value of knowledge

[joshua]

russia (playing warlord, i know its too easy) offered me some 1590 gold up front and damn near 160 per turn (its not so much the up front but the per turn amount was insane) i would like to know how does the ai generate its bartering power or was this a fluke

 

[ukrneal]

Were you the only one who had the tech? THis is important, because the first player to buy the tech pays a premium of 50%!

Even so, as you get higher in the tech tree, the computer is willing to pay more and more for a tech (and they will also demand more from the human). I have had several games where I myself have paid thousands of gold for a tech. Sometimes they demand easily as much as 3000-6000 gold. The total in your deal was 4790, so this is normal in the more modern eras. If you can put yourself in the position to be a tech broker, you can easily get the AIs to pay you several thousand per turn on even standard maps with reltaive peace.

It sounds like you do more research and don't collect much gold. There are several threads that prove it can be very advantageous to do no research, collect gold and buy all your techs even at these prices, especially if you can trade them to other AI's. In some cases, gold per turn can be more than a few thousand. It depends on your civ (commercial or not), corruption, city size, rivers, etc.

 

[tomlouie]

Originally posted by ukrneal
It sounds like you do more research and don't collect much gold. There are several threads that prove it can be very advantageous to do no research, collect gold and buy all your techs even at these prices, especially if you can trade them to other AI's. In some cases, gold per turn can be more than a few thousand. It depends on your civ (commercial or not), corruption, city size, rivers, etc.

I tried experimenting with this style, and I was very uncomfortable with the AI civs having techs sooner than me. Any advice for how to start this strategy going?

Tom

 

[Dran]

I tried experimenting with this style, and I was very uncomfortable with the AI civs having techs sooner than me. Any advice for how to start this strategy going?

It's essential to meet as many civs as possible, and keep checking the deals you can make to see what techs they have.

A good strategy that I read on this forum was :- at the start, max the tech rate that you can still pay for & make a beeline for Literature to get the Great Library (you can pre-build a palace and switch over when you get the tech).

Once you've got the GL, set your tech rate to 0% and wait for the other civs to do all your research.
Make sure you meet as many AI civs as you can though (you only get techs from AI civs you have contact with).
When you get Education, the GL becomes obsolete & you will need to up your tech rate again (or buy/trade for them).

Of course, popping goody huts also gives you techs without having to research them - play an expansionist civ (no barbarians from goody huts) and pump scouts out to get your techs while you collect the cash...

 

[Sultan Bhargash]

Don't forget to make a beeline for Scientific Method and pre-build a palace to turn into Theory of Evolution. It is a risky gambit, but at the point that I get Scientific Method I always turn off research to build up cash. Have your science advisor prepped to give you the techs you want after TOE is built (I always make a jump to electronics to get the edge on Hoover Dam).

If you're asking how the AI has so much money to offer you the answer is simple: THEY CHEAT!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Evincar]

Sultan: The AI doesn't cheat with that, I think. Just tell me one thing: How many players do you know that can't build 160 gpt in the industrial era????

 

[Sultan Bhargash]

Evincar - (of Rath?) - don't you ever wonder why enemy civs seem able to be ahead of you in tech, ahead of you in money, fully armed in units and completely developed in cities?

 

[Grey Knight]

The AI's do cheat, but they don't get free money. They discount when trading amonst the other AIs though, so that can make them seem like they have more money.

The AI, is, well, rather stupid, though, and needs the advantage to stay competitive. For me, anything less than Emperor is like playing pro baseball with an aluminum bat....

Cheers,
Shawn

 

[Evincar]

Originally posted by Sultan Bhargash
Evincar - (of Rath?) - don't you ever wonder why enemy civs seem able to be ahead of you in tech, ahead of you in money, fully armed in units and completely developed in cities?

Really? Well, that happens to me in the early game, when the extra AI units give them that advantage, but at some point, I can take the lead and the AI's never get ahead of me in money/tech, even with their 20% discount in Emperor. And sure enough their cities are hardly ever fully developed (it is very funny when they sell their improvements back to 4000 BC at war)

The main reason that creates the illusion of that kind of AI cheating is that, mostly in the early game, they are not 4,6, or whatever rival civs, but rather an United Team that happily shares absolutely everything, and often leaves you behind of techs in the Ancient Ages for the very good reason that each civ gets 4 techs by researching one.

 

[Sultan Bhargash]

By the way, what is RNG???

 

[Hades]

I think AI would only trade with other civs with similar power. The civs that I crippled early in the game have never got back to the same tech level as the rest.

 

[Bamspeedy]

RNG = Random Number Generator (this helps to decide whether or not you win battles, what you get from goody huts, and other events that are partially dependant on a random element).

 

[Chieftess]

gpt in the 100s (even 300s) is possible during the Middle Ages! I was playing India in the Tournament 3-1 game, and got 300gpt during a GA! And it was well above 100gpt without! I also used ICS, which meant less corruption, and more 1gpt cities on the fringes, which helps.

 

[Evincar]

Originally posted by Sultan Bhargash
By the way, what is RNG???

Yes, Random Number Generator. It works perfectly in technical terms, but I wrote my signature after losing my only 2 sources of Iron and I'm not going to change it until ressources dissappearance helps me ONCE.

 

[Sultan Bhargash]

Thanks for the clarification. I will go ahead and agree: the RNG sucks (although everytime I lose a resource a new one appears somewhere already connected to my system).