Tech Trading

[redazncommieDXP]

Why is the AI such an . .. .. .. .. .. .. . when it comes to technology? They never give you an equal trade in technology, and during wartime, they'll give up all their gold and their cities before trading away even a fairly common tech. What's the deal?

 

[TheDS]

Techs are valuable.

It is possible to get good deals if you've got good relations. Also, different leaders are more or less jerks than others. Mansa Musa Will probably trade anything he's got, whereas Tokugawa probably won't be willing to trade for anything bigger than Fishing.

Part of the key to getting good relations - aside from having the same religion and adopting their favorite civic and sharing wars with them - is to give them good deals on your techs. You can get up to +4 on "Your trades have been fair and forthright", and you can get a +1 every time they ask you for a tech. You can also get an occasional +1 or more for giving them techs - it seems to be a higher-level "fair and forthright" trade, and I've seen it come up only after giving several techs for a song.

(And yes, their definition of you being fair and forthright means you were willing to let them bend you over and have their way with you.)

As far as I know, you will never see them give YOU techs out of the blue, and rarely (I've seen it ONCE) will they give up a tech if you just ask for it. I have never gotten them to give up a tech as part of a peace agreement since I started playing BtS.

They seem to be almost as reluctant to trade with each other as they are to trade with you, if that makes you feel any better.

 

[99wattr89]

Rather than waste your time trading a tech with them for peanuts just to get good realtions, just refuse the trade, then give them the tech. The bonus for gving away a tech normally gives me a +4 for trade with them right away, regardless of the fact that it was a gift not a trade.
Also, instead of just trading a tech once, trade it to each AI one after another. That way, though they each gain a little, you can get several new techs for yourself, just for the cost of one tech of your own.
If you have good enough relations (Friendly) then the AI will normally give you several techs over the course of the game - just keep asking every so often.
Of course, all this is just based on my own experiences.

 

[redazncommieDXP]

Thanks for all the help. But I'm bad at staying friends with people, as I play aggressively and they don't like seeing their buddies wiped out. Is there any place to go to mod the values they assign to tech, and make them a little friendlier about it?

 

[Wolfshanze]

Tech trading is hard, but can be done... it's the STEALING tech values that are astronomically through the roof... the feature may as well not even be in the game. I wish there was a way to turn-down how expensive it is to steal techs.

 

[99wattr89]

Go to Assets\XML\Civilizations\CIV4LeaderHeadInfos.xml
You can edit the value that each leader puts on techs, what situations they will refuse to trade techs in, and virtually any other variable connected to their behavior.
Unfortunately, you'll have to change every single leader one at a time.

 

[redazncommieDXP]

Don't get me started on tech stealing... I tried to edit the values in the XML but it hardly seemed to make any difference.

Firaxis, if it's harder to steal a tech than it is to just research it yourself, something is wrong.

 

[TheDS]

On the contrary - stealing techs seems to me to be just about right. The number of EPs needed seems to be somewhat near to the number of beakers required. In addition, most of your EPs are coming from 3 or 4 buildings, and you're not required to even assign any spies in your cities, unlike science and money. Of course, you can use the slider to get even more.

So EPs are essentially free, and they can be used to gain techs? If you think stealing is too expensive (lots of threads claim it's too cheap; me, I think it's about right), try going through the list of cities your target has and find the cheapest one to steal through. You'd be amazed at the difference. Also, sit for 5 turns for a maximum discount. And focus your spending on your intended target. If you spend the bulk of your EPs on one civ, you can get the costs down to 50% without too much difficulty.

With these techniques, and the occasional great spy, you can steal multiple techs for a pittance. Yeah, you have to trade off a little, but tough decisions are what makes games worth playing.