend to have on average a 23% chance to give -1 diplo when they capture and kill a player spy. (Isabella, Stalin, Gandhi, Louis, Kublai, Surya, Tokugawa)
The AI Shaka has a much higher average of 28% chance to give -1 diplo when they capture and kill a player spy. :dunno:

I have not tested the other 43 out of 52 AI because it is exhausting to do so. :sad:

Please note that Catherine is very special.
When she kills a player spy, there is a 23% chance that she will give -2 diplo! :run:

There is no limit to how high the "Your spy was caught causing trouble" diplo penalty can stack.

Kaitzilla · Nov 19, 2018

7) Spy Economy
...

8) Winning a Classic Spy Victory
...

9) Winning a Cutting Edge Spy Victory using a 1 tile island.
...

**Under Construction as of August 15th, 2019**

Kaitzilla · Nov 19, 2018

Zoom In Guide

Once the Player has vision on an AI city, click the "Bare Map" button (Control + B) and zoom in on the city.

Then Zoom In using the mouse wheel to get as close to the city as possible. (Page Up/ Page Down)

Press F12 to open up the Civlopedia and match up the buildings you are seeing in the city with their building animation in the Civlopedia.

Once a city is uncovered from the black fog, will future buildings built there appear even if the player has no units to see the city?
YES!!! :mwaha:

A dedicated enough player can keep track of all buildings and population that an AI has as long as the cities are uncovered.

Here is a quick example:

Spoiler :

Keep in mind there are graphic limitations to how many buildings a city will show based on City Size.

A Size 1 city can graphically show up to 8 buildings.
A Size 8 city can graphically show up to 17 buildings.

Any additional buildings are still there in the city, they just can't be seen if the city is too small population with too many buildings.

Here is a list of city building pictures sorted by era to get an idea which Civlopedia entry to look up when you see a building in a city.

BUILDINGS LIST (Ancient Era)

Spoiler :

**Edit**
Gah, this is a ton of work to complete for all the Eras.
Olafeson has compiled a complete list of zoomed in building screenshots in a zip file.

Kaitzilla · Nov 19, 2018

Reserved

Kaitzilla · Nov 19, 2018

Reserved

Fippy · Dec 3, 2018

Impressive how they built this without wheels

Spoiler :

Kaitzilla · Dec 4, 2018

Fippy said:
Impressive how they built this without wheels

Spoiler :

Aliens built it!

coanda · Dec 6, 2018

Kaitzilla said:
I guess iEspionageWeight isn't a useful measure of AI espionage after all?

There's three confounding factors.

For one, AIs will never raise the espionage slider above 0% if their gold slider is above 50%. I suspect that's what's going on with Catherine and Stalin in your example.

For another, the amount of EPs an AI wants to generate is proportional to it's deficit in EPs (with a very minor additional factor based on opinion; AIs want to be slightly higher in EPs against enemies, and slightly lower against friends, but the difference is trivial). If you double your espionage gap against an AI, that will roughly double how high many EPs it wants to generate next turn. If your current gap makes Gandhi want to generate 500 EPs next turn, doubling that gap will make Gandhi want to generate 1000 EPs next turn. It's also proportional to iEspionageWeight; if Gandhi wants to generate 500 EPs, Stalin in the exact same situation will want to generate 1500 EPs. That will affect how they raise their slider. However, there is a hard cap of 20%. No AI, under any circumstances, will raise its slider above 20%. Stalin will get to that 20% point earlier than Gandhi, but as the EPs deficit increases they'll all eventually get there. That's what is going on with the other four AIs in your test case - giving yourself really, really high EPs generation hard-capped all the AIs.

For three, iEspionageWeight does impact some other parts of the game. It makes them more likely to adopt espionage-related civics, construct espionage-related buildings, and conduct aggressive espionage missions (like poisoning city water). However, these tend to be more late-game factors that, in general, wouldn't have made a big difference by turn 126.

Kaitzilla · Dec 10, 2018

coanda said:
There's three confounding factors.

For one, AIs will never raise the espionage slider above 0% if their gold slider is above 50%. I suspect that's what's going on with Catherine and Stalin in your example.

For another, the amount of EPs an AI wants to generate is proportional to it's deficit in EPs (with a very minor additional factor based on opinion; AIs want to be slightly higher in EPs against enemies, and slightly lower against friends, but the difference is trivial). If you double your espionage gap against an AI, that will roughly double how high many EPs it wants to generate next turn. If your current gap makes Gandhi want to generate 500 EPs next turn, doubling that gap will make Gandhi want to generate 1000 EPs next turn. It's also proportional to iEspionageWeight; if Gandhi wants to generate 500 EPs, Stalin in the exact same situation will want to generate 1500 EPs. That will affect how they raise their slider. However, there is a hard cap of 20%. No AI, under any circumstances, will raise its slider above 20%. Stalin will get to that 20% point earlier than Gandhi, but as the EPs deficit increases they'll all eventually get there. That's what is going on with the other four AIs in your test case - giving yourself really, really high EPs generation hard-capped all the AIs.

For three, iEspionageWeight does impact some other parts of the game. It makes them more likely to adopt espionage-related civics, construct espionage-related buildings, and conduct aggressive espionage missions (like poisoning city water). However, these tend to be more late-game factors that, in general, wouldn't have made a big difference by turn 126.

Thanks for the info Coanda :love:

Yes, I've never seen the AI go above 20% espionage slider.
I am relieved that iEspionageWeight does affect things like civics, buildings, and mission choice.

Kaitzilla · Jan 15, 2019

There, all the mechanics of espionage are done!

Just need the strategy stuff now.
Let me know if there are any errors please.

**Edit**
February 16th, the strategies are coming, I promise

Kaitzilla · Mar 8, 2019

The spread culture mission info has errors in it. (decrease was corrected to increase. Is the thresholds total AI culture from all AI or just the target AI?)

I will try to get them ironed out this weekend.

Totally forgot to include the effects on plot culture too.

Pangaea · Mar 20, 2019

Have to admit that I haven't read the whole thing yet, so it is possible this is covered, but I figured this would be a fine and dandy place for such a question. During a recent game, I noticed that the cost of some espionage missions have a teal colour. It happens when you are just a little too short on :espionage:

to carry out the mission. Is this all it means, or is there something else to it?

Spoiler :

Pangaea · Mar 20, 2019

Kaitzilla said:
Once a city is uncovered from the black fog, will future buildings built there appear even if the player has no units to see the city?
YES!!!

You are aware of this of course, but once a city centre square is uncovered so you know the name of the city, you can see any national wonders throughout the world in the Wonders lists via the relevant tab.

I have another question though, which I was reminded about when seeing those screenshots in your example. You haven't put any circle around the tall tower-like buildings, so I guess they don't actually mean anything. Just something that happens when a city grows, or maybe tied to game era? I know I've seen these things in pretty small cities in the past and wondered what on earth they were. Couldn't find anything in the civilopedia. At one point I wondered if it was tied to Castle, but they're not. Or maybe religion. Do you know what makes these buildings pop up?

Pangaea · Mar 20, 2019

Kaitzilla said:
What is the foolproof formula for calculating in a AI City build?

in AI City build = (Sabotage Production / City Revolt) * (650/6)
Oh nice, why does that work? (LowtherCastle )
It works because of Algebra.

Sorry, sorry, but I have a weak mind.... This also, amazingly, works pre-Math!!! :crazyeye:

Kaitzilla · Mar 22, 2019

Pangaea said:
Have to admit that I haven't read the whole thing yet, so it is possible this is covered, but I figured this would be a fine and dandy place for such a question. During a recent game, I noticed that the cost of some espionage missions have a teal colour. It happens when you are just a little too short on to carry out the mission. Is this all it means, or is there something else to it?

Spoiler :

In this case you see the teal colour for support city revolt mission.

I don't know why it is teal colored. :hmm:

I suspect is it like you said.
An indication that there is almost enough :espionage:

to perform the mission, but not enough.

Pangaea said:
You are aware of this of course, but once a city centre square is uncovered so you know the name of the city, you can see any national wonders throughout the world in the Wonders lists via the relevant tab.

I have another question though, which I was reminded about when seeing those screenshots in your example. You haven't put any circle around the tall tower-like buildings, so I guess they don't actually mean anything. Just something that happens when a city grows, or maybe tied to game era? I know I've seen these things in pretty small cities in the past and wondered what on earth they were. Couldn't find anything in the civilopedia. At one point I wondered if it was tied to Castle, but they're not. Or maybe religion. Do you know what makes these buildings pop up?

The tall spiky buildings?

Spoiler :

Hehe, they are a mystery to me too.

Pangaea · Mar 22, 2019

Yep, that's the one. From time to time I've tried to find a pattern with them, but didn't really get anywhere, and seeing it in this thread reminded me about them again. The strange thing is that I've seen them in really small cities too, like size 3-4-5, something like that.

ArchGhost · Mar 24, 2019

Pangaea said:
Have to admit that I haven't read the whole thing yet, so it is possible this is covered, but I figured this would be a fine and dandy place for such a question. During a recent game, I noticed that the cost of some espionage missions have a teal colour. It happens when you are just a little too short on to carry out the mission. Is this all it means, or is there something else to it?

Spoiler :

In this case you see the teal colour for support city revolt mission.

Just part of BUG, as far as I know

Here you are:

Spoiler :

Pangaea · Mar 24, 2019

ArchGhost said:
Just part of BUG, as far as I know

Excellent, I didn't know that

And since I'm partially green-yellow colour-blind, probably not a bad idea to change things around a little

[BTS] The Complete Guide to Espionage

Lord Croissant

Lord Croissant

Lord Croissant

Lord Croissant

Lord Croissant

Lord Croissant

Lord Croissant

Mycro Junkie

Lord Croissant

Emperor

Lord Croissant

Lord Croissant

Lord Croissant

Rock N Roller

Rock N Roller

Rock N Roller

Lord Croissant

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Prince

Rock N Roller

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