Anybody Else Have This Problem?

Don't sweat it. I trade with the AI the first turn I meet each one. I get all the techs I can for all the techs they want. By the time I've met them all we're all about the same tech level and then I progress from there. I'll check every 3-4 turns to see if the AI's have any new techs for trade. I'll trade just about anything away, the only thing I don't is the defense technology for the offensive weapons I'm developing. Other then that it's all on the table. Doesn't make much sense to not trade because as soon as one AI gets it they'll all eventually get it. Might as well be you that sells it to them for techs and cash.

One thing I do is usually turn my class 4 world (Mars for the Humans out there) into a pure research base. This will really kick your tech into high gear.

Also, remember that if you start as Human, you are behind in tech already. The other races start with a fair amount of technology and this often accounts for what appears to be a huge head start. It is occasionally exacerbated by AI tech trading, too, but I discovered that the AI would no longer trade me military tech now that my military is the strongest, so I suspect that they also abide by that rule.

Great advice bonscott! At first I would set up Mars evenly.. Manufacturing, Technology, and financial... one each, but then I started to do it your way also. I usually do research since it seems to be the biggest factor in the game. Faster you research the faster and farther ahead you get from the other races. I also trade with the others but I just dont understand why they are able to get so many skills reasearched so fast. Perplexing!

Make sure you're cranking up your economy to 100% or whatever you can afford. It took me a few turns to realize this in my first game, but you start by default producing on 50% of what you're capable of. In a standard sandbox game you can go up to 100% without running a deficit until you start building tons of projects and ships...then you run a deficit until your population catches up to your spending.

Thanks Apoc527, I too have experienced the Strong Military versus no war mongering trading. Although I have also found out that if you are the strongest by a very large degree, races that have NOT been to war with you ever, will be inclined to give you about anything you want. It seems if you have had a bit of a conflict with a race they hold it against you for awhile.
I had not considered that they may start with many of those techs... lucky slime balls! lol THanks for your contribution!!

They probably build specialized research planets. I have the opposite problem (Though I don't consider it a problem), and that is that i do a much better job of utilizing my planets than the computer, so I always have more research, manufacturing, and money than they do. But it is best to specialize planets for each of these. Make sure you add plenty of entertainment networks to high population planets, adding marketplaces works well with this to get a planet to specialize in producing money.

I never really understood the economy percentages. So you are saying MeridianMale that I can increase my spending to 100% until I go into deficit and then back it back down? How many turns are you able to play before you run into deficit spending? Thanks btw

I also trade with the others but I just dont understand why they are able to get so many skills reasearched so fast. Perplexing!

Someone kind of mentioned it already but every race starts out with different techs (some the same, but many different). The AI's will do what we as the human should do and trade around all your techs as soon as you meet. So by the time you've met 2 or 3 AI's they each will also have met 2-3 other AI's and thus traded around the techs they started out with.

I've found that if you stick with one branch of the tech tree you can then come back to your "friends" later and trade them one high-level tech for a lot of the other, lower-level techs.

Thanks Martimus, I usually specialize Mars and most other 4-5 tile planets. But I usually maintain an even planet when it comes to planets that have 8 or more tiles. You consider this wrong then? What type of specialized planet do you start with first? ... Ohh also, if you play like a medium map and you start with a full compliment of races, there are usually only two maybe three planets per race. How do you specialize planets when you just dont have enough?

Thanks Bonscott for answering, Again great info
MinionJoe, I've never concentrated on one tech tree. Basically I am afraid that if I put all of my eggs into one basket, everyone will come out with defenses against me and then I'm screwed. How do you make that work?

Well, if you aren't researching technology early you will lag behind. In addition, balanced research isn't really the best approach. Well rounded means you have no sharp pointy edges to hurt others with.

The only way to prevent this is to tech whore at every opportunity. As soon as you get a new tech, be it from research or trading, go around selling/trading it to everyone you can.

Technology and its trade is one of the keys to success in GalCiv 2. Note that each technology you gain gives you a military advantage as well, even if it's not strictly a military technology.

As an aside, I love the term "tech whore".

Computers trade tech like mad, so the reason they're all so far ahead at the start is that each one researches down one or two trees, and then they swap around between them until they all are a ways down all trees. This decreases some as the game progresses as the AI gets a bit more stingy with their techs.

At the start, it helps if you research a lot of diplomacy skills and don't trade them away, since this gives you the advantage in tech trading. After that, research whatever the computer doesn't have, and trade it for all the lower techs that you missed.

Personally, I trade anything besides diplomacy techs and defense against my main weapon. I find that the computer rarely changes its weapon type unless I'm really reaming it, but by that time it's usually too late. I do usually have universal defenses, so that helps if they change weapons as well. If I'm going for a cultural victory, or trying to flip a few planets, I avoid trading cultural techs as well, but I rarely bother with that anymore.

-Dewar

Last game at "crippling" all the AI was at Intelligent, one by diplomacy after waxing the hairy eyebrows of the Drengin and kicking some proverbial Yor tail, stupid machines allied themselves exactly wrong and at the wrong time, causing me to mearly divert half of my starship troopers and make a two front war end in an ouchless way pretty much for the Kat Lords.

Anyhow, to get to the point, I never thought of myself as a Tech Whore, however, after game after game I keep seeing that I am doing 90 to 120 techs of research compared to 30 to 40 techs for the AIs civilizations. The last couple of games I have been doing though, I decided that it was time to make it more... my way than their way. Whenever I trade or offer for sale a technology, I immediately in that turn go to everyone that is not at war with me and sell it to them or at least offer it in exchange for a technology they have.

Anyways, I guess that makes me a Tech Whore, and if IR1 that I am going to be a damn good one!

W/R
Suralle Straykat
Kat Lord @ Large

LOL>.. thanks everyone.. So basically become a whore and go mass murder entire races? hehe (sounds like fun)