Trade Goods - How do they work?

from GalCiv2 Forums
Trade goods like Aphrodisiac, Diplomatic Translators, Frictionless Clothing, etc, provide empire-wide bonuses to your civilization (or so it seems... I would sure hope it's not a bonus for just the planet they are built on hehe)

What happens when you trade them to other civs? Do they get the benefit of the trade good forever? Do you keep the benefit given by the trade good after you trade one? Do you have infinite copies of the trade good to trade out to multiple civs, or can you just trade it to one civ?
trade
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Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
from my experience, you use trade goods the same way you would use techs to will and deal. I have noticed that trade goods are wanted much more. Example... I had a whole list of techs I had up to trade... it seemed like a hard deal to swallow. I used one of my trade goods and one other tech and they went for it. HOWEvER... You can only trade each trade good to one civ one time. IE... you can trade to every civ diplomatic translators once. From then on when dealing with that civ you wont see that particular trade good in the window. Hoped that helped
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
I believe that they cannot then trade them to another civilization, unlike technologies. You trade them then that civ gets the benefit, but you still have exclusive rights to sell it to other civilizations.

In GC1, at least...

In GC1 one of my strategies was to monopolize as many of those as possible.
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Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
The other important thing to bear in mind is that anyone you trade it to cannot trade it to a third party in turn (nor can you if you buy it from somebody). You have exclusive control over any trade goods you build.
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
I find (if I understand certain aspects of the game) that tradin trade goods and techs for cash and techs is a safe bet. They almost never (never in my experience) are able to use these techs against you.

Which to me seems not quite right, but having a hard time breaking even on a 5 player 'challenging' game so I take what I can get.
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
But there are trade goods that give bonuses to the military. And if you traded those goods away, can the other race use it against you? For instance that Xintac (spell) armor that gives a bonus to ship armor?
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
But there are trade goods that give bonuses to the military. And if you traded those goods away, can the other race use it against you? For instance that Xintac (spell) armor that gives a bonus to ship armor?


Yes, they can use the bonus against you. They just can't trade it to anyone else.

Safe trade goods to bargain with are the Aphrodisiacs (almost worthless now that there are population caps), Gravity Accelerators once all the good planets and resources have been taken (not too much use for speed after that), and Morale-boosting ones (especially to minor races, as it doesn't matter how happy they are). Micro Repair Bots are okay to trade, too - I've never seen the repair rate work fast enough to make a difference.

Trade goods you should NEVER trade are the ones that boost Research, Diplomacy, or Influence - the farther ahead you can stay in those areas, the better. You probably don't want to trade ship-boosting ones, either, unless you're so far ahead of the receiving empire that the bonus wouldn't make a difference.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The trade goods bring civilization wide bonuses.

If you trade em, the other civilizations get the bonuses for ever. You can trade your trade good for many civilizations. And yes you will always have the trade good bonus, even if you trade it to other civs. This is how I understand it.

Edit:

Damn this forum is slow and buggy as hell
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
do you get money for it (per turn? or one lump sump one time?)