Tech Researching of AI

Hey, i recently purchased DA to.

One of the first new (and very nice) updates, are the different kind of planets you can colonize now.

There is however, a drawback in the AI which i noticed after a few games.

The AI seems to focus their research first on planet colonization techs. This may seem logical because they can win the colony rush quicker. However i began leaping forward in techs pretty quickily. After 1 year i had a technology rating of 219.

I like to play huge galaxies on normal difficulty, and therefor i couldnt abuse my technology headstart.
However it seems to me, that playing on smaller maps, and even in maps which i play, this is not a good tactic.

Do the AI change his researching tactis to more smarter moves when they get "smarter", or do they keep trying to research the colonization techs first??
It seems like a great flaw if they don't .

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It could work both ways, though.

Since they can colonize more types of planets they will have the variety to withstand any attack from you. You will only be able to invade a certain percentage of their planets, and the rest are untouchable to you.

While you can only colonize one type of planet. So if they finish the colonization techs and get to weapons and invasion techs before you can expand more, you might be easy pickings.

If they can get enough planets which are untouchable by you, close to your own planets, you also have the worry of them flipping your planets by influence.

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The fact that the AI factions focus so heavily on colonization techs at the start of the game, coupled with the new research and economic treaty options, invites some pretty big cheese if you play with tech trading on. If you wait just a little while, it is possible to trade a research treaty, which costs you nothing, for all of one AI faction's techs. Usually there is at least one faction that has researched or traded for every colonization tech there is, and for one treaty they will fork it all over to you along with (if you ask) all of their scout ships and a big chunk of their cash and/or influence.

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Yeah this definetly needs some tweaking/balancing. SD did say that they are doing alot of game playing during this last month before DA comes out. I hope the next beta tweaks things for the better.

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Well my point is indeed that you can easily get their techs, only from minor races ofc.
They severily will lack diplomatic and economic techs.

With a diplomatic advantage it is easier and cheaper to get their techs.

Also i noticed that any non-normal world, will not give any industrial production? or has a great penalty? Is this always the case, or does it change with the second tech?

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kryo

Join Date 05/2003

+458

Also i noticed that any non-normal world, will not give any industrial production? or has a great penalty? Is this always the case, or does it change with the second tech?

The first colonization techs let you colonize the special worlds, but with only 50% production. The second tech removes the production penalty.

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ah great, tnx for the info, the tooltip is a bit vague about it

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I've noticed that the AIs are often neglecting their military now... other civs are rushing to their weapons and these civs just fall over, usually with a hasty surrender. I saw this happen to the Drengin (!) on a large map, as well as the Korx (who I'd rushed early)..

Since those colonization techs are pricy and the AI seems to love them, could they be at fault?

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Let's just face it. NOT having those techs puts ANY player at a disadvantage.
If you avoid those colony techs all together, you are saying no to colonizing 25% to 50% of the galaxy. The AI would be stupid not to. Pricey, yes. But that's so tech trade morons who trade everything to everyone can't get it for cheap.

Personally, my own thought is that the techs and trades work just fine. The AI will trade if given enough.

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I find the AI tends to value the colonisation techs quite highly, they won't give them out for nothing so either you cough up something they want or you research them yourself sooner or later.

Having said that, the AI might be prioritising getting the full set a little too highly at the moment.

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They don't need the full set unless they've got a bunch of high quality planets of that type nearby... and they can just have the basic colonization tech while in the early rush stage. Thats what I ended up doing... I rushed for a basic colonization tech for the only worthwhile planet in close range. Of course, the Korx snapped it up a day before I finished the research.

This was a strong motivating factor in my military domination of them.

They hadn't even gotten space militarization when I descended on them with my transports (with some extra invasion techs to put teeth into my invasion) and basic stinger toting fighters (just in case he wised up... not that I needed to worry).

So yeah, that colonization tech got them the planet, but it also made them my target and didn't get them weaponry they'd have needed to stop my invasion of Korx.

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The colonization techs have added an... interesting twist.

In both GC and GC2 vanilla- I was ALWAYS more of a builder (generally - all Wonders and Trade Goods get built by me) - and usually wouldn't even build any offensive ships until I had run through the entire tech tree (excepting the occasional need for defense when I couldn't beg, trade, or bribe my way out of war).

The addition of the colonization techs was really tailor-made for my style of play... now - by the time I've run through most of the earlier wonders and goods - and turn to weaponry, I find I'm nowhere NEAR as far behind as the other races. It's much easier and cheaper for me to catch up offensively.

In addition -- once I've built aphrodisiac, orbital terraformer, etc -- I would always deal the catalyst techs to the AI, who always did -- and still does -- HIGHLY value such techs, regardless of alignment.

Adding the 10(?) colonization techs has been a bonanza for me.

While the AI usually gets to xtreme colonization before me -- and virtually will not trade it (ditto its predecessors), once I get my first "odd world" colonization tech, I find I can usually zoom by the AI for the remainder (they WILL pretty readily exchange one colonization tech for another).

I usually play crippling to suicidal -- and one other thing I've noticed... In GC2 vanilla -- the AI would almost ALWAYS have its tech, econ, and manufacturing capital built long before I did.... Now - it seems that they're not building these until extremely late in the game. I think this is likewise stunting the AI -- especially when playing against a builder like myself.

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