No Tech Brokering is GREAT! No more tech spamming!!

[Dutch Canuck]

I am playing with no technology brokering... and I it! This feature really tones down the furious AI haggling - which I always thought was flawed by it's intensity and the weird outcomes of techs appearing really early. With tech brokering switched "off", tech stealing through espionage becomes more meaningful, diplomatic trading becomes more important, and the rate of technology knowledge spreading over the world is slower over time - which is IMHO more realistic.

If you're wondering what I'm talking about, this feature, found in the custom game set-up screen, allows one to switch "off the ability of civs to trade technology advances that they did NOT research! So with this feature selected, civs can only trade technology advances that they acquired through their own research efforts... Veeeery nice... An elegant finesse... Should be a default feature of every game! (IMO )

And you know, it doesn't radically change the game, but it really feels more sensible and enjoyable to me that I don't have to fret over an important tech, that I'm considering trading, gets spread all over the world like spam. Nothing more frustrating than civs I've never met getting my hard researched tech - not particularly realistic either considering how slow knowledge was spread and actually used around the world - except perhaps in the Space Age/Information Age... No-tech brokering also models a more guarded attitude about tech; are civilizations more likely to share or keep to themselves the knowledge they acquired from abroad? Depends who's got what and when, etc... (I bet the AIs in the default game are more friendly about spamming tech to each other the higher in game difficulty one plays - but I'm not sure.)

With no-tech brokering now you can dangle more and better offers during diplomacy, and perhaps manipulate the tech race to one's diplomatic advantage...

 

[Innawerkz]

Agree whole-heartedly. This should also make 'The Internet' much more powerful.

I love this option. I fear it would render 'Steal Technology' almost useless if you played without it.

Is this a default option in the 'Play Now' or do you have to go Custom Game? I have only gone custom so far to get all the new leaders in at once.

 

[DarkSchneider]

I am curious about this as well. Well I suppose I'll just have to keep playing my 'default' game to find out!

 

[Dutch Canuck]

^^I only play Custom Games myself so I don't know about the options that may pop up in the Play Now mode...

 

[largedarryl]

This is an option that is only found under custom game.

 

[ripple01]

That sucks, is there a way to turn it on by default for "Play Now" games???

Cheers,
ripple01

 

[largedarryl]

I'm sure there is, but I'm not to sure how.

I would suspect that if looked in the .ini file there would be an option in there for you to set it as a default.

 

[Rabbit, White]

That sucks, is there a way to turn it on by default for "Play Now" games???

Cheers,
ripple01

You know, I never actually bothered to verify this but I think that whatever settings you put in a custom game, they apply to any consequent regular "play now" games. So if you started a custom game with the "no tech brokering" on, then after that a "play now" game would also have that option. I am not 100% sure about this though.

 

[Dutch Canuck]

The difference between Play Now and Custom is that Custom allows you change many more parameters before you play. But you can ignore them and leave most parameters random if you want. Indeed you can mimic a Play Now random game by opening Custom and not touching anything that you wouldn't change in Play Now - the default settings in Custom games are basically equivalent to Play Now. So, if you only want one change and that is "no-tech brokering", go to the Custom Game screen, select that option and launch. No fiddling with the .ini file required, just start a game through different steps.

@RW: that would be interesting to find out!

 

[LlamaCat]

glad to see these comments about the new tech option. I was looking forward to trying it and your feedback on how it affects the game makes sense. I will definitely have to click this option for my second BTS game and see what it's like. I had thought maybe the espionage factor would be better with it too... in my first game now, I see that stealing a tech is very expensive in spy points, but I'm also not very motivated to go for it because I inherently know I will get to all the techs fast enough anyway through trading around.

my biggest gripe about the game in general has always been how you have to race through the techs. I think this option might be the solution we have been waiting for!

 

[Grey Fox]

Does this slow the game pacing down a bit? If so I might use it. I guess it does tho.

 

[DrewBledsoe]

Does this slow the game pacing down a bit? If so I might use it. I guess it does tho.

Yes it seems to, combined with the overall slower teching because of larger armies all around. Ai nations still have the horrible habit, of gifting lots of tech to a voluntary completely backward vassal. At least now the vassal has to keep it to themselves, and not spam it out to all and sundry, ruining many a game.

Its my default setting too, one of the best changes with BTS.

 

[Nikis-Knight]

I like it. Normal, if you get a tribute demand for a tech that you planned on hoarding, and you give in, you just gave it to the whole world. Now with this option, you are only giving it to that civ. Same with trading military techs that you don't want your enemies to get. Actually, now you WANT to trade military techs away, to your allies, since that means that they CAN'T trade to your enemies.
A very nice option if you are normally a little lazy in your trading!

 

[ATopic22]

how did they trade techs before that they didnt have. that doesnt make sense.

 

[Ricci]

Absolutely, it was already known before trying that this option was going to turn the game much more realistic and enjoyable. It war truly ridiculous that someone could trade tech as if it were commodities, considering how long took for these advances to spread through the diferent societies and that mainly the governments had nothing to do with their exchange/ pass on, but it was a consecuence of cultural intermixing, contemporary scientists meeting, and ultimately war and invasion (civ I.. remember).
Moreover, besides the "no tech brokering" option, I observed a diferent AI attitude in tech trading, it is more reserved, more jealous to give certain techs (to the human player and between them), even in goog terms (cautious, pleased).
I like all of these all the way round. The game was in need for these type of choking changes, makes it much more real and fun to play.

 

[Zhahz]

I used this option on my first (noble) game (and haven't had time for another game yet) and I had a huge tech lead (researching biology while invading the other AI on my continent, who was about twice my size, only had macemen and hadn't researched code of laws yet).

I think there were other factors in this game, like each civ (small map) having its own religion, so maybe less trading going on.

I'll be needing to play a bunch more games to see if this option somehow hurts the AIs. I hope not, since I love the option.

 

[Danielos]

This change is a very good move, but I think it should be complemented by changing the tech trading to blueprint trading. You will then be able to research the traded tech faster, but you will not just get it immediately. That system is used in Hearts of Iron 2. More realistic, since I believe it would take a while before a civ would be able to learn how to use a traded tech to its maximum capacity.

 

[Innawerkz]

how did they trade techs before that they didnt have. that doesnt make sense.

We are referring to the AI's tendency to take a technology that you just traded, turning around and gifting it to everybody else. This forced the human to 'tech broker'. Having to trade EVERYBODY for the same technology immediately or else lose that bargaining chip quickly.

With this option enabled, the AI can no longer give away technologies that they haven't actually researched. Conversely, any technology the human picks up from the AI cannot be traded around willy-nilly.

 

[ATopic22]

We are referring to the AI's tendency to take a technology that you just traded, turning around and gifting it to everybody else. This forced the human to 'tech broker'. Having to trade EVERYBODY for the same technology immediately or else lose that bargaining chip quickly.

so they dont do that anymore. thats great. so they will try to trade the other civs for a decent trade instead of just giving it to them. what option needs to be turned on for this to happen?

 

[Nikis-Knight]

"No tech brokering" (see title )