Seems like an exploit to me

You are absolutely right.

The Minor Races could sell them to other Major Races for a profit. But I don't know if that's actually happening...

The value of the colonization techs should vary according to what kinds of planets are available, though.

Ofcourse the minors are interested in them! Since they can tech trade like anyone else, the tech still has worth. Especially since these techs are worth a bundle to the majors, these can be great sources of revenue for a single planet bound AI.

Therefore, no I don't think its an exploit at all.

Some feel tech trading is an exploit period and why the devs added the *Turn tech trading off* option a while ago.

Right now there isn't a way that I know of to tone down the value the AI assigns to techs on a per AI basis. There may be some under the hood type coding in the AI itself that adjusts how it values things but we can't change that yet. I know you can modify the XML files to adjust how valuable all the AIs think a particular tech is along with how likely it is to research the tech. As with all things this could change in the future .

As for them trading it to others I beat them to the punch. I never trade a valuable tech with just one AI. I trade it to them all on the same turn. Means I get all the profit and they get zilch !

It might feel more exploitive if the Minor races ever had any any real significant techs to trade for them. But in the games that I play in DA, the minors are Far behind the rest of the galaxy technologically( I vaguely remeber MRs being tech powerhouses in the earlier days of DL, but no more), and have nothing really helpful to offer...the most youll get is a bit of coin.


Furthermore, if you trade a colony tech to a minor race( or any other), you are, in effect, trading it to the rest of the galaxy, because it will just show up in their inventories soon after. Understanding this, if youre are going to trade a major tech like that, youre going to trade it to everyone on the same turn, so at least you will be the one to benefit from its transfer in every case, and nullify it as a bargaining chip for any other race. Its never a great deal for me to trade a major tech like that to a minor race...I just know that if I dont do it someone else will, and I might as well be the one to get a couple hundred BC out of it.


So in any case, its just a matter of course, and the player never really benefits significanty from trading the tech specifically to a minor race enough to call it an "exploit. Following the line of thought of the original poster, it would be an "exploit" to trade colony tech tech to any race that cant explicitly use it (there might not be any of those world types availiable to it), even though they could use that tech to aquire weapons or military techs to use against you.

Well the fact that some races won't trade weapons technologies with you because they feel that would make you too powerful indicates that there is some sort of mechanism in place to limit trading. Whether it can be adjusted to include colonization techs is another matter though.

And aside from the fact that there's a financial gain to these techs for minor races, it just seems out of place and illogical for them to be wanting them. Looking at it from a roleplaying perspective, a non-expansionist race just wouldn't really see any value in those types of techs. They'd be more interested in ones that they would actually want to use for their own societies.

That kind of limit is pretty much limited to military-type techs. I, too, wish there were a more detailed list of tech trading limitations, especially regarding minor races.

Although I do consider it a minor exploit, sometimes I like to research Mass Driver Theory really early and trade or sell it to all of the other races - but make sure not to give them Space Weapons. Pretty soon all of the other races are developing mass driver weapons, then I can develop one type of armor that will work against everyone.   

Thats not an exploit, thats just good strategy and mastery of the game. At some point, everyone just learns how to succeed, what works, and what doesnt, and how the AI thinks about things. If thats an exploit, then every succesful strategy in the game is based on some "exploit" or another.


Seeding technology is just good planning and dastardly thinking. I seed Trade as quickly as possible to every race to reduce diplomatic hostility and gain income with minimal effort(construction) on my part. I build influence bases right next to a race's homeworld, then gift them to another race to keep relations strained and prevent alliances. Sneaky, yes, exploit, no. Advanced understanding of the game is not an exploit.


I think the definition of exploit is much more narrowly defined as something being gamebreaking and not in the spirit of your races capabilities, and completely unintended by the developers.

I've seen Minor races get thier expansion AI "unlocked", so to speak, and ramapge across half the galaxy. They were blowing things up like a pyro in a propane plant. I suspect that witht eh many planets they took that they would have found some use for the techs (although this was in DL, but I think the principle applies).

You have a very, very nasty and devious turn of mind, LOL
That's a new one on me, I'll be putting THAT to use, hehe.

Of course with Super Diplomat ability its easier to bribe 'em (usually) and cut to the chase.

I know the differences between exploit, bug & misfeature. To me an exploit is being able to buy freighters and turn 'em right around to establish an instant trading route. Of course, I still haven't looked into just exactly what kind of route it establishes (planet to planet)

This is true. Although sometimes a race wont give you an option to pay them to attack another race, for whatever reason...usually because theyve become too chummy. Plus, Ive got to do something with the boatloads of constructors Im building every turn after all my econ bases are built.


Although, not to highjack then thread, there really should be a more "official" skillset for destroying interrace relations and political backbiting, aside from war. Maybe a "rumour" function tied to diplomacy skills, that let you wreck relations short of paying them off to wage war (Id like to see that much more difficult to do...even without super diplo or super manipulator, its far too easy and effective, sustainable indefinitely with no cooldowns in between wars). Your race would say "I heard the Torians like to eat Arcean Babies...", and the Arceans would believe you or not based on your diplo skill. If they believe you relations with that other race would decrease decrease one stage, etc.

Just thinking outloud...back on topic.

You're evil, you know that?  

It's a smart and common tactic. I play Terrans, and do a lot of tech trading, but I still try to be very careful on what I sell or distribute. You have to take it for granted that once its out there, many other races will get it sooner instead of later. I always try to buy techs first and foremost and give none away. I love the galactic trade goods, as they can't go beyond whom you sell them to.

Another dirty trick is to sell your enemy a very expensive tech or item, empty their treasury, then bomb their trade centers with spies. . . just prior to launching a full scale invasion.

Don't forget teh great tactic of giving them all of the planet upgrades that they don't have right before you declare war. It wrecks thier economy as they try to both fight a war and upgrade their planets, jsut be sure that you can take out thier major centers before they start rebounding!

A personal favorite of mine is to find a enemy planet with a couple transports on it, mark downt he ship numbers, then buy allthe ships on that planet. Then, jsut reinvade the planet. You end up using thier own soldiers against a weakend planet, with otu a drop to your own tax revenues.

I also enjoy getting an alliance or two, then pciking a fight with someone so they declare war on me, instantly bringing my allies into the fight (9 billion people on transports one parsec away from an enemy planet goes a long way in getting them to shoot first).