Theory of Gravity drives Bismarck insane?

[AquaBlue]

Hi Guys,

I've been playing a game on Regent with the Ottomans. The Germans are my greatest opponent and after being frightend a bit I can call myself an equal opponent now.
Then this weird deal came up. I discovered Theory of Gravity. I'd been building a palace in a city of mine, switched to Newton's University and got it within 1 turn (even lost some shields).
Eventually those Germans ended some luxury trade and I started looking for some deal to continue the luxury import. Then I found that those Germans were eager as some hungry scrouges to get Theory of Gravity. They offered 65 gpt, 79 gp (max), spices and incense for the tech. To illustrate the deal: they wouldn't give me spices for wines and 30 gpt and I already built the University. So why in the name are they so willing get Theory of Gravity?

I've been thinking and maybe it's because they will reach the next era first (does that give you bonus points?), but since I do not know when you exactly reach the next (when do you?) I'm not sure. However, I am sure they haven't discovered Economics, Metallurgy, Magnetism and/or Free Artistry yet (they just discoverd Democracy and went to Anarchy to switch govs) so THEY can't be sure to reach first. Because with all the money, I could easily discover all those techs earlier than they will...

I couldn't come to a rational answer myself, so how are your thoughts? Or is this just some weird 'bug' in the programme of the game and has Bismarck indeed become insane??

 

[civverguy]

Hi Guys,

I've been playing a game on Regent with the Ottomans. The Germans are my greatest opponent and after being frightend a bit I can call myself an equal opponent now.
Then this weird deal came up. I discovered Theory of Gravity. I'd been building a palace in a city of mine, switched to Newton's University and got it within 1 turn (even lost some shields).
Eventually those Germans ended some luxury trade and I started looking for some deal to continue the luxury import. Then I found that those Germans were eager as some hungry scrouges to get Theory of Gravity. They offered 65 gpt, 79 gp (max), spices and incense for the tech. To illustrate the deal: they wouldn't give me spices for wines and 30 gpt and I already built the University. So why in the name are they so willing get Theory of Gravity?

I've been thinking and maybe it's because they will reach the next era first (does that give you bonus points?), but since I do not know when you exactly reach the next (when do you?) I'm not sure. However, I am sure they haven't discovered Economics, Metallurgy, Magnetism and/or Free Artistry yet (they just discoverd Democracy and went to Anarchy to switch govs) so THEY can't be sure to reach first. Because with all the money, I could easily discover all those techs earlier than they will...

I couldn't come to a rational answer myself, so how are your thoughts? Or is this just some weird 'bug' in the programme of the game and has Bismarck indeed become insane??

I think that's a reasonable price for the tech. India gave me 66 GPT for chemistry.

 

[AquaBlue]

Really? Did India gave you those luxuries as well? I am always the one whose paying something extra to get the luxury deal started (don't get that as well; opponent has benefit of a luxury deal as well, hasn't he?) and now they're just throwing them at me.

But I guess I didn't know the proportions and values

If I reconsider, it costs a lot of money indeed to raise your science expenses with 10%. Should have thought of this earlier.

Thank you anyway

 

[johnnyjal]

Maybe because of Newton's U???????
Scientific civs like to build those scientifical things, ja??

 

[A Revolutionary]

Maybe because of Newton's U???????
Scientific civs like to build those scientifical things, ja??

He said he already built Newton's University in the opening post. At least, I think that's what "the University" is.

 

[Kraznaya]

It was the probably the last tech in the age, so he was paying for two techs, because Germany is a scientific civ.

 

[Tone]

The price they are willing to pay is reflected by the number of beakers it will take for them to research it. Every tech has a base cost which is then increased by a given factor for that level and map size. (Higher level and larger map=higher costs.) If other civs have already discovered a tech, the price will decrease depending upon how many civs know it. Finally if they are researching it themselves, they will have invested some cash into the tech and so the price they are willing to pay may be much less if they have already researched it for quite a few turns.

From the info you give I suggest that they had not invested any research into the tech (you said that they just got Democracy and gone into anarchy) and no other civ had the tech so you got the highest price for that map size on Regent level. In fact if you had waited for them to come out of anarchy, you might have got a better price as they were not generating any gpt themselves-they must have used cash being given to them by other civs.

Maybe you are not that used to the level, maybe you don't get to a tech first very ofen or it could just be that the AIs in your games don't normally have that much cash. The lux part of the deal is difficult for me to factor in as I don't know how big your empire is but I'd say that it's not that unusual a deal that you got there.

Just to clarify another point made, I'm afraid that the AI is not that clever to recognise when a civ will get a free tech and increase their offer because of it.

 

[Jokeslayer]

He said he already built Newton's University in the opening post. At least, I think that's what "the University" is.

The words Newton's University are in the OP. Not that hard to figure out what that is.

About the luxuries: how willing the AI is to trade them is partly dependent on how much they'll help you/them. If you have a big empire with many marketplaces and several luxs already, they'll make you pay much more for them than if you have 1 size 5 town with no marketplace and no other luxs.

 

[AquaBlue]

Thinking it over further, it indeed seems that Bismarck is a bit less crazy than I first thought. Eventually (some turns later, after my opening post) they indeed reached the next era first, so they probably went for the two techs, although the tech concerned, Theory of Gravity, wasn't the decisive factor: they had to research Magnetism and Metallurgy first. So Bismarck wasn't really playing a safe game.
Apart from that the costs for researching a tech yourself are a bit higher than I thought.
However I still think Bismarck was generous. Since he apparently knows how much marketplaces I got, he must have seen that I could very well use the luxuries (cities with unhappy faces because of the size). And because I really am not used to a generous Bismarck in this game, I rather call him crazy

To stick on to the AI's intelligence, could it be that the AI knows things about your empire you can't know about theirs? Ofcourse civs can investigate each other, but in this same game I discovered some kind of cheating. A Hittite galley was trying to drop a settler on a small island I settled on as well. I kept them away by putting units on the free tiles, so there wouldn't be any place for him. When the galley sailed 8 tiles back, I got my units back again. But the very next turn the galley returned, repeating the same process (putting units on the free tiles, sailing on and off, etc.) a couple of times!
So on the AI seemed to know whether I had units on the free tiles, although the map was shaded for him.
I accuse the AI of 'cheating', because I really doubt whether he would investigate my city on the island over and over again to check my garrison, or would he really waste all that money on that?

Thanks for all the replies

 

[Bartleby]

The AI does know the locations of all your units. It also knows where all the resources are. And it does know how many happy faces you'll get by trading for luxuries.

 

[Ansar]

Hi Guys,

I've been playing a game on Regent with the Ottomans. The Germans are my greatest opponent and after being frightend a bit I can call myself an equal opponent now.
Then this weird deal came up. I discovered Theory of Gravity. I'd been building a palace in a city of mine, switched to Newton's University and got it within 1 turn (even lost some shields).
Eventually those Germans ended some luxury trade and I started looking for some deal to continue the luxury import. Then I found that those Germans were eager as some hungry scrouges to get Theory of Gravity. They offered 65 gpt, 79 gp (max), spices and incense for the tech. To illustrate the deal: they wouldn't give me spices for wines and 30 gpt and I already built the University. So why in the name are they so willing get Theory of Gravity?

You probably didn't have the 30gpt to pay them.

You were also the only with Theory of Gravity, so they would pay a lot for it (Tone explained it).

I've been thinking and maybe it's because they will reach the next era first (does that give you bonus points?)

The computer is not that smart. [but since I do not know when you exactly reach the next (when do you?)

I couldn't come to a rational answer myself, so how are your thoughts? Or is this just some weird 'bug' in the programme of the game and has Bismarck indeed become insane??

Not a bug. Bismarck is not insane.

At least that's my take on the situation.

 

[Tribute]

My take: the AI want each and every tech you have. And if it's a monopoly, they'll pay loads of cash for it (as long as they have the gpt or gold). Even if the tech won't be helpful (though in this case, it is), they want it. You can sell them Free Artistry after Shake's has been built and Music Theory after Bach's. They'll pay less, of course; they factor in what wonders are activated if they get the tech.

I think the AI has some sort of rating system for itself. Taking into account the era it is in, number of techs it has, number of beakers to research the tech, resources/units that can be built (I suppose it doesn't care about obsolete units either, IE swordsman still counts even past Medievals). Something like that.