When you trade technology with an AI civilization, they generally require (in my estimation) 2 to 8x the value of the technology that you're asking for. I'm quite positive however that the AI civilizations through some quirk are trading technologies in an overall equitable and constant manner; as a result, their research is pooled, making it almost impossible for the player to compete on Normal difficulty. I say this based on the game I'm running right now on Normal difficulty, playing as the Humans.
The Arceans have only ONE planet, and the Drath have the weakest economy and have been so for a long time. By constrast, the Iconians have the strongest economy and this has been the case for a long time. So why is it that the Arceans and the Drath both possess the most advanced technology the Iconians have to offer? Why is it that all AI races, including the two who have the least to offer, possess Advanced Logistics, while no AI race will trade that to me for four state-of-the-art techs? They also share an array of other technologies, every single one of them, which logically they shouldn't have the bargaining chips to acquire. To add insult to injury, the Yor who are at war with the Iconians and hate everybody else ALSO have all these same technologies, so it's obvious they're a part of the universal tech exchange too.
I'd certainly expect all the AI to contrivedly gang up on the player on very high difficulties, but I thought until we went above Intelligent difficulty there wouldn't be unrealistic advantages like that? They do seem fairly intelligent so far, so I don't see any need, so perhaps this is just a bug like maybe they take turns 'seeking' a technology, offering 4x as much tech in exchange, and then their trading partner turns around wanting a particular tech and offers 4x as much technology right back at them; the result is unintended research sharing, meaning the player must research vs the combined efforts of all AI races.
It really is having quite a massive effect on my gameplay. I've been watching troop transports going all over the place for the last eight hours of gameplay because everybody's got Planetary Invasion, and I'm getting outmatched by large fleets of inferior ships because everybody has Advanced Logistics. I've been keeping parity or better in terms of research, but getting both these techs will take me 32 turns even now -- and I've got dozens of other techs I'm falling behind on because of the unfair AI tech trade.
