Stealing Tech

I'm not sure this is it, but what i have seen (especially with the Drengin) is that when i conduct espionage on the AI and it reaches Advanced, and event will occur every once in a while in which I am "given" a tech from the AI.

You have to have a little espionage going. When you are at the diplomatic screen (I dont have the game up so I cant give you exact names) where all the empires are listed, there are two slide bars at the bottom; slide the espionage bar over a few clicks and you will start spying on that empire.

In my opinion this is good for one reason: Not getting that darn 'Your diplomat slept with the Emperors daughter and got her pregnant, then fled the system; we are now going to war with you' message that causes them to go to war with you.

I have never been able to steal to techs from other empires even when I was cranking money into it; however, others have had some success.

I just use it for stats and to keep my diplomats from messing up and starting wars. Hope this helps!

-Count Dooku

~SDC~

I agree with Aaberg. It appears to be a random event, but only after you've reached advanced espionage and only ever against the Drengin. I guess they're just too stupid to develop effective counter-espionage.

I've never had tech stolen from me though, ala MOO2. Not sure if that happens in Gal Civ.

I likewise have also stoled tech from the drengin (only ones so far). Espionage was at advanced, and I was not spending any BC on espionage at the time of the tech thefts (happened 3x that game)

It is not a random event, you must have espionage going on, and must be techs that you have not develop yet, I have been able to steal techs, but basically happens later in the game, I have stoled them from the Drengings, Torians and Altarians. Ooopsss I said stole, I should have said, someone found them for me. LOL LOL LOL

Oh well, I didn't know if you had to do something specific. I've always spent money on espionage but never gotten tech from it.

If you are developing techs, usually each AI has its own line of techs to develop, but if you already are above them, then is not a whole lot to steal.

I have had one steal so far. It was against the Drengin and espionage was already advanced. But I tend to go minimilistic on espionage all game, just spending the bare minimum every turn to keep it going. Sad irony, really, the Spymaster of Galciv going low ball on espionage because the benefits of the system are so vague and misunderstood. It is basically just a war preventer with a one time tech steal in my book so far. Maybe my lack of past tangible benefits is holding me back from really spending some bucks and seeing what the system is made of now. Then again, maybe the only thing added to war prevention and some empire stat data was the steal chance. If that is truly the case, it would be cheaper to keep the extra money in research to get some guaranteed tech benefits through long term dedication rather than blind luck.

I otoh, wait for the espionage attack. Once I can spend around 500bc on each AI, I run it for the turns (3 or 4) required, then stop all of it. Reasoning? I want as many espionage anomalies, ect as I can get to maximize my returns, as well as the BC available to finish it quickly.

In regards to conducting espionage i would agree with Dooku...there is nothing more irritating than getting that damn "You fucked up their latest visit and now they are pissed" when you have spend some much energi on keeping good relations with someone.

oooh...the Spymaster is not using his most excellent talent with in the game what a pitty (:(

Gerakken, espionage doesn't need cash every turn to keep running. Once you've reached a level of espionage, you can stop funding if you're set. As far as I know, all money beyond advanced put there is just wasted.
Personnally, I always research the minimum espionage level and sometimes up to medium but never farther because I never saw any benefit. Knowing the stats of the ai may be useful, but it's marginal. Knowing what tech they are researching is also only marginally useful. I never got any other benefit, so I definitely consider that spying is a waste of money.

Well, I play maso, so there always seems to be one bastard AI that has a million more techs than me. I can usually stay above the rest. I'll have to play with it some more and see what happens...

Oh, it is just a Spymaster thing. It would be out-of-character of me to neglect espionage altogether at the beginning of the game, dump a lot of money in toward the middle to get to advanced, and then stop funding it. But it also makes no sense to overfund something that does not seem to have many benefits. Therefore, to satisfy both character requirements and some sort of common sense, I keep funding it at a minimum level from the first turn I meet that alien. This represents the continual resources required for an intelligence operation without apparently wasting more money on something that is of limited use.

On the other hand, if in the future the system is improved somehow, I would be glad to test it to the limits. (That's a hint to you Stardock folks.)

I've had my espionage crqanked up to about 50% per civ and I was stealing tech from just about everyone. Sometimes I would steal from a few civs in one turn. It probably depends on the ratio of your espionage to theirs. I can't say I've had any techs stolen from me, though. Maybe there just isn't a dialog box that tells you when tech has been stolen from you (although in the OS/2 version it alerted you).

Bill

~SDC~

Spying does have its benefits. If you don't have it turned up far enough, you could get into a war with a civ over "misunderstandings." Also, if you have adequate spying, your spies will be able to stop that Precursor artifact quest (when it happens in your own back yard) before it can get going.

Bill

~SDC~

Wait, why would you wanna stop the precursor artifact quest if you're gonna get it? I thought artifacts were good.

The artifact quest he's referring to is the one where a powerful evil cult takes over a planet and declares war on everyone.

The Draginol? Usually you can get a zillion bcs from them! I usually like when they show up.

Oh, that one. But I like it too when they show up.

I've only scored one steal, but it happened to be Dreadnoughts so it was memorable!

Actually, the higher your spending is in Espionage, the more likely you are to steal techs, as long as there are alien civs with more techs than you.

Although, it's still pretty rare, so pouring a ton of money into it won't necessarily help a lot.

[Message Edited]

I have only ever seen techs stolen from the Drengin. I have seen that over a dozen times, but never from any other AI. That seems to be pushing the bounds of coincidence, especially since someone else in the thread has only seen tech stolen from the Drengin.

As far as I can tell, the Espionage picks belonging to the Merchant party are useless. What is the point in pouring 10000bc down the drain when you can research the tech yourself for that cost. Perhaps if there was more feedback on what is happening, this aspect of the game would be more interesting. As it is, I have no idea what I'm getting for this money other than to avoid some of the nastier random events -- and no idea how much is needed for that, either, although "almost any amount" is worth it to prevent having an event cause my allies to backstab me. Should I bother spying only on the Drengin? Or what? Cari help us out here.

Oh, and if we can exploit 150,000bc per turn from the Draginol, that would be broken, yes? LOL


- Sirian

it would seem though, that that would apply to total espionage spent, not per turn. Otherwise, why would I have stolen tech with zero being spent per turn. I did have espionage at the highest level (from previous turns). I had not spent any BC on it for at least 10-12 turns iirc.

Something we can try and note. How much have you spent total on espionage when the steal happens? (You can find this out on the AI stats screen.)

Small sample size and all that, but my single tech steal was indeed from the Drengin.

Got my first steal last night I'd built up my espionage levels on all the AI's to complete and then switched them all to zero before it happened.