Universal translator

Ok, real world examples:

1) I'm playing a custom race, which gets UT as a starting tech, and I meet the Thalan (who don't have UT as a starting tech). They haven't researched UT yet. I'm able to talk with them.

2) I'm playing the Thalan, and I haven't researched UT yet. I meet the Terrans, who do have UT. I'm not able to talk with them.

Based on #1, it would seem that the races can communicate when either one of them has UT (it's not required by both sides). But when I'm the one without UT, I still can't communicate.

So what's the deal? Is this a tech that's essentially useless for the AI but required for me?

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So what's the deal? Is this a tech that's essentially useless for the AI but required for me?

It does seem weird on the surface, but it makes more sense if you think of it as not just a translator, but a device that initiates a conversation. So if the Thalans have one and you don't, they can contact you if they want to, and it provides two-way translation. But you can't initiate a conversation with them if you don't have it. You're lacking the device that sends out a ringtone (or something like that), so their UT can't kick into gear and start translating.

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It's even before that.

When you first meet a civilization, if you have UT you get a message along the lines of "It's nice to meet you. Your planet looks like a good place to store my son-in-law's sixteen sportscars."

When you first meet a civ but don't have UT (even when they do), you get a message along the lines of "beep beep whirl tweet [you need Universal Translator]."

So it's not translating their salutation, either.

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