Request help with technology trading(on or off)

[Marshall Thomas]

Hi. I was wondering if I could get some opinions on some problems I'm having setting up my custom game. I've been playing on monarch and I've noticed that you can really compensate for an early research deficet by making good technology trades with the AI, especially when you play with 18 civilzations. This made me decide to either move up to emporer or disable technology trading. Would anyone please offer me some thoughts on this decision? I've never played with technology trading turned off before. What are some of it's overall and unexpected influences on an epic campaign? I typically sell technology to underdeveloped nations later in the game in order to have a large treasury and run a research rate of 100%. I do it because it's strategically sound- but I don't think it's very good for the game because it means that your banks, marketplaces, and grocers have no economic imput. 50% or 25% of zero is still zero. Would anyone please offer some thoughts? Thanks

 

[MrCynical]

Turning off tech trading makes things a lot harder for you if you're playing much above Noble level. You can't rely on trading to catch up, so you have to get an economy which simply generates more science than the AI. IT depends to a certain extent on your style of play, but it sounds like turning off tech trades will be a major handicap for you.

 

[BadHorsie]

I don't think you should turn tech trading off. Are you basically saying it's too easy with tech trading? Why don't you move up to Emperor instead. Tech trading is there to be exploited, so you can't feel guilty about using it.

 

[Marshall Thomas]

One of the reasons why I'm considering turning tech trading off is because I like the idea of not being able to run a 100% research rate. This would mean that banks, marketplaces and grocers would actually have an economic impact. Another thing that scares me about emporer level is that Ai tech advancement would be so great that the modern era might begin in 1700 or close to it. It's not going to be an easy decision between no tech trading or emporer difficulty. Would anyone please offer more thoughts? thanks

 

[Commander Bello]

I absolutely understand your frustration regarding markets, grocers and banks. In my games at King level I always fall behind until I get one of the "key techs", which (after I've got the related wonder or whatever they allow me to build) I sell to other nations, by that getting missing techs and enough money to remain being at par.
Nevertheless, I keep tech trading on as it allows to compensate for weak starting positions.
Remember: noone forces you to sell your techs, right?

 

[Baru]

It can be differential on the game.
I will asume that you are playing with Barbs.
So then you should either go up a level or two or play with fewer civs. When you do , if you make an enemy you are stuck with them for a much longer span of time.
Though it should not make a big dif, a larger map can make things more interesting, the Barbs alone should stunt your growth enough.

 

[Morphine]

Does this stop the AI from trading techs with eachother?

I tried a game just to see what it was like, and all the other civs, even the backwaters, seemed to be even in terms of tech, just like they are in a normal game.

 

[Charles 22]

Does this stop the AI from trading techs with eachother?

I tried a game just to see what it was like, and all the other civs, even the backwaters, seemed to be even in terms of tech, just like they are in a normal game.

I've seen quite a few differences in techs researched among the AI civs. I'm not saying they necessarily will pick different techs, but whether they do or not there's a good number of them which will be quite a bit further behind. I haven't tried no tech trading before, but remember it shouldn't look all that different really, because if they're all picking pretty much the same techs, it would make them all look the same too; trading between them or not. The only difference you could anticipate would be that they have fewer techs compered to the ones they would have with tech trading allowed. IOW, 200AD may see each civ with typically 2 or more techs less than they usually have at that time, but their picks will probably be pretty similar, just slower. That sounds reasonable to me anyway.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

A couple of comments:

Tech Trading off gives you a slight research bonus to compensate for the lack of sudden tech sharing so keep that in mind.

The AI DO trade techs and that is why they can move really fast to high levels. Tech Trading off does slow this down a bit. Also, since the AI doesn't emphasize some techs (like Astronomy) you can monopolize on this to get a long lasting advantage as the AI goes through the tree with a general approach.

Finally, don't forget the diplomatic ramifications. Without tech trading you'll find that the game stagnates diplomatically since you have nothing much to use to get that "trade relations have been fair and forthright" bonus. (Also, it's disheartening to see the AI sitting on thousands of gold and not having any way to get them to part with it for outdated technology.)

Good luck with your game!