I have seen the same thing. It's like the first few invasions get a tech every time, and then the next several don't get anything. If it were random, I wouldn't expect it to be so consistently stacked on the early end.

No, they certainly have something to offer. Refer to the OP.

Seems random to me. Must admit though I'm getting bit fed up of skipping a hole weapons branch to the end just because I got lucky when invading. It should be about time that Stardock implement that techs can not be stolen unless you have its prerequisite tech.

I feel that the only thing that ultimately matters is gameplay. There are ways to rationalise both sides, just because you have the knowledge of how to make something doesn't nessecarily mean you can. Skipping 80000 research points just because you capured 1 lousy planet is not good for the game.

Hi!

And they'll proceed to build those Thompsons from stone and bone and horn.

BR, Iztok

The chance does seem to decrease as you conquer more planets. I think I've always gotten a tech on the 1st planet though.

I'm somewhat torn on the whole 'invade and steal doom ray when you've only researched lasers' thing...on the one hand it can totally change the outcome of a conflict, on the other hand you should be rewarded for being able to conquer a planet of a civ with a massive tech lead. Of course conquering an AI planet is generally pretty easy as they tend to defend poorly even on the higher levels.

Cheers

h

I'll look into it. To tell you the truth, I was really busy this weekend so I just played through a few 1.5x.whatever games, rather than trying to sink my teeth into the new stuff. I'll let you know what I find.

As far as techs gained through invasions previously, several things I noticed. If you know many many more techs than the AI, your chance of stealing seems to drop drastically. If you both have plenty of techs the other side doesn't know, or if the AI has a major tech advantage, then you seem to gain one almost every invasion. But usually the AI will end up with somewhere between 1-4 techs that are... unlikely for you to steal, but not impossible.

Another thing which IME really helps your odds with tech stealing is to take whichever world is set as the capital (the little crown symbol). I almost always under all circumstances get a tech when invading a capital. If I have transports set up around a few dozen worlds ready to invade, I will just "chase" the capital planet as it moves, so that I conquer a civs capital 20 times in a turn. This typically yields about 18+ techs, assuming the race I'm invading has that many that I don't already know.

I'll let you know my results from 1.6 testing.

I've always felt that if you obtain a tech that's past where you've researched, you shouldn't be able to use it yet, but it should be easier to research the pre-req's. For example, you've researched Laser 5, and obtain phasor 3. You can't use phasor 3, but it should only take a fraction of the usual time to research phasor 1 and 2, since you have the technology of phasor 3 to help you along.

Looks like I stand corrected on the colonization techs. I just stole basic Radioactive Colonization last night.