Oct 23rd 2013, 18:23:23
Had a chat with qzjul.
Cliffnotes:
1) Being stolen tech daily is akin to being baited to war. Ignoring it is often the best move, because a t10 country is still going to finish t10 even with tech stolen. It is generally not a good move to give up a t10 finish on a solo server. What this boils down to is that the countries that finally realized they cannot finish t10 will then often enter war instead, hoping to avert any further tech stealing to countries that would still finish t10. See #269 on Primary.
2) The victim cannot do anything about tech stealing, other than going to war. You can put food on the market to counter food stealing, you can stock food to counter money stealing, but you can't do this for tech... I guess you can protect 1/4 of your tech...
3) All harmful ops other than the stealing ones are subjected to GDI. Assumed to be left like this so that spies are still needed to protect your country - but it isn't working when the stealing countries have over 100+ SPAL. Also, all top 50 countries have spies anyway, because spying on countries you grab is required to determine breaks.
If you build up sufficient spies to actually be a deterrent to tech stealing, then the spy upkeep becomes so much that it would actually have been better to just replace the stolen tech daily. You would have lost much more income building the indies, and keeping that portion of land as indies instead of (labs/farms/ent/bus).
4) Being tech stolen affects your t10 positioning of your finish. The degree of stealing is a matter of luck (or less luck if the stealing country knows who your country is).
5) Tech stealing is actually the correct netting move to any country (that isn't a casher) with sufficiently high SPAL because the tech stolen is worth more than just cashing the turn (and that you take the risk of war). This is also a conundrum that also needs to be resolved - the amount stolen is just too much. This is true even for a t10 country stealing from another t10 country (case in point, #132 is stealing tech on Primary).
All the above is why tech stealing is a problem. To h2orich, I would be ok if tech stealing was only limited to people you have grabbed at least once, so they can still "retal" by stealing. But to be stolen by countries you never offended before, daily, is a problem, particularly because of #5.
Cliffnotes:
1) Being stolen tech daily is akin to being baited to war. Ignoring it is often the best move, because a t10 country is still going to finish t10 even with tech stolen. It is generally not a good move to give up a t10 finish on a solo server. What this boils down to is that the countries that finally realized they cannot finish t10 will then often enter war instead, hoping to avert any further tech stealing to countries that would still finish t10. See #269 on Primary.
2) The victim cannot do anything about tech stealing, other than going to war. You can put food on the market to counter food stealing, you can stock food to counter money stealing, but you can't do this for tech... I guess you can protect 1/4 of your tech...
3) All harmful ops other than the stealing ones are subjected to GDI. Assumed to be left like this so that spies are still needed to protect your country - but it isn't working when the stealing countries have over 100+ SPAL. Also, all top 50 countries have spies anyway, because spying on countries you grab is required to determine breaks.
If you build up sufficient spies to actually be a deterrent to tech stealing, then the spy upkeep becomes so much that it would actually have been better to just replace the stolen tech daily. You would have lost much more income building the indies, and keeping that portion of land as indies instead of (labs/farms/ent/bus).
4) Being tech stolen affects your t10 positioning of your finish. The degree of stealing is a matter of luck (or less luck if the stealing country knows who your country is).
5) Tech stealing is actually the correct netting move to any country (that isn't a casher) with sufficiently high SPAL because the tech stolen is worth more than just cashing the turn (and that you take the risk of war). This is also a conundrum that also needs to be resolved - the amount stolen is just too much. This is true even for a t10 country stealing from another t10 country (case in point, #132 is stealing tech on Primary).
All the above is why tech stealing is a problem. To h2orich, I would be ok if tech stealing was only limited to people you have grabbed at least once, so they can still "retal" by stealing. But to be stolen by countries you never offended before, daily, is a problem, particularly because of #5.