No tech trading : tougher on AI or human player?

[Zombie69]

It's a well known fact that AIs trade a lot. So much so that players who don't learn the intricacies of tech trading always fall behind in tech and sometimes decide in despair to switch tech trading off in their games.

Other, more strategically minded people quickly find out how to abuse the system just like the AI does. This involves researching techs that the AIs don't go for and trading your tech to all AIs simultaneously for maximum benefit.

When a person has learned the optimal way to go for trading tech, and doesn't mind the micromanagement involved in checking the foreign advisor every turn to monitor which techs everybody has, and then decides to try a game without tech trading, who will stand to lose the most in this new setting? Who gains the most from tech trading, the AI or the competent human tech broker?

Assume difficulty level of Emperor or above, where the AI gets a huge research bonus, compensated by the human's ability to build more cottages and more cities.

I would like to try a game where i don't have to check everyone's techs every turn for a change of pace, but i don't want the AI to be even weaker than it already is.

Also, this seems to me like a setting where it would be easier to take advantage of a tech lead to pounce on someone with more advanced units, something that humans are good at but AIs can't manage properly (AIs suck at waging war). This would seem to give the advantage to the human player in no tech trading games.

Any thoughts?

 

[sam0t]

I always turn off tech trade in my multiplayer games. After couple games where the same fellows traded all tech between em and destroyed others , I thought it was time to turn tech trade off.

I guess I will do the same with AI from now on. Maybe I can beat AI on monarch then

 

[Zombie69]

So you're saying that no tech trading makes it easier for humans. Any other thoughts? I hope it's the reverse, because i'd like to try it but the AI is having enough trouble keeping up with me in my games.

 

[Dark Helmet]

I guess it can be both a blessing and a curse. I can defenitely see the benefits of disabling tech swapping in multiplayer. I tried a few games with tech swapping disabled and performed miserably. Right about when I reach alphabet is when the expansion of my empire is going into high-gear and I am forced to slow down on my tech research to compensate. Any techs I can swap with my neighbors can really keep my momentum going, especially when I reach currency. On a no tech swapping map, I found I could build a few cities and continue researching competitively, or expand and begin suffering in the tech race. I really hate either option.

In short, no tech swapping in my opinion is more detrimental to the human player, than to the AI.

 

[Adam7Eight]

Tech trading sucks. It keeps every civ too even throughout the entire game, for both AI and the player. I always turn it off.

 

[holy king]

hm...
im a monarch player and i dont like the no tech trading option...
without techs you have nothing on your hands to trade for peace than your cities... (and of course nothing to talk other ais into a war)
it seems just to unbalanced...

 

[Armorydave]

I play Monarch exclusively and definitely view tech trading as a benefit to the player. I will often skimp on science in the middle ages but make up for it by going for techs that the AI doesn't seem interested in pursuing.

 

[Napalom]

At first i thought no tech trading would benefit the human player but based on my expriences i can say it benefits the ai. I can't tell why though....

 

[Reignking]

I've just started turning off tech trading -- I like it. It forces players to really focus on a strategy. I think it hinders the computer. (I only play v. AI)

 

[neriana]

I think I rely pretty heavily on tech trading until the Industrial Era, at which point I'm always ahead. I personally would be hindered by not being able to trade techs, and at high levels, where the AI gets such a large research bonus, I think it would give them the edge.

 

[Zombie69]

So far we have 4 people who say it hurts the human player more, 1 who says it hurts the AI more, and a few who like/dislike the option but don't have anything to say about whom it hurts the most.

Looks like i'll be able to use it after all!

Any other opinions on the matter? Preferably from people who've tried the game both ways and can speak from experience.

 

[atreas]

Enabling tech trading does create, in my experience, a more "levelled" standard in your opponents, at least in the last game stages. You can't really expect that one AI player will be permanently backward (and this is quite unrealistic). I would very much want to leave tech trading on (on Emperor level) but ONLY if they showed me that the AI players really play tech trading on equal terms (that means, give a tech to another AI based on some standards). I have very strong evidence that this isn't true (AI with no money and no military power gets tons of techs in one round), so I finally always disable tech trading - even though it makes much more difficult to keep up science research during the Classical and Medieval era.

Generally, tech trading seems to me more like an option to make the game more "gamish" (i.e. random). If you want to check a strategy or really learn from your mistakes I believe you should always disable it. That way noone will come to rescue if you ommit a key technology.

 

[Junuxx]

I think that at lower difficulties, no tech trading benefits the player, because the AIs don't share techs and you can get a lead pretty easily anyways, but at higher difficulties, it impairs the player, because you need smart trading to keep up.

 

[Vladesch]

AI's are obvously biased against the human. Its extremely rare that an AI will accept a 1 for 1 trade with the human. This fact alone makes it clear it helps the AI more than the human.

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

Yes, but what evidence do you have that the AI's do only 1 for 1 tech trades with each other? Everything in trade-be it between an AI and Human or AI and AI really depends on how much they like each other and how relatively important the techs are. In a current game of mine, I am getting some VERY sweet tech deals from Persia and Mali-because I have invested the effort in cultivating their friendship. They often give me 1 for 1 tech trades AND have even been known to offer me cash to sweeten the deal.

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

 

[Screw Flanders]

This is a really tough question. I have tried it a few times--it seems that if it is on monarch or below it hurts the AI as a general rule. Tried it a couple of times at higher settings but I got my butt kicked so bad that I'm not sure that having all the techs at the beginning woulda helped me. Although I do turn it off if I play an always war game as technological advantage is the only thing that seems to save me on those (every once in a while a game without diplomacy is fun to me). So it depends on the situation--if I'm looking for a change of pace I might do it.