Trading eurekas with other civs?

[Arent11]

Don't know whether anyone suggested this yet, but sharing the "blueprints"/"inspiration" for a tech/civic would be quite interesting, especially in multiplayer. After all, you can steal it anyway - I'm often agreeing with my friends that we are "allowed" to spy on each other to "trade" tech. Which is of course a little cheesy.

 

[Infixo]

Great idea but only for MP as of now. In single player AI won't be able to utilize it.

 

[Arent11]

Great idea but only for MP as of now. In single player AI won't be able to utilize it.

Yep, it would be better if the ai would be clever enough to use it - and potentially team up against the human and only share with its ai allies (Like on higher difficulties in master of orion 2). But of course that is hard to mod.

 

[Simo]

Ai used to trade techs in all Civs until 5, not sure why it couldnt do it now. I like the idea and disliked it when tech trading was removed.

 

[Infixo]

Well, the devs removed it. It was brought back in Vox Populi mod with strict programming changes to game's DLL. So, until the devs will bring it back or the source code will be released... no trading

 

[Arent11]

Ai used to trade techs in all Civs until 5, not sure why it couldnt do it now. I like the idea and disliked it when tech trading was removed.

The often cited reason is "tech brokering" by players - players are clever enough to trade one tech with an ai & sell it to another ai, effectively getting tech lead without developing a single technology. However, there is an easy solution to that, namely to program the ai to only make unfavorable trades with a human. I'm not sure whether the devs are not clever enough for that solution or they had other reasons to remove tech trade completely, but it is from a logical point of view absurd, since you can steal tech.

 

[Cliomancer]

Thinking about how technology sharing goes in real life, I'd be interested in the idea that civs learn from each other by sending over representatives to develop actual technological solutions as part of trade deals.

Like, maybe you could offer to share a tech with a neighbour, gaining them the benefits for about thirty turns or so. During that time if they build a unit or building or improvement allowed by the technology they get a Eureka for developing the technology themselves. The same idea could be applied to Civics.

 

[Arent11]

Thinking about how technology sharing goes in real life, I'd be interested in the idea that civs learn from each other by sending over representatives to develop actual technological solutions as part of trade deals.

Like, maybe you could offer to share a tech with a neighbour, gaining them the benefits for about thirty turns or so. During that time if they build a unit or building or improvement allowed by the technology they get a Eureka for developing the technology themselves. The same idea could be applied to Civics.

In alpha centauri you had "prototypes" - before you could mass produce or upgrade units, you first needed to build a prototype that was much more expensive than the normal unit but also had one higher veterancy level to show that your elite/crack guys are involved in the development. You could simply treat eurekas as the "blueprints" that you get from another civ, invest more science to finish the tech & then need to build a prototype unit or building to actually implement the technology.

 

[Infixo]

In VP Tech Brokering is be default disabled - there's a parameter for it, so you can enable it if you want.

 

[Manifold]

The often cited reason is "tech brokering" by players - players are clever enough to trade one tech with an ai & sell it to another ai, effectively getting tech lead without developing a single technology. However, there is an easy solution to that, namely to program the ai to only make unfavorable trades with a human. I'm not sure whether the devs are not clever enough for that solution or they had other reasons to remove tech trade completely, but it is from a logical point of view absurd, since you can steal tech.

This was the way to win Civ4 on highest level. I did not see the problem. About the spies you have already written rightly

Ai used to trade techs in all Civs until 5, not sure why it couldnt do it now. I like the idea and disliked it when tech trading was removed.

At the moment in game I sell every few turns some strategic resources to the minor Civ (AI) so I get always some gold but they did not get anything because they just get another copy of a strategic resources they already get from me. Their only benefit is, that the new deal occurs longer. The possibility to sell them eurekas would be good for variety and the diplomatic system.