And * means it only exists in thier tree, but there also are techs that are in some other race's trees that, as you mentioned, aren't flagged in any way.

They shouldn't be able to offer a tech you already have...perhaps it's a tech that gives the same thing as you have, but it has a different name?  If this is the case and it has a passive bonus accosiated to it...SNAG IT.  The passive bonus will stack along with yours

As for diplomacy...yup, that's how it works unfortunatly.  Also note, to further rip them off, don't bundle techs on your side to sell.  There is a discount to each tech if you place more than 1 on the table for a trade.  Sure it'll take longer to sell off all your goods, but you'll make more money from it.  Same goes with buying from them, try to stack as many as you can to reduce the cost.

I forget the %, but it can be something easily figured out by taking note of the amount they are willing to sell for singley and doubled up...or even if the number of techs on the table changes this %...etc.  All I know was there is a discount lol.

Eh, nobody knows everything, and I sure hope it stays that way for community/social reasons

Ah, I have seen stuff like that...the blank other side and the flavor text saying tey want to trade something for your other thing.

One thing to take note of next time is if that 'blank' tech was one you finished the prior round or the round coming up.  The AI does everything while you are, with the exception of the ships moving in space.  Their orders are already commited, but they don't move/attack until after you hit turn.  This is the reason you may see them invade a planet of your's w/o a war declaration...they tried to invade who you just invaded lol.

Speaking about techs. I can't find "shock troops" in ToA normal game anymore. It's only available in "Battle of the Gods" game mode (researched). Note that I'm playing 1.95.

yep, all races

If you're looking for mini-soldiers, only the Drengin and Korath have them now, via a tech called ultimate shock troops.

If you're looking for the tech itself, perhaps for its additional 15 soldiering, it isn't in any of the racial trees in TA, but for some reason still exists in the default tree.

Ultimate Shock Troops gives me mini soldiers as Drengin/Korath.  Further, it gives me 25 soldiering.

This may be a dumb question-and given the discrepancy above I believe we may have found where the problem lies-but you are aware that mini-soldiers is an invasion tactic, and as such is 1) unlocked by a given tech (ultimate shock troops in this instance) and 2) more to the point will not actually show up, as for instance a tech, in the tech tree, correct?

If you've somehow overlooked that, you might care to try invading someone after you've researched ultimate shock troops.

Thirdly, why 1.95?  1.96 is the latest non-beta.

For the record, my information comes from the most recent TA (1.99rc aka 2.0 beta), and I'm using Galactopedia as well to retrieve it.

And I'm -not- seeing Shock Troops in any tree except the default, and in Drengin/Korath as Ultimate Shock Troops.

I don't believe this is a beta change, either-I was looking through the files previously, both the actual xml and via Galactopedia, with 1.96 to try to figure out what tech tree I wanted to play, and I didn't see it in any other places then, either.

So.... where are my Mini soldiers anyways? Do you guys get them? Or only me who don't have those?

Sorry, but I still can't find my mini soldiers. Further, Those soldiers is the best invasion tactic, so it must be the last of Planetary invasion tree. And, I have already attacked some planets, but I can't find the tactic called "minisoldiers".

I'm playing normal game with out patches, I can't download by Impulse or Stardock central. Somebody with direct download link, please give me. Please please please please.

Quite often, I find myself buying the techs for various production buildings to avoid that. I have no interest in having slave pits, but I like to be able to use them to build real factories.

My apologies for Sole, I found it, You were right. Thank you.

Will Someone gimme the direct link download ToA patches?

I know, but my Impulse and Stardock central  is unusable. Can you upload the patches to Rapidshare or MediaFire for me?