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No Technology Brokering

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No Technology Brokering

from GalCiv2 Forums
Civ IV uses this fantastic option to balance Technology Trading.
Why not implement this in GC2 as well ?

Currently you can either a) trade all techs you can get your hands on or b) turn off Tech Trading.
Both are sub-optimal choices IMO.

Being able to trade ( or trade for) every possible Tech does not work well within the idea of creating "different" races as all races start to look more similar as the game goes on.

Disallowing Tech Trading on the other hand takes away a very interesting and strategic part of the game.

Civ4 has an option which is called " No Tech Brokering" and which gives you the best of both worlds IMO.
With this option "on" you are only allowed to trade Technologies which you have researched yourself.

Meaning : In GalCiv2TA
1) you can still trade for General Techs and/or Race Specific Techs, but you cannot "sell" them to anybody else.

2) this way, races can trade their Race Specific Techs to somebody else without fear that that other race will sell this "knowledge" to a third party. As such you really have a monopoly on your race specific Techs and you sell them when you want, to whom you want without anybody making a cut block on you.

3) with this option in play, it becomes even more important to keep a close eye on what your opponents are researching so you can figure out which race can possibly help you with developing your research and which not, which race to befriend and which to ignore.

Personally, I think this option would improve the game in a big way.

29,494 views 31 replies
Reply #26 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Of course I would have to keep track of it - like everyone else, I use tech trading as an intelligence tool to see how far other civs have advanced. If this option is on, it would be harder to tell if the AIs haven't researched something yet, or if I stole it (I almost never buy tech) and just can't trade it to them.


I haven't played TA yet. But in DA, in the diplomacy screen, right under the picture of the race you are talking with, there's a little text box. You can choose a number of things to look at from this box, including techs you have in common.

KD
End of quote


I'm well aware. That's why I said it would be harder, not impossible. The tech trade window is larger text and conveniently in alphabetical order.

Also, that wouldn't tell me of techs they might have bought off others that I haven't researched yet. With sufficient espionage levels that data would be available in the race report, but again not as well formatted and accessible.
Reply #27 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Just checking :
has there been any "official" response to the "no tech brokering" suggestion ?
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Reply #28 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
No, nor is there likely to be one at this stage. If this was a serious suggestion for TA, 2 months before release was not the optimal time to suggest it. Perhaps if you had suggested it 6 months ago, there would have been time to implement it and test it properly. Maybe it will show up in 2.0.
Reply #29 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I usually play with no tech trading. I like the idea of no tech brokering though.

I also like the "bluprints" idea that means you only trade a % of the research to tone the importance of tech trading.

Or just have a simple drop down tab limiting the number of techs you can trade in a game i.e. 5 under the same premise as trade route limiting for those that want to suspend their disbelief.

Regards,

VanCam
Reply #30 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Piu lesu domine, dona eis requiem. *SLAP*Piu lesu domine, dona eis requiem. *SLAP*
Piu lesu domine, dona eis requiem. *SLAP*


NECROMANCY! NECROMANCY! I REVIVE YOU, THREAD!

On a more serious note... could a dev please respond to the following question:

Given that we think that THESE OPTIONS (no brokering, no racial tech trading) are IMPERATIVE, how hard would it be to implement each?

I ask this because I am the usual one defending you on not putting things in because of them being hard to do.

I DO NOT KNOW how Galciv2.exe is programmed, obviously, so I can't say this for a fact, but it SEEMS TO ME, with my limited programming experience, that brokering would not be TOO hard and time-consuming to implement.

Answers?
Reply #31 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Piu lesu domine, dona eis requiem.
End of quote


Actually, Libera me Domine de morte aeternum works a little better there.

I support this idea as well. As things stand, the rampant tech trading between the AI controlled races erodes the concept of the unique tech trees.

As some have stated before me, I am not a programmer, but from a layman's pov, this shouldn't be too hard to implement. The framework for it is already in the game. The 'trade goods' are handled just this way. When the 'no tech brokering', or whatever they choose to call it is ticked, then the game could treat all researched techs as it does the trade goods.

It wouldn't be exactly the same, since trade goods are a building, and we're talking about researched techs here, but if it isn't too much trouble, I think that implementing this idea would have a very positive impact on gameplay.