Tracking Techs

[Prince David]

More than a few times and in more than a few threads I've seen people make statements that basically say "I know what this other civ is reasearching." I've played this game for a few years now and I'd like to think I'm a pretty competent, if somewhat middle-of-the-road player, but I have no idea how this is done.

Is it espionage? Starting a tech trade and looking at what they know and guessing? A "rule" that the AI always reaseraches in a particular order? Some nifty little utility? Or is there some function that allows one to look at this? Let me in on your secret!

 

[Tomoyo]

Starting a tech trade and looking at what they know and guessing?

Also, people tend to grasp onto typical AI research patterns, e.g. the AI loves Nationalism.

 

[Renata]

The only way I know of to be certain of this is by looking at tech prices. Say you have Electricity, and you're the only civiliation that does. You consider selling it to an AI civilization, and they're willing to pay you 100gpt for it. You delay the sale, and check again the next turn, when you're still the only one who knows Electricity. Now the AI civ, who still has the same amount of money or more available, will only pay you 80gpt for it. That would indicate the price has dropped due to them having invested some beakers in researching the tech already.

If you have a strong grasp of how much a particular tech is worth, you may be able to tell when the AI is only offering you a fraction of full market price even without the comparison from turn to turn -- this can sometimes help you know when your monopoly tech is about to become more widely known, which obviously is something valuable to know in terms of when to trade it.

edit: And as Tomoyo indicated, sometimes there are ways to be fairly sure you know what an AI is researching, even without being certain. For example, in the middle ages you might be researching along the bottom of the tech tree towards military tradition while still lacking any of Printing Press/Democracy/Free Artistry. If the AI is taking what seems like a ridiculous amount of time to show up with anything but printing press to trade physics or metallurgy for, it's a pretty good bet they're going up the demo/FA tree, even if you can't see it.

Renata

 

[ainwood]

Also, have a read or Alexman's study: What will the AI research next?

 

[Prince David]

Thanks for the link and the tips. Somethings I had alredy been doing, but on a "softer" level than others.