User:Eliria/spying

=Spying=

Spying provides useful information on towns. First you need to research Espionage and build a Hideout, then you can build Spies.

Once you make a spy for 200 gold and 17 Crystal Glass, you can set him to work by clicking on your target city and using the Actions menu on the far left of the screen to "Send Out Spy." You'll see the amount of risk involved to infiltrate the town, and decide if it's worth spying on them.

Spy Abilities
After infiltrating you merely have to click on your Hideout that you trained the spy at, and then you'll see the following image beneath the normal Hideout info:

1: Denotes which city the spy is currently in as well as the city's coordinates (which have been edited in this screenshot). The name of the city is a link, by clicking it you are able to view the city which your spy has infiltrated! You will be able to view the buildings.

2: The Current Risk meter. Each time you perform a mission using your spy without being caught, the Risk Meter goes up. Waiting will reduce the Current Risk, and the Risk Meter will go down again. The lowest the Current Risk can be is 5%, and this is included in the Mission Risk, meaning what you will see is the Mission Risk + Current Risk when viewing the missions' quoted risk.

There exists the chance on every mission that your spy will be detected. When this happens the player catching the spy even has a chance of determining where the spy came from.

The risk of detection is massively increased for a short time after every mission. Wait a while before you assign your spy another mission to reduce the risk of being detected.

Missions
Click the "Mission" button to give your spy an order. You will be shown a screen with a list of missions that may be performed and the risk involved of failing, and possibly getting caught.

Risk rating system: Lower the number, lower the risk. Higher the number, higher the risk.


 * Level of your Hideout - reduces the chance of being detected.
 * Size of the infiltrated town - reduces the chance of being detected.
 * Number of opposing spies in the infiltrated town - seems to only increase Risk in the infiltration stage.

Spies have the following missions:
 * Online status Risk Base #1 Finds out if the player is Online.
 * Spy out treasure chamber Risk Base #1 How much gold is in the treasury. This function may be performed by looking up the player in the Highscore list under the "Gold Stock" score.
 * Recall Spy Risk Base #2 Your spy returns to his Hideout.
 * Inspect warehouse Risk Base #2 You can find out how many resources the town has. You might know if an attack would pay off.
 * Spy out level of Research Risk Base #3 You learn which discoveries were last made.
 * Infiltrate Town Risk Base #4 You plant a spy in the target town.
 * Spy out Garrison Risk Base #5 How many and what types of soldiers, war machines and war ships are stationed within the town.
 * Observe communication Risk Base #6 You learn who the victim has messaged within the last few hours. You only see the subject, not the content.
 * Observe fleet and troop movements Risk Base #7 A fleet´s origin and destination, total number of units & cargo ships as well as arrival time.

Tactics
If you want to keep tabs on somebody, starting out by checking if they're on or not using the Online Status mission will let you know if they're paying attention right now. This can be important if you're going to attack somebody, as obviously they can't retaliate or make new troops if they're offline.

Checking their garrison will provide you with the knowledge to decide if you can win a battle, and what to use to fight them. While these tactics are for another guide, attacking with slingers against Phalanx wont do much good. Conversely, checking to see what troops they have will also tell you if they plan to be defensive or offensive. Phalanx aren't much good attacking, but Swordsmen are.

You can see what buildings they have and what level the buildings are by clicking twice on their town in the Island View and hovering over a building to see the level. This can be vital, as knowing what levels their Wall, Warehouse, and Trading Port are will let you know how difficult it would be to get past their defenses, how much of their resources are protected, and how many of the lootable resources you can actually get.

Determining the research they've obtained will let you know what troops, ships, and advances could prove a challenge.

Observing Troop and Fleet movements will tell you when they have a cargo ship coming in so you can blockade the city beforehand to grab the goods on board. Also, any troops coming back will be sunk, and any enemy ships returning will have to fight you to get past the blockade. This can also tell you who they're attacking and how long those units will be gone.

Observing Communication and looking at the Treasury are the most useless abilities. Observing Communication only tells you the 'subject' - meaning whether or not it was a message or treaty, and who it was with. Not terribly useful. You can also find out how much gold they have by looking at the Highscores and Goldstock score. Neither of these are recommended to use.

Risk
The risk involved to infiltrate a town depends on the Hideout level the spy is being sent from, the level of the target town, and how many spies are acting in defense of the target town.

The risk of each mission depends on a fixed percentage for each mission, which is reduced by the Hideout level the spy is being sent from and the level of the target town, but is raised by any spies acting in defense of the target town.

The Math
Each level of your Hideout lowers the risk by %2 and each level of the target town lowers the risk by %6, whereas each spy in the target town raises the risk by %15. The risk will never be lower than %5 or higher than %95, however. So there's always a chance to get caught and always a chance to accomplish the mission.

Each mission has a base risk associated with it, which are the following:

 Risk Base #1: 35%:  Online status, Recall Spy

 Risk Base #2: 45%  Inspect Warehouse, Spy out treasure chamber

 Risk Base #3: 65%:  Spy out level of research

 Risk Base #4: 68%:  Infiltrate Town

 Risk Base #5: 95%:  Spy out garrison

 Risk Base #6: 125%:  Observe communication

 Risk Base #7: 145%:  Observe fleet and troop movements

Algorithm
The nuts and bolts:

The risk for a mission is $$ R = C + M + s\cdot15 - t\cdot6 - h\cdot2$$

$$R$$ is the Risk, $$C$$ is the Current Risk (whenever you perform a mission, infiltrate, or evacuate, your Current Risk goes up). $$M$$ is the Mission risk base shown above, $$s$$ is the number of spies in the target town, $$t$$ is the target town level, $$h$$ is the Hideout level.

Defense
Coming soon.

Doesn't Answer
Your spy has been caught and executed. You will have to train a new one to replace them. Warning: If this occurs it is possible the spy has revealed information to the target, including who sent the spy, what mission the spy was attempting, or even information about the town the spy was sent from such as resources, gold, and personnel in that town.

Mission Aborted
If he is caught there is also a possibility he will escape and return to the town in which he was trained, preventing any info from being revealed, effectively getting away, but will have failed the mission.