As in Vanilla civ, a Beeline to tech trading is key for higher difficulties. This allows you to trade off of the beaten path and catch up to other civs. However, in EMA, the ability to trade techs doesn't come until very late in the tree and is tied to an extremely expensive tech. This isn't much of a problem for the players, since guaranteeing a Great Prophet to bulb Theology is fairly easy to accomplish. The problem arises with the AI's prioritization of research.
The AI will often pass on Classical Heritage for many warlike techs. Not bad per se, since it makes conquest more difficult on Emperor level. However, this puts the AI in a disadvantage fairly quickly since they do not research all of the techs in an era until much later. Commercial techs (like Communes and New Mines) become trade fodder that can score upwards of 6 techs, not to mention Theology that many AIs will not have researched yet. The AI needs the ability to trade techs as much as the player does in order to stay competitive. So, the two answers are to either give a heavier weight to Classical Heritage for some AIs or to move the ability to trade techs to an earlier tech. Thoughts?
The AI will often pass on Classical Heritage for many warlike techs. Not bad per se, since it makes conquest more difficult on Emperor level. However, this puts the AI in a disadvantage fairly quickly since they do not research all of the techs in an era until much later. Commercial techs (like Communes and New Mines) become trade fodder that can score upwards of 6 techs, not to mention Theology that many AIs will not have researched yet. The AI needs the ability to trade techs as much as the player does in order to stay competitive. So, the two answers are to either give a heavier weight to Classical Heritage for some AIs or to move the ability to trade techs to an earlier tech. Thoughts?
