Trading techs for GPT

[Kool Keith]

Is there a general rule of thumb for trades with techs and GPT? I never know if I am helping the AI too much by forking over a tech. For instance, I just traded Education for Invention, 2 luxes and 40 GPT. Seems like a good deal, but I just can't know for sure.

 

[UnnamedPlayer]

depends on difficulty level and lots of other stuff.

if you're trading tech for tech get whatever else you can and be done with it unless you can get it from another civ without giving away as much. otherwise the AI will trade itself and make all the good deals before you.

usually a good way to tell is by the advisor hint of "we're getting close to a deal here" or by seeing what another civ would pay for it. if you only see "acceptable" or "they would never accept such a deal" then you don't know the true value.

 

[Aceman101]

Education for invention, 2 luxes and 40 GPT sounds like a pretty darn good deal to me. Be sure to check with the civs every turn to see if they have new techs and/or GPT. If they have a new tech trade it with everyone that pay's a decent price. By decent I mean over 20 GPT for a middle age tech, 30 for an industrial and 40 for a modern, the more the better though. Some people might thinks that's not enough but it's better than letting them give it to another AI for very cheap.

If they can't fork out a decent price, then don't give it to them, because the AI makes some profit out of other AI's too. So, other AI's won't trade techs with AI's if it's a very bad deal.

 

[gmaharriet]

That sounds like a good deal to me as well. Just be sure you make the trade on YOUR turn, not the AI's turn. If you can do it on your turn, you can also sell/trade it to other AI's for more gold or whatever. If you trade on the AI's turn (when they come to you first), they will trade it around to the other AI's before you get a chance to do so on your next turn.

 

[Tone]

As others have said, it is difficult to say as we don't know the other factors that might affect the trade value. The techs mentioned are of equal beaker cost so the luxes and gpt are being used to make up the difference in value to the AI. Having partly researched a tech will affect the value to that civ. (You'll know the situation for your civ but not for the AI.) The relative value also changes if more people know one tech than another. The value of the luxes depends upon the size of the civ that is receiving them. There are too many factors here to know if you got the maximum price but if the AI could afford 41gpt but that offer was close but not acceptable then you got the max price that that civ was prepared to pay for it.

Note that CAII gives the current beaker cost for each tech for you so you can use this to estimate the value of techs that you are buying and selling. However I just tend to work on the premise that if I want to sell a tech, am I happy with the deal they give. I'll often sell techs well below their value if it keeps that AI in my pocket.

 

[Bartleby]

I'm a little wary of trading for the AI's gpt. A few times I have had them welch on the deal by invading. If I think a war will be a problem, I might think twice.

 

[Aabraxan]

I use CAII's Technology tab for comparison. If I can sell for close to that, I'll usually take it. Most of the time, I'd rather sell for gold rather than gpt so that I don't have to worry about my trade rep if I find that I absolutely must invade them.

 

[Tone]

Most of the time, I'd rather sell for gold rather than gpt so that I don't have to worry about my trade rep if I find that I absolutely must invade them.

I don't think that you lose your rep if they are giving you gpt when you declare war!

 

[Aabraxan]

I don't think that you lose your rep if they are giving you gpt when you declare war!

Yeah . . . umm . . . reputation's not exactly my strong suit. At any rate, depending on which way the gold is flowing, either my rep is at stake or gold is.

 

[Rising Star]

Just a word of advice for Keith: If you are the stronger civ, try renegotiating your peace treaty with them when trading for techs. That way when the twenty turn deal runs out, you may still be able to get gpt for peace. It doesn't happen often, but occasionally the AI forgets to negotiate. This happens far more often with RoP deals however.

 

[Othniel]

Kind of an offshoot on the topic, but...

Here's one other cool situtional tech for gpt trick you can try to maximize the value you get from your tech: this usually works...

This trick works when you want to MA an AI civ in on a war and you have a tech up on them you are willing/wanting to trade to get that MA.

1. Sign the AI into the MA by giving the AI a gpt payment.
2. Then, on the same turn sell the tech to the AI for a gpt payment

The trick hinges on the strong tendency of the AI to break MA treaties before the 20 turn window. What should happen is your gpt payment to the AI is prematurely broken by the AI--no rep hit to you--but their gpt payment to you continues for the full duration. The spread of turns between the broken treaty and 20 turns is like free gold to you

If you MA the AI civ in just using the tech, when they likely break the treaty you are left with nothing.

A couple of critical notes:
The AI will normally give you little to no gpt for techs until the game has progressed significantly, which often means you get less than "market value" for the tech. By giving them gpt to begin with, you are essentially enabling the AI to pay you gpt back. HOWEVER, if you wait a turn between signing the MA and trading the tech, the extra gpt given to the AI will *snap* disappear into thin air and you can't trade for it.

Also, note that often you will not get back 100% of your initial gpt payment to the AI at first. Here's an example of what that might mean:
You give AI 80gpt for an MA
You then trade them your tech for, say, 60gpt

Somewhere in there, the extra 20gpt disappears. However, because you should make quite a few turns of "free gold". that should be more than enough to make up the difference.

Like I said, it doesn't always work, but it does often enough to make it reasonably profitable. Of course, it only works in a somewhat specialized set of circumstances, with having a free tech and wanting to MA with the AI...