The Spies technology allows you to see all of your enemies’ line of sight, at a cost of 200 gold per villager. It exists in standard Age of Empires II, but does not exist in Age of Empires I.
Should Return of Rome have a “Spies”-style tech?
I recently played a game that went on for 15 minutes longer than it should have because the other player squirreled away a few villagers and built a hidden base with towers. I had trouble finding it in the fog of war, and it occurred to me I would have been over far faster if I could research “Spies”.
Return of Rome already added some new techs like Urbanization, so I don’t think it would be out of place to add a Spies-style tech at the Government Center.
Better question is do people still play this side of the game?
Feel free to create a new poll asking that question. I certainly play it (more than the AoE2 side, mostly singleplayer, but sometimes multiplayer with friends).
For those who do, it seems to me like a Spies tech would take very little developer time since the coding of revealing enemy LOS is already in the engine; they’d just need a create an icon. That leaves a question of whether it’s a good idea to add it or not, which is what I’m trying to get at in the poll.
I play this side of the game more than the other. The Spies tech seems like a good idea, and I agree, should be easy to implement.
Yeah, I do occasionally. I was into it religiously about a month ago, but I decided to switch into the AoE2 part again. But I still intend to play it periodically so I can get my money’s worth.