Hi!

Three AIs start with some extreme techs: Yor with barren, Korath with toxic, and Iconians with toxic and aqatic. And Altarians go for those extreme environmental techs almost before anything else. In my tiny suicidal game they colonized a radioactive planet at turn 9.

BR, Iztok

This is not good... If the AI's can colonize both an extreme environment AND an earth-like planet, then that's a double advantage against the human player.

I'm just getting up to maso now, and in my current game AI races colonized ALL of the extreme planets, and there were many of them. However, it didn't matter that much, because their pop didn't get high enough to make a huge difference. In fact, it tended to be a drag upon their econs more than a boon. So, I've just been waiting until mid/late game to trade for or research any of those colonizing techs. At that point they're easy to research, and when you're actually starting to take those planets, that's when it really matters.

What really needs to be changed is that the AI doesn't colonize class 1 planets. Those are some of the best planets. I just sat around until mid-game, built about 5 colony ships, and took them when I already had neutral alignment and all the terraforming techs. Then they become around 17-class planets.

I also had an early DA game when I spent about 40 weeks as the Drath researching a colonization tech line, because inhabitable planets were pretty scarce. It was worth it in that game. So, I hope people don't talk about changing things if not taking into account how the game set-ups can be extremely different player by player.

Yeah, I hate how the AIs offer each other fair trades, while they offer me stuff like

"we would like to give you laser theory in exchange for Majesty"

I think it is a little more gray than this, but in terms of just tech I'm with you 100%. They trade for way more tech than a player is ever able to. If you care about colonization techs, I see where this would put you at a disadvantage.

I'm with tetleytea about the solution. Invade.

IMO turning off tech trading is an extreme solution to the problem. I like tech trading, but I just want a level playing field.

The reason why the AI can't trade with other AI's the same way it trades with the human player is because the AI doesn't know how to offer trades the way a human player does. Think about it - how often does the AI offer you two (or more) techs for one? How often does it say "I want to sell this tech, how much will you give for it?" How often does it say "I want that tech you have, what do you want for it?"
The human player trades like that all the time, and the AI "defends" against it by offering the worst deal possible to the human based on a "table of values."
I don't know how the trades between the AI's work. I wonder whether one AI "asks" another for a tech it wants or what.

It's a workaround, and even though it's even better than researching (for what you get), it's not a solution. Feels cheesy. A new feature that doesn't work correctly... I don't think DA is coming out quite as expected.
I don't quite understand why you can invade extreme planets without a special tech, be it the colonization techs themselves (at least the first one), or a branch off the invasion line. I wish they'd think things through before implementing new "features"...

Hmmmm. I don't really have a problem with this at all. Typicaly play Tough or higher level.

I don't see the AI's trading the colonization techs much with each other. They typically have all different ones with very little crossover until mid game. I personally hold off on starting up that tech tree until I can get Extreme Colonization in less then 8 turns or so. BUT, that will change if I see a nice jucy class 17 Toxic close by.

After I've explored as far out as I deem possible to colonize I take inventory and write down all the extreme planets, making note of any that have a higher strategic value, but preferring higher class ones of course. I will then target 1 or 2 of them only. I get colony ships build and sitting next to such planets so that once the tech comes in I can immediately colonize it. In my current game I had 4 of the types in my sectors but I actually only went after 1, Aqua, as there was a class 14 Aqua on the border with the Yor and a class 7 Aqua that would really help to fill in my influence on another border.

I don't worry about the rest. So what if the AI comes into my area and colonizes those worlds. They have very little influence and grow so slow that they typically flip to me anyway. Had that happen in my current game. Had 2 Heavy Gravity planets flip to me in less then 5 turns apart so I quickly researched that which by that time only took 4 turns to get. After a small war I actually stole several more colonization techs as they were the only techs my enemy had that I didn't.

So basically I see no problem. The AI does put a priority on the colonization techs and I've seen them go after the ones that have the highest class planets available in their area. So just be aware of that and keep tabs on what the AI has vs. what you want to get and you'll be just fine. The new extreme environments are my favorite part of the game.