Feature Request - NO TECH TRADE

Force every AI (and yourself) to do your research

from GalCiv2 Forums
I've seen at least two threads about this, but no-one from stardock actually commented on this (at least I couldn't see any comment). Maybe posting it here will trigger a reaction

in short: lots of people (myself included) find that the AI Tech trade results in a POOL of technologies shared by EVERY AI.
Personally, I don't care if I cannot be ahead of the AI technologically, but I hate that all the races has the same technologies.

I would enjoy having to develop a complete new branch of the technologies when confronted from a new Race that developed a defence that I cannot break with my current technology.

What we have now is that everybody got every Mass, Beam, Missile technology up to level 2 and doesn't specialize.
How comes that nobody goes in one direction? Like Phasors, but no missile or mass drivers?

How do you (Stardock) feel about this topic?
5,382 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
A game option "Trade tech between AI" would be great. I agree with this post and it would probably add a very unique feel to the game if you had to worry about countering research trees for each race you fight.
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
I positively agree.

IMO, the AI far too freely trades technology. While a fix to the AI itself for this would be admirable and appreciated, I would be happy with a simple option to completely disable tech-trading a'la Civ 4.

Cheers,
Siege of Centauri
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
I made a comment about the 1.0X patch regarding this issue...
i'll repost here the relevant part :

Regarding one reply about the techpooling

2) The AI does not discriminate who it trades with. It's a single player game so effectively sweetheart/sweetsour deals = rand()%ulNumberofPlayers

Imho the techpooling of the ai is the game worst aspect as it is now (even worst that many bonus not working).
Leaving aside the point i'm not totally convinced the ai would offer the same deals to the players as they do to each other here is why i'm currently dissatisfied about the tech trading

(In this point i would assume the ai treat the player the SAME way as other ai.. so exactly as stardock stated)

1) Tech trading since civ4 is agreed to be important, however as it is now ALMOST EVERY TIME (99%) ANY AI discovers one tech ALL OF THEM (or at the very best most of them) will have it in 2-3 turns.
This include ai which are so far behind they should not have ANYTHING to trade for....

1a) Since 1 is true all AI have exactly the same TECHS
1b) Since all of them have the same tech there is no weapon/defence specialization
1c) In the end unless you spend 5-10 minutes trading at the start of each turn in larger maps you're destined to fall behind (you can't compete with 7-8 other ai at once.. can't you?)

2) Let assume the ai would offer the same deal they offer each other, as in 1c) you can if you're very good at it trade yourself dedicating 5 minutes every turn for trade.
Now that falls to the kind of player you're.. for me it's no fun at all and should not be so important.

So since i guess there are different kind of player why not offer a slider for tech trading as how frequently the ai initiate tech tradings?
No tech trading - Rare tech trading (10% likeliness of now) - Uncommon Tech trading (30% likeliness) Realistic tech trading (50% likeliness of now) - Abunant tech trading (as it is now).
So every player can pick up the setting he likes more as all the other settings.

And if the problem is the metaverse who cares? Metaverse submitted games must have let's say the option as it is now i simply won't play in the metaverse :--)


I hope you'll consider this!!
Thank you
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I really hate to "complain" about this game because it has been a ton of fun to play, and quite frankly Stardock has been fantastic with its support and connection to the community. That said, I totally agree with these comments and would absolutely love the option of tunring off or tunring down tech trading. At least for me the rampant tech trading makes the game less fun...
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I would like to see a no tech trading option...

I think better than that would be an option to only be able to trade techs that YOU research yourself. You can only trade techs you research for techs they research. techs that you receive from a trade are non-transferable in any way shape or form.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Yeah this would be nice. Or even a way to slow it down, like only allow a civ to trade 1 tech and 1 tech only every 5-10 turns.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
2) The AI does not discriminate who it trades with. It's a single player game so effectively sweetheart/sweetsour deals = rand()%ulNumberofPlayers


That may be the case for the "special" deals, but reading the log file it looks like the AI gleefully swap techs that they would never consider offering the human player. Things like the latest armor and weapons technologies. Moreover, it looks like they routinely do several trades per turn, but almost never offer the trade to the player.