jrebelo

Join Date 06/2011

(Beginner Qs) Holding control of mines, stealing tech, etc.

Sorry if this is a departure from forum etiquette (new to this group), but I have a number of newbie questions that I want to ask and am sure more will come and I'm no sure whether the forum denizens are more opposed to numerous threads covering small topics or larger threads which span numerous topics. The former is better for making data available to future generations and searchable, but it can also seem very noisy initially in terms of thread frequency.

Anyway, for now I have two simple queries I'll humbly ask someone to help me with and if anyone wants to comment on the above note, I'll either contribute followup questions to this thread in hopes of getting help on future subjects or will just create new threads (also, it might be nice to have a "game help" or "rules questions" subforum to keep that stuff off of the general plate (if I missed a more appropriate subforum, my bad).

1a.) This is probably not an uncommon query and I am sure I've seen it discussed already but I'm having a hard time working out the specifics. I am mining a few mines which are about a sector away from my home planet. An opposing faction settled a planet closer to those mines and, unsurprisingly, after time the mining colonies went red (the pirate symbol) and have started complaining about a preference to dealing with the neighbouring faction. I thought I had read that this was (expectedly) due to greater influence of the other nation in the area of the mines. So, I instantly whipped up a couple of constructor ships and placed an influence starport right near the mines and upgraded its influence with the second ship. Still, I lost one of the mines and the other mine remains disputed. What I did notice was that the influence starbase I created did not seem to visually impact my borders in any way, so I am guessing that perhaps it only contributes influence empire-wide and not regionally to impact issues like this?

1b.) While writing this scenario, I also noticed another similar scenario going on. My starting solar system included a Class 4 planet alongside my starting planet. I chose not to colonize the small planet, as I found much better neighbouring systems in the early game. Eventually another nation colonized this planet, but he's right next to my capital world and is greatly outmatched in influence and I can see that this planet has a pirate symbol over it. Is there a way for me to somehow to use my influence or espionage to cause the planet's civilizations to cede from their current empire either as a new race or to join my race? Is it possible to do this without declaration of war on the nation in question? Or is the pirate symbol just an indication to me that the planet would likely be easier for me to dominate by force, but open war is still the only possible way to remove this faction from my system?

2. I have started to invest small amounts of extra cash into espionage when I am operating my race in the black. I understand how to place the spies within opposing factions so that I can gain knowledge about them. I also understand how to place spies on opposing planets to block the use of social improvements. What I don't understand are:

2a.) How do I use a spy to steal technology?

2b.) Is it correct to assume that spies who are unutilized ("available" in espionage) are being used to defend my empire against spies, or are unused spies completely wasted value until they are assigned someplace and espionage defense is automatic?

2c.) Once I have reached full knowledge on a race with 4 spies assigned to them, do I need to leave spies assigned to keep the knowledge current or can all spies be re-assigned elsewhere and have the knowledge level remain high?

Thanks for the tips. I'm falling in love with the depth of the game.

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admiralWillyWilber

Join Date 05/2009

+99

First spies not on a planet or connected to a race are useless. You can always pull them when you need them mysawell use them. The best way ti have influence is to have a lot of planets. You should try the krynn race. They specialise in this.

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1a) I believe you can click on a planet or mined field and see the influence score. Thus, you can see how you are doing that way to flip an enemy or get rid of that symbol on your own.

1b) The symbol reflects the influence score. One way you are supposed to be able to use spies to help flip a planet is to place them on influence structures (such as stock markets) on that planet. Another way is to reduce that planet's population, which can be done if the planet is relying on farms to boost its population cap. That is, place a spy on a farm and the excess population dies off, and influence is directly proportional to population. That is why your home world is projecting such influence on that Class 4 -- higher population.

2a) Place spy on a planet, but it exposes it to possible "death."

2b) Spies placed in the passive boxes on another race increase intel, spies on a planetary improvement nullify its positive effects and gain a small theft chance, and spies left unplaced do nothing. Any spy can be reassigned to the pool and used to nullify a spy on the same turn. Thus, they serve no purpose, except that spies placed in another race's passive box might permanently turn into archaeologists on that race if that race ceases to exist. (inside joke)

2c) Intel levels remain as-is even after any and all spies are reassigned.

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Thanks for the replies, Jim. Just to clarify this line:

Quoting LTjim,

reply 2

2a) Place spy on a planet, but it exposes it to possible "death."

You mean that a spy who is placed on a structure on a planet is in position to have a chance of stealing tech. There is no other ('general') way to place a spy on a planet such that his prime purpose is to find and steal tech, right? If correct, then is there any variance in the chance of tech theft based on the planet structure that the spy targets? If I place him in a research lab, is it going to be more likely than on a farm, for instance?

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Damn I just learned a lesson about what you were talking about above. I had 4 spies full-time invested in the Torian race, as that's who I was attacking first to remove from the game. I finally whittled them down to the last planet and when I eliminated them, realized a few turns later that all my spies had magically disappeared.

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1a. You built an influence base and added one module to it, but an influence base can have up to 11 additional modules to increase it's effectiveness. A single module really won't do much.

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KzintiPatriarch

Join Date 05/2007

+95

Influence starbases have a local effect, not empire-wide. Yours was not producing enough influence to noticeably affect your sphere of influence. If you built one in empty space with no competing influence, you would see the effect right away. I suggest upgrading further or building more of them. You can even flip allies planets in this way. Or even better, simply take the planets of the other nearby faction.

Planet flipping is a random chance each turn for each affected planet, determined by difference in influence values. Given enough time you will eventually flip that planet next to your homeworld. To increase the chances of flipping nearby planets build influence structures or starbases.

I dont think placing spies on certain structures increases the chance of stealing tech.

Sentient species taste better...

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