February 23rd, 2009, 04:45
Posts: 901
Threads: 28
Joined: Oct 2008
Everyone who plays the Moo game regularly, knows that the spy spending is incorrectly displayed. While you see 2/y production rate, you often get no spies emerging at all on the next turn (and none gets caught).
I dug out this paleolitic thread because I found the reason - it is not a display problem, but a spy production bug (or a very bad design).
It must have been intended that every "next spy" produced against one race in one turn costs twice as much as the previous.
The first spy costs 1st_spy = 25 BC + 2*comp_level, the second one 2*1st_spy, third 4*1st_spy if they are to be produced on the same turn. The rest of your spy expenditure is put in the spy accumulator and gets used on the next turn.
However, the program forgets to wipe out the "next spy" cost, when you want to train a spy on another race on the same turn! You pay the double, or even more.
Consequences:
a) The first race (see the race screen, left, up) is the cheapest spy target.
b) If you "can't afford" the bugged price, you may actually get the correct spy number on the turn after "the next turn".
c) Or you may pay a staggering cost for one spy only on the right turn.
c) The rule of thumb to avoid the "next spy" bug is to buy spies for only one race at a time.
I have been curious about this issue of spy costs: it is *your* computer tech level that comes into consideration in your equation, right, not the target race's? That has been my impression, but I wanted to ask to see if you know for sure.