Partial research and tech stealing

Bostock

King
Joined
Apr 28, 2008
Messages
784
If I partial-research a tech, do I still pay the full price (not counting stationary spy, etc.) for stealing it?
 
Yes i think so. Did it some months back with my GW powered SE, but dont have any pics to double check.
 
You have to pay the full EP cost for stealling a tech regardless of partially researching it. There are a lot of things that can reduce the cost of stealling techs, including religion, trade routes, distance to capital, waiting for 5 turns with your spy, but partly researching the tech does not help.
 
I've never understood why the AI gives you discounts when you partially research a tech (in trade, that is). It makes the game easier for you, but doesn't make much sense (or rather, it seems kinda silly how they know how far you've researched even with EP). What I also don't like is how the AI places almost 0 value on monopoly techs in actual trade, at least compared to what I remember in civ3. In civ4, you can trade one new tech, say Philosophy, to each AI and they would all pay you a lot (if they hadn't been researching it themselves). Whereas the older system dramatically scaled down how much they would pay if a couple of their friends knew the tech, so this couldn't work so well (but I think they paid more if they were the first ones offered the deal). For that matter I also think the AI "hiding" it's gold is broken as well - it should just not be willing to trade it. (And of course I could rant on a lot more, like about the AI giving peaceful vassals everything... but this isn't relevant to your question, on the espionage side your/their research into something has no effect).
 
I've never understood why the AI gives you discounts when you partially research a tech (in trade, that is). It makes the game easier for you, but doesn't make much sense (or rather, it seems kinda silly how they know how far you've researched even with EP).

It makes perfect sense. They know you're going to get gunpowder in two turns anyways, so trading it to you doesn't mean much.
 
They know you're going to get gunpowder in two turns anyways, so trading it to you doesn't mean much.

Um yeah - but the question is WHY do they know...? It's like how in older versions of civ the AI knows the whole map/knows where hidden resources are. Sure, it works for the AI, but this isn't exactly fair/great for game balance. It's not a terrible system (has limited effect on gameplay compared to many other things) but a better one could incorporate things like the AI judging your tech based on espionage (or, it could have a REAL WFYBTA - actually looking at what techs you have), or simply giving you better deals if you're pleased or friendly.
 
He is a bit right though, since the AI can also spy on you and see what you are researching, just as we can see what the AI is researching by using our espionage points. That is propably what he meant.
 
AIs don't spy on us to know how close we are to techs though, even the most backward AI with a single percent of your EP output knows exactly how many :beakers: away HBR is for you, even if you meet in 1700 when they are a single tundra city and you are running mass EE with nationalist castles.

Really, it is just a game mechanics to make the AI not suck at trade. If it made you pay full price, then you'd not trade with it (and more importantly AIs would not trade with each other) and would also even more overpower the strategy of researching techs the AI despises.
 
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