Restricting nonalign tech trades with tech trade points.

from GalCiv2 Forums
Tech trade points would only restrict trading techs with races that do not have your same alignment.

Example:
Each race would star out with 100 base tech trade points.
The farther away from alignment the higher cost of each trade in tech trade points.

If alignment difference =0,then cost per trade is 0.No restriction.
If alignment difference is 1 then cost per trade is 30 tech points.(100/30=3 possible techs to trade with 10 left over.
If alignment difference is 2 then cost per trade is 40 tech points.(100/40=2 possible tech trades with 20 left over.
For your riskier trade practice, left over trade points would be converted into BC.You must make at least one trade to get this.
Every month trade tech points would be replenished.

During a state of war with race cost per tech trade would be($per trade=#of trade tech points+1).You could never trade tech with someone you went to war with,no matter what alignment.
During an offer for a peace treaty $of each trade =#of tech trade points,meaning you could include one tech in a peace offer.Which leaves influence,money,ships and colonies,but only 1 tech.

At Master Diplomacy level where difference in alignment is either 1or2 trade tech cost is halved.(15)and (20).

Diplomatic level would influence # of trade points as would economic racial traits.
Also include Risky Business module for all starbases,opened by tech tree.Risky Business level 1,2,and 3.Must be placed within sector of race colony targeted to tech trade with.Cap on Risk Business module per sector.This means you would have to spend BC and time to up your tech trade with non aligned races.Also nonaligned race sectors are more dangerous so would be riskier adventure.
Feedback please.

trade
5,717 views 6 replies
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Ain't going to happen, it would require rebalancing the entire game. Right now, the game " works" - the AI can do well given the current way trading works. But to change sometthing as fundamental as this would require an entirely different AI routine for tech trading, and I don't think that' s going to happen.
Curtains - Customize Windows with additional styles
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
You already have to pay more to get techs from races that are not similarly aligned.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Well some people were complaining about the tech trading homogonizing the fighting part of the game.thought it might be a possible solution.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
You already have to pay more to get techs from races that are not similarly aligned.


That's not an effective limit, as you can broker trades with every race to offset the higher prices for lack of diplomacy or non-matching alignments.

And it in no way limits the AI trading with itself, which is the real problem. The AI is willing to pay more money for good tech, just like the player, and since the AI efficiently balances money+tech for tech+money, almost all trade proposals are accepted between AI races. Never mind the specific AI subroutine that randomly offers tech "deals" to other races at random. This means that races behind in tech almost always get bailed out at random intervals, then use there new higher level tech to leverage deals for whatever they are missing.

Keep in mind, this is emergent behavior, not "cheating" as some others allege. But the devs (who refuse to comment on this aspect of gameplay despite the fact that there are a dozen popular threads dedicated to this issue) should really rescript this to make tech trading less frequent (for the player and the AI). An easy way to do this would be to:

1. Eliminate the sweetheart deal subroutine.
2. Dramatically reduce the incidence of trade proposals by the AI.
3. Force the AI to overvalue it's own best techs, even in the face of huge money offers (otherwise the player can still broker exploit the system), and especially refuse to trade with non-aligned races or those at war or on bad terms. This must especially apply to minor races, who are one of the biggest tech brokering loopholes, as they tend to accumulate cash while being technologically deficient, meaning they are a huge tech trading accelerant.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Remember that what I proposed would only effect unaligned races.Those with same alignment would be free to trade as much as they wanted.This would apply to minor races as well,which would cut down the overflow of trade and slow it down some.