yea ... i agree with u guys ... the AI seems to go nuts with the other civs for trading, but i have seen some anomilties that i really cant explain... i have seen the AI a few tecks behind the leaders in my games, but that is ONLY late in the game, usually industrial age, but in the early years the AI goes nuts for trade and really doesnt like to trade jack with the player, unless u build a huge army and stomp a few heads then ONLY that will earn u the respect to trade evenly (reasonably even that is) and even your civ up on the teck race, but then u are despised by half the world for the rest of the game because u are an evil warmonger
the tactic of setting your research to zero (when i do this, i set it to 10% instead) is a VERY valid one and just trade your gold per turn or some resorces for teck, the deal only last for 20 turns then u get all your cash back ... then u can trade for more, so when u think about it u ARE getting old tecks in 20 turns (getting it imeadiatly but paying for it in 20 turns) so if u get 5 tecks out of a deal, u are centuries in front of having to research it yourself
that is how i usually get through the ancient age, then i go stright for military tradition, then stomp heads and get all those culture tecks that u neglected
ive had games where im doing well in research, and actually keeping up with the AI in research, and i come to a new teck that no one has, is going to take me 30 turns or whatever, then a few turns down the track the AI actually gets the teck, trades it with everyone then the next turn i have almost finished the research, this is good as it keeps most of the civs close to an even level in teck BUT it lowers the importance of being the teck leader as by being such a brainy civ, u are making it sooo much easier for all the other civs to research up to u and making your new teck much less valuable as u have just halved the cost for all the other civs in the world
i think the biggest problem is in the early years, the AI NEVER EVER contacts the player to trade tecks and if u are ribbed out just 1 teck in the start of the game this will create an impossable situation for u in the early years as u fall behind so fast as all the AI's keep trading with each other and leave u out of the picture.
i made up a term for this early game start, i call it the slingshot ... if your first few turns are not perfect and u meet a few civs willing to trade with u before they meet anyone else, then u can trade with them and "slingshot" yourself and be a teck power early in the game, otherwise u will languash in poverty and be teck striken for most of the game, if u start near any of the militeristic civs then your civ will be dumb for many years to come, but the same AI civs have no qualms trading with any other AI civ, just yours
i agree sirpleb, i think the AI uses military alliences to much for the trading of tecks, or perhaps due to the massive trading of everything the AI civs get real friendly and they all look at the bastard that isnt trading anything with them (becasue they wont trade with u!!) and see u as the great evil ... either way ... this bites!!
there are some massive gameplay and ballance issues here that cant be fixed by the editor and has been made much worse with the new patch
