I must say I'm pretty excited about this new game option because it's a nice balance between No tech trading (which I never play with because it'd cause civs who fall behind in technology to get really left behind) and the default 'unlimited' trading, which causes new techs to spread too fast after they are discovered by couple of civs. I think this will add a lot more balance & fairness to the game.

My question: is this feature easy enough to mod/add to the current game (e.g. Warlords 2.08) via a MOD or xml/dll tweak? I would love to start playing with it right away if anyone knows a way!

My question: is this feature easy enough to mod/add to the current game (e.g. Warlords 2.08) via a MOD or xml/dll tweak? I would love to start playing with it right away if anyone knows a way!
It is pretty easy to add yes.. :)
it would need custom xml and dll thou.. and unless you plan to replace another game option (like no tech trading), it would make savegames incompatible with standard ones

Thanks! Say I want it to replace no tech trading - do you know anyone who can do it? Should I post a request in the Modding forums? I posted it here since I saw that most posts in the Mod Component Requests Thread are unanswered.

I'd be surprised if Gyathaar himself couldn't do it, given his considerable programming skills ;)

Your best bet is probably the creation forum anyway. Someone's bound to answer sooner or alter, the amount of people going there is really high.

I'd be surprised if Gyathaar himself couldn't do it, given his considerable programming skills ;)

Your best bet is probably the creation forum anyway. Someone's bound to answer sooner or alter, the amount of people going there is really high.
I could easilly do it in a couple minutes... but not sure if I should since I know how the code in BtS looks like (and not sure if releasing this code early would be breaking NDA or EULA or whatever :p ) ... and if I dont more or less copy the code from BtS, then the functionality will be different :p

It sounds like a cool feature but it is sure going to make whoever gets alphabet first very powerfull.

I think this new option will be awesome!

Currently, before tech and map trading become available the game has a nice pace to it and the human isn't too disadvantaged when it comes to tech trading. However, the pace of the mid to late game is rather ruined by the way tech is so freely traded by the AI civs. What you find is as soon as one AI civ gets a new tech, the AI civs trade it round with such fervour that there's very little uniqueness amongst them. As the human, you find yourself almost forced into having to trade your tech to each and every AI civ, knowing full well that if you don't, the few civs you trade it to will...

why ? currently you are already powerful if you research alphabet first because you can trade with everyone while they can only trade with you. And it's certainly not in your interests to trade Alphabet away, so ...

I could easilly do it in a couple minutes... but not sure if I should since I know how the code in BtS looks like (and not sure if releasing this code early would be breaking NDA or EULA or whatever :p ) ... and if I dont more or less copy the code from BtS, then the functionality will be different :p

Yeah, I know, but if an independent modder produces such a mod, the code will probably be almost the same as BtS - there are only so sane many ways to do it :)

why ? currently you are already powerful if you research alphabet first because you can trade with everyone while they can only trade with you. And it's certainly not in your interests to trade Alphabet away, so ...
Yes but now you can trade alphabet away without worring about the AI trading to all your enemies as they cannot trade it.

I could easilly do it in a couple minutes... but not sure if I should since I know how the code in BtS looks like (and not sure if releasing this code early would be breaking NDA or EULA or whatever :p ) ... and if I dont more or less copy the code from BtS, then the functionality will be different :p

Oh well, I wouldn't want any copyrights to be violated so I guess I'll wait patiently for another month to play with this feature. :)

Got a question though since you're familiar with it already: Say the AI is only a couple of turns from researching a tech. Normally they buy the tech from you for x gold (or a low value tech in some cases) at some prorated amount. (Not the full value obviously - I know that it works perfectly in the current version of the game) Now, with this option turned on, is the AI going to be able to weigh in the effect of NOT being able to trade away the tech if they buy it from you? So logically they should offer even less money/techs to buy the tech if they have already researched most of it. (relative to the prorated amount they would offer in the current version of the game)

On the flip side, if I was a few turns from researching a tech and the AI offered it to me for say, 200 gold, I would probably refuse under this option if I am planning to trade it to other civs after researching. In short, the lost value from not being able to trade the tech if you don't research it yourself should be added to the decision calculations the AI makes.

Hopefully they already thought of this otherwise it'd be a bug to exploit!

It was thought about :)

On the flip side, if I was a few turns from researching a tech and the AI offered it to me for say, 200 gold, I would probably refuse under this option if I am planning to trade it to other civs after researching. In short, the lost value from not being able to trade the tech if you don't research it yourself should be added to the decision calculations the AI makes.

Hopefully they already thought of this otherwise it'd be a bug to exploit!

exactly. i've never had them turn down a tech gift i've offered. i have turned down some "perhaps this would be of use to you" gifts on the high levels when i'm worried about WFYABTA (archery? nah. gunpowder? that's different, thank you hatty!). but i've never seen them turn tech gifts down, i do hope they'll know that they should sometimes.

edit: yay solver :)!!!!!!!!!!

I'm hoping this will be the default feature. Then if you get a tech from trading, or from a goody hut, or from espionage . . . it won't be something you can simply trade away to everyone in creation.

It would give other ways of getting a technology a distinctly different flavor, slow down the rate that science advances in AI-heavy games, and make you actually decide at each point what you want to do.

Stealing a tech from the AI is always tempting, but if it's a high value trading tech, like one of the early religion techs, I'd never do it. After all if I steal it I just get one civic, but if I research it I can trade it to all the AI's for whatever they have, and they can't spam trade it themselves.

Definite strategy choices and options here.

One big upshot will be that it shouldn't hurt so much to give tribute of a tech when demanded.
Well, your game anyway. The pride stings.

It was thought about :)


The question, although we know you can't answer, is what does this mean.

does it mean
1. The AI recognizes the fact that getting a tech it has mostly researched is a bad thing and it will devalue the gift properly (to the point of refusing it)

OR

2. If you have mostly researched a tech, then you have some limited ability to trade it (depending on how much you researched it.)

OR

3. If you have been given a tech you can stil 'Get' the ability to trade it (probably through research)


Of course that also means that of the 5 ways of getting a tech
research, Oracle/Liberalism, spy, diplomacy, huts
we know about
Research (yes trade)+
Diplomacy (no trade)
... what about Oracle/Liberalism, Spying, and huts?
I'd guess yes, no, no

I think it would be the first option... that would make more sense, and probably be the easiest to implement, game-wise.

"No, thanks, we'd like to be able to offer these nuclear weapons to other nations. Makes for good profit."

Drat. There goes the planet. :lol:

I also think it's most gonna be the first option. Interesting to see how they dealt w/ Oracle/Liberalism. I think no because they give you a "free tech", you haven't really "researched it yourself"

I also think it's most gonna be the first option. Interesting to see how they dealt w/ Oracle/Liberalism. I think no because they give you a "free tech", you haven't really "researched it yourself"

I think so too.
Free tech in itself is nice as it is, as a downside you should not be able to trade it. Sounds nicely balanced to me.

Finally! Don't you hate it when this happens:

You have Iron works.

No one else does. You trade it to one person. The next 5 turns, every civ in the game has Iron works.