Stealing Tech

[tormos]

So i've been playing as Abyssinia, and one of your (many) pressing issues is that you start out with 0-0-0 tech next to provinces that are in the double digits for each category. (and have rulers who want to eat you). So I usually keep my spymaster off somewhere to study technology for a while until I can catch up a bit. this led to 2 questions
1) when it says "progress improves by 1) that's equivalent to getting .1 of a tech level, right? Is this also the same increase represented in the "chance to increase"?
2) Where should I study tech? I have been using Constantinople since it is high tech and the emperor getting upset with me is a non issue (at least, compared to the many, many other issues), but is there a better province to choose?

 

[tajerio]

I often target Palermo instead, since whoever rules Palermo is usually far enough away not to be a problem, and sometimes the Byzantine emperor will blind your spymaster, instead of just imprisoning and later releasing him as other rulers tend to.

 

[Iron Chariots]

Yes, I believe the "steal technology" steals you .1 progress, the equivalent of one level of progress. I do not know if it saves your progress so that you're equally far from the next level or if it gives you just enough progress to level up once.

As far as where to steal tech from:
Pull up the technology menu. Next to each tech, there is a rectangle. if you click this, it will highlight regions according to how advanced they are in said tech. Choose a tech that you want to advance and check its map, send your spymaster to wherever that tech is most advanced. I like to try to choose counties that have a combination of legalism (which is insanely good) and one or both of the weapon and armor techs that applies to my cultural unit.