Min-maxing open borders with many civs?

[Konietzko]

So I am playing on Huge map with like 18 civs. When you have open borders with someone, you both get Tech Transfer bonus.

What I have noticed myself doing is that I try to make open borders with a civilization that has researched a tech I want to research. And after I've gotten the new tech, I cancel open borders with them. And I keep repeating this pattern a lot with different civs.

My question is: Do I keep losing something when I am "min-maxing" with Tech Transfer? Would I get better relationships with a civ if I had open borders with them continuously instead of cancelling open borders from time to time?

I feel that in a such big map, I tend to min-max - and I don't like it. It kind of "kills" the immersion of such a great mod for me. Yes, I could stop doing it and roleplay it better (like keeping open borders with civs that are pleased with me and with whom I want to keep having good relations) but I was just wondering its mechanics. And I am kind of thinking what's the best tech setting in a such big world with so many civs? Tech Trading instead? Or just disable both Tech Trading and Tech Transfer?

Would like to hear some opinions about this - looking for best possible settings.

 

[Walter Hawkwood]

There is a relationship bonus from having open borders running for a while, IIRC. Probably not enough to offset the benefit of what you call min-maxing. Also, remember that you obviously get more commerce from trade if you have open borders with bigger, further away civs. As for map sizes, I'd say the best balance currently is on standard/large. Huge is a bit of an overkill IMO and does tend to get very micromanagement-heavy, especially later in game (but that's generally applicable to Civ 4 design philosophy, so that's a common issue in vanilla and in all Civ 4 mods). Also note that AI will generally also view open borders pragmatically and can break them if they feel they're not benefiting from you (especially in the SVN version, the current release version, IIRC, has a bug in AI tech transfer benefit evaluation, making it, in essence, random).