How stealth really work ?

[LintMan]

Originally posted by Kristoffer O:
All sneaking units give reports on the province they enter. Scouts are not particulary good at this, but spies are. They give you more accurate info on numbers, more info on commanders and specials, and reveal sites. They are also less likely to be detected (not by being spies, but because they have a higher stealth value than most scouts).

Are Friars supposed to be worse than scouts at giving information? I recall from my Marignon game that it seemed I was getting almost no province information from the friars I had preaching in enemy territory.

[Pocus]

I'm under the impression that the base number of patrolling units get a penalty equal to the stealth value of the sneaking unit.

The formula could be :

chance to get caught:

# of patrolling units + # of sneaking units - sneaking value of worse sneaking unit - 10

-10 because we know that the chance only trigger for 10 units and more.

IMO the formula is more complex anyway

[ May 15, 2004, 06:31: Message edited by: Pocus ]

[Chris Byler]

So the only benefit of scouts compared to other stealthy units is that they're cheap?

Is there a way to tell what units (that aren't named "Spy") have the spy ability? IIRC Bards have it too, but who else? Is there an icon for it now, or do you just have to sneak them into enemy territory and see if they get the Incite Unrest order?

[PvK]

I think it says "spy" in the description text, but there is no icon yet.

PvK

Originally posted by Pocus:
# of patrolling units + # of sneaking units - sneaking value of worse sneaking unit - 10

According to the manual, p.11, provincial defense "is less efficient than a patrolling commander with even a small army". So PD could have a penalty too...

Cheers

[Wauthan]

Does multiple spies in the same area provide more accurate description? I always play the game with indep9 so getting good estimates on enemy forces is high priority.

[tinkthank]

I dont think that more spies/scouts give you more accurate information, but that is only judging from my own experience not looking at any code.

Usually, the word "spy" appears in some form of the flavor text to let you know that this unit is a spy: examples include the Bard, the Consort and the Ear of the Lord. In general, spies have better stealth than scouts, so that should be a giveaway too. (Scouts have stealth +0, while spies usually have around stealth +20 or more except the Ear who has +10 IIRC. In any case, spies have more than +0 unless I am mistaken; units with Glamour dont count, and I dont think there is a Glamour-ed spy. The usual suspects (Van, Man-Tuatha) don't have spies.)