I started a new TA beta 3 game tonight, playing as Iconians. I was tempted to try the new Krynn, but I'm still trying to figure out the Iconian strategies so I have the Krynn as opponents to see how their influence goes.
Anyway, a few turns into the early game, the first minor race I encountered wanted to give me 100 bc for "Precursor Legacy - "A history of the Iconian civilization", marked with an asterisk as a unique tech on the trade window.
I REALLY like that asterisk showing unique racial techs. But why is this showing up in the trade window at all? And why would anyone pay for it? As far as I can tell, it offers no immediate benefits and doesn't hook into any later techs. All it does for the Iconians is unlock the Dream Conclave and Precursor Archive as starter buildings.
So what's going on here? Is this for sale in case someone later conquers an Iconian planet, and needs to tech up that line to get the conquered buildings or something? On an intuitive level, it really doesn't make sense that I should be able to "sell" this racial characteristic. It destroys the whole idea of unique racial techs, unless I'm missing something...