Gentlemen & Stealing Technology

[Fredhemm]

Hey I've had this problem bothering me for the past days playing as England in ETW.
Those gentlemen, they should be able to steal technology, but I just got suckers gentlemen with like an average 13% success ratio on stealing everything, some are on 23% though. My issue is that I don't want to risk each of them with stealing technology at that risk. Anyone got a clue on how to raise this ratio?
BTW: please post tips on which technologies to take at start. I took some on naval-military techonoly (to get better ships etc.) and on philosophies.

[remosu37]

Hey I've had this problem bothering me for the past days playing as England in ETW.
Those gentlemen, they should be able to steal technology, but I just got suckers gentlemen with like an average 13% success ratio on stealing everything, some are on 23% though. My issue is that I don't want to risk each of them with stealing technology at that risk. Anyone got a clue on how to raise this ratio?
BTW: please post tips on which technologies to take at start. I took some on naval-military techonoly (to get better ships etc.) and on philosophies.

I have the same issue. I sent a gentleman down to a neighbor to steal tech, and he sat there trying to steal tech for 14 consecutive turns (at 14% sucess rate) without a single sucess. It dawned on me, I probably could get a lot more out of him by just parking him in a university and doing research. What are the variables for stealing tech?

[Vodos]

Unfortunately, Gentlemen and Rakes don't seem to be "trainable" like in previous TW games. My Gentlemen are occasionally gaining traits related to the area they're researching, but I don't think those increase the stealing chance.
I also tried training up a Rake by sending him onto general-less armies and towns, but he never gained any traits.

If you really want to steal a tech, quicksave (ctrl+s) and hope you get lucky

[Corvic]

I would keep a majority of your gentlemen in your own universities, and just have one randomly trying to steal research. I was successful a few times and only lost a gentlemen or two.

But, yeah agents gaining attributes seems to be borked and no one my agents have really gained anything and I use them all the time.

[uanime5]

Gentlemen have 2 limits when stealing technology:

1) The faction you're trying to steal technology from must have researched something.

2) You can only steal technology you don't already possess.

So as the start of the game you can't steal anything because the AI hasn't researched anything yet.

The best way to find what technology the AI has is to try to trade technology. If they have something to trade then they have something you can steal.

[remosu37]

Gentlemen have 2 limits when stealing technology:

1) The faction you're trying to steal technology from must have researched something.

2) You can only steal technology you don't already possess.

So as the start of the game you can't steal anything because the AI hasn't researched anything yet.

The best way to find what technology the AI has is to try to trade technology. If they have something to trade then they have something you can steal.

ya neither of those were an issue for me (i was trying to steal a farming tech, it said 14%, they definately had the tech, and I certainly didn't have it). Guess i was just unlucky, but i feel like stealing tech isn't worth the cost/benefit. Seems like I would rather get the additional $ from parking him in a craft-factory or researching in the universities.

[Baron von Beer]

Rakes can gain traits. In RTI the one I had as the US gained a bonus to assassination after 2 British gentlemen crossed his path.

[Bowden]

My Gentleman (which is spelled Gentlemen ingame) has been very succesfull in stealing stuff. I got about half the techs from stealing. It btw works to have more than one schools. I currently have 3.

[Jayzilla]

the trick is to get gents with 5 stars on their ability rating. They gain traits by being in schools that successfully research a tech. so train them up with a bunch of techs and then take them out and pwn noobs.

[pearlcaster]

Yes, I've found it helps to have your better trained gentlemen go in groups of 2/3 to attempt the theft - your odds are a bit better.

Another quick note on gentlemen - when inserting them into colleges, the best number is 3 gentlemen per college. You can have 4, but 3 seems the best in terms of results. Also, if you build observatories, you can also house gentlemen there to keep your numbers up.

I'm curious whether the upcoming patch will improve on trading tech's, it seems virtually impossible, no matter what you offer. Anyone having better luck?

[borschwanger]

one of my gents is at 48% to steal a tech and has failed 4 turns in a row. at that he should steal tech the next 2 turns right? lol.

in my game sweden declared war on denmark and i think they had several allies that all joined the war including me. then britain must have declared war because they had like 9 enemies. i as prussia was in good position to take some of their regions and did. then i sued for peace and got 4 techs from them. i dunno if that counts as 'trading' tho. i addition i am mutually very friendly with britain and have attempted trading equal value techs and they just give me some crap about knowledge given and knowledge earned

in the rti the advisor i think said something that gave me the impression that sending gents to places and 'visiting' would somehow get you stuff but the only thing i have gained for is one sitting in the same university too long which gave me a trait that took % from campaign movement points and then + to certain tech tree research based on completed research.

there should be a way to gain skill in swords or guns without fighting somehow or do i assume too much?

[notger]

one of my gents is at 48% to steal a tech and has failed 4 turns in a row. at that he should steal tech the next 2 turns right? lol.

No, stochastics don't work that way.

Throwing a coin, heads has a chance of 50%, yet a series of 10 consecutive head throws is very common.

What do additional gentlemen in a university add? Why is the maximum three gentlemen and what do they add when they are in a university?

[Vodos]

What do additional gentlemen in a university add? Why is the maximum three gentlemen and what do they add when they are in a university?

They increase the number of research points the school generates, making research go faster. Whenever a school with gentlemen finishes one research project, the gentlemen have a chance to increase their expertise in that project's field (army/industry/enlightement), further boosting the research point gains.

Who says the maximum is three gentlemen? I have 6 in one university and it seems to increase the research speed just fine.

[notger]

Someone stated, that three was the optimum of gentlemen in a university, and I was asking myself, why.

[Litoralis]

No, stochastics don't work that way.

Throwing a coin, heads has a chance of 50%, yet a series of 10 consecutive head throws is very common.

What do additional gentlemen in a university add? Why is the maximum three gentlemen and what do they add when they are in a university?

hehe, isn't it a like a 0.098% chance of flipping a coin heads for the 10th consecutive time in a row? Just saying. That can hardly be common. I mean that would be close to like one in a thousand, right?
But, like trade ships, I think gentlemen have a diminishing return per university. So, having 2 gentlemen will give you approximately 2x research points, but having 3 gentlemen will only give you about 2.5x research points, and having 4 gentlemen will give you 3x research points or something like that. The ratio is not exactly that, but that was just to illustrate the concept.

So, it is better to have them spread out among your universities. Except, of course, different level universities can screw this up. It is often better to have 3 gentlemen in a Modern University and none in a Classical University, than placing 1 in the Classical University and 2 in the Modern University.

[TheEschaton]

Playing as Morocco, I didn't have and couldn't afford to have a university for the first third of my game. I simply used the one gent I started with and the others created when I built or captured observatories to steal tech and then trade it for money/other techs.

I was playing on hard, but I found that if you persist with at least 10% chance of getting the tech, your gentlemen will eventually get the tech after 20 turns at most. It's a crappy way to get technology.

IMHO, never use more than one gent at a given enemy university. Spread them far and wide, and try to find a place on the map with lots of universities clustered together - here they will always have a good supply and choice of techs to steal.

And I've never lost a gentleman while doing this - when does this happen?

[Jammerd]

They don't get caught and executed like Rakes... but I have had other Gentlemen of the "home town" persuasion challenge me to a duel...

Bugger killed me too. Oh well, a new Gentlemen respawned in a few turns anyway...

Jammer

[Remo]

Yes, I've found it helps to have your better trained gentlemen go in groups of 2/3 to attempt the theft - your odds are a bit better.

Another quick note on gentlemen - when inserting them into colleges, the best number is 3 gentlemen per college. You can have 4, but 3 seems the best in terms of results. Also, if you build observatories, you can also house gentlemen there to keep your numbers up.

I'm curious whether the upcoming patch will improve on trading tech's, it seems virtually impossible, no matter what you offer. Anyone having better luck?

I have only traded tech one time before. It was with an Ally, and we had Very Good relations.

[uanime5]

How long does it take to spawn new Gentlemen? I've got the buildings to spawn gentlemen but they don't appear anywhere.

[Saint_jimmyz]

Ive had rakes gain assassin traits many times before...