They will be insulted by that deal

[Rising Star]

That's what I get told every deal in my current game. Dropped back to Regent to test my newly downloaded CivAssist II, got stuck on an island on a continents map (third game straight! What a week), and have just made contact with one of I'm assuming two major continents. Obviously my rech level is behind that of the inhabitants of this continent, but I'm also hampered by the unique dilemma of apparently being unable to trade techs!

Just for some details: It's about 500-400AD, my suicide galley crosses the ocean carrying a warrior and a settler. I'm playing as the Iriquois, have 146 gold, and the following techs: Masonry (from a hut), Pottery (starting tech), The Wheel (hut) Warrior Code (hut withing first city radius) Ceremonial Burial (starting tech), Alphabet, Writing, Map Making and Literature [all researched]. I think I have about ten cities, including a couple on the only island within reach without suiciding, maybe more. I also know of another island, but it's four tiles from the nearest coastal square, so I need to suicide to get to it, thus I haven't mapped it yet, I've just seen it in the distance, and it's too close for the second continent, so obviously another island.

My suicide gally sees some cultural boundaries. Yes! First contact, time for some tech trading, I rock up on Babylon's doorstep, noting that Hammurabi seems fairly behind in tech (odd) yet has several I don't along other branches: Mysticism, Bronze Working and Horseback Riding. Horseback Riding is the last thing I want, as I want to crank out chariots and mass upgrade them to Mounted Warriors for my first rush (which probably won't EVER happen considering my situation), so I attempt to trade Alphabet for Bronze Working. Hammurabi is insulted by the offer. Okay, Alphabet for Mysticism, even though I don't particularly want it. Same thing. Hmmm, try Horseback Riding anyway. Nope. I should mention at this point that Hammy also has three contacts to trade: America, Aztecs and Ottomans. I know America is the top civ, from Livy and Herodotus completing their great histories earlier, and can see some blue and brown cultural boundaries just off to the north and east respectively, so figure, screw trading for contacts with Abe and Osman, I'll see them next turn. I try to get Montezuma though, figuring I might get some techs from him and be able to cut better deals with the other two civs. Hammy is apparently deathly insulted by being offered Alphabet for contact with a civ that came dead last in both histories, size and wealth. Probably more I don't remember, since I was the most advance in one of them earlier.

So next turn I head east, off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Os[man]. I make contact with Osman, and see that he has the same three techs for sale, but has researched Alphabet. I also contact Abe, and see he has Alphabet and Writing. This mean I can trade both Literature and Map Making to him. So I try it. Just to be utterly ridiculous, Abe will not trade anything, not even his Territory map, for Map Making, Literature, all my gold, my World and Territory maps, and a bunch of gpt. Same with Osman, except obviously I can only offer him Writing.

So I'm stuck unable to trade anything. Even the simplest of trades is out, with all three civs. I'm doubtful that Montezuma will be any better if I run into him. I haven't met anyone before, so I can't have a bed rep, and I don't see any reason for this problem. If anyone understands what the hell is going on, and how to fix it, I'd appreciate it.

 

[lucashp]

Usaully the higher the level, The more expensive and rip-offs get

 

[civverguy]

Weird. I never experienced this before. Can the AI accept a tech for 1 gold?

 

[Jokeslayer]

Abe will not trade anything, not even his Territory map, for Map Making, Literature, all my gold, my World and Territory maps, and a bunch of gpt.

Did you try it without the GPT? Or with only per turn items? Sometimes the AI will only do one or the other with me (although that's usually after I've trashed my rep)

 

[Rising Star]

Sorry I took so long to get back to this, my computer's been strongly hinting that it needs to be attacked with a chainsaw all day.

@lucashp: I routinely play at Emperor level, and only dropped beck to Regent so I could test CivAssist II, since I didn't want to be trying to figure out a new interface at the higher levels. So the higher level rip-offs don't apply.

@civverguy: No, the AI will not accept anything for trade. I've tried demanding, but that's not working either, despite the fact that I'm also apparently the most powerful civ, according to both my Military Advisor and another History of the World, even if my army mostly consists warriors and chariots. I know I'm on an island about ten tiles to the south of their continent, but that usually works when you're the most powerful civ anyway, especially when picking on weaklings like Babylon.

@Jokeslayer: I've tried it with every kind of agreement I can imagine. I've tried establishing embassies and offering RoPs and MAs, I've tried prohibitively expensive gpt deals that I could never even hope to live up to, I've tried no gpt at all (I'm the wealthiest civ out of the 'known world' so even though I don't have much, I'm certainly not strapped for cash), and as I said in my first post, I haven't had any contact with anyone before, so my rep can't be trashed, unless the barb huts have been telling nasty stories about me. I just don't understand it, this problem has never happened to me before either.

I was kind of hoping this was a known bug that was easily fixed, but I just don't understand it. I routinely get better deals at Emperor, and it can't be that CivAssist is having some sort of strange effect on my game, since this is the third game I've tested it on. Even though it's been giving me some problems (popping up every turn even though I don't have any alerts on, popping up then immediately minimizing itself, etc.) it never affected the game, just annoyed the hell out of me in the early game, when I certainly didn't need to be told anything, even if I had of activated alerts. If anyone knows what could be causing this, I'd be quite grateful, as I'm not even game to start a new game now in case this keeps happening. Without tech trading I'd be pretty much confined to Chieftain, and even that would be difficult without any trade at all in the whole game.

 

[Delphi456]

Try this test. Turn science and lux slider to 0%, pick a civ to trade with, pick any of their cheapest tech, select "What would you need for this....".

 

[sirdanilot]

Yes, ask them what they need for a tech. Or, if you want to sell them techs, ask them what they would offer for that.

If that doesn't work, please upload the save and post it here. What version are you playing, PTW or c3c? Are you fully patched? You can check the cfc site to download the latest patches, this might fix the bug.

To see the version of your game, check the bottom left corner of the game menu.