R&T D3: Barter

[Stuck_as_a_Mac]

Appearantly this office has the job of hearing the WOTP for issues on when to trade and what we will accept.

1. Are there any circumstances we should not trade techs to others?
2. Are there any techs we should prioritize attaining via trade? Any techs we should not bother to acquire?
3. What boundaries should we place on tech trade? Don't buy monopolies, don't pay more than a 10% premium? Don't accept less than 80% of the tech's cost? Take whatever profit we can?
4. If we have similar deals from multiple potential trading partners, how should we choose which one? Are there any other civs we want to keep backwards intentionally? (needs coordination with External Consul)

These are the four issues we need to discuss. Personally, I feel the following
1) Keep weapons techs out of the hands of our immediate neighbors. For instance, don't trade the Indians Iron Working. If we end up taking them on, we don't want to kick ourselves for giving them Swords. Same goes for Chivarly. Don't go and give ANY trading partner their UU tech. Or tech for a wonder we're working on. It's just common sense.
2) Trade for what we aren't researching at the time. If something comes up thats on a branch we're not on, go for it. I wouldnt, though, go for a tech we are a few turns away from researching.
3) This is one we should really talk about. I don't know what we want to do to purchase techs. We could have different styles of buying, so I'd like to see some disucssion on this one.
4) Once again, we should talk. I personally will always go for whoever can give it to us cheaper. My criteria is the least amount of stuff I have to give is teh trade I'll do. And as for the second part, we should really discuss that. It'd be harder than normal to keep someone down on an 80% Pangea.

SaaM
Dean

 

[GenMarshall]

Nevermind XCL

 

[Stuck_as_a_Mac]

bump
5678910

 

[Octavian X]

I have to say, I think it's silly to intentionally deny ourselves trading partners when the oppertunity exists. If profit is there, let us reap the rewards! I could care less about India acquiring Iron Working by our own actions, for example, if that option were clearly more profitable to us.

There's the obvious exception of nations with which we intend to start a war with, of course. If India was our target within the next, say, 20 turns or so, we wouldn't sell them weapon technology.

Otherwise, they'll aquire the techs anyway, and we'll have missed a chance to boost our knowledge and our bank accout.

I agree, though, that general purchase strategy should be further discussed. I've been running on the premise that we take action were clear profit is availble, or at the very least, a minimal loss. You've got a point, for example, when it comes to buying tech monopolies from other nations - that's generally a bad idea, unless a clear need for such a technology exists.