No Technology Brokering

So basically techs would work like Trade Goods? I play with tech trading off but I think I might like a system like that.

I had that idea a few years back. Check out this old post about tech trade; WWW Link . It has a lot of great ideas for new tech trade options. I'd like to see some in the new expansion.

A No Technology Brokering option would definitely be my favorite option.

I'd like to toss in my vote for adding a No Tech Brokering option. Games have a very different flavor depending on whether or not Tech Trading is enabled and I enjoy it both ways, but this third option would still be a very welcome addition.

Limiting races to trading technologies they've personally researched would give them more control over the spread of their unique technologies, keeping open the diplomatic option of trading valuable research but slowing the overall spread of techs throughout the galaxy. If this option is implemented, I can easily imagine it becoming my preferred style of play!

-Autistic Angel

That sounds like a fantastic compromise, and it would certainly make me more inclined to trade techs... I wouldn't have to worry about the technology making its rounds and finding itself in the hands of my enemies.

I agree with the OP that tech trading on and off are both extreme and suboptimal choice.
To be honest tech trading has been always a problem with GC2, when i remember that the game was totally broken due to that single feature until now where we can turn it off and in any case it has been a bit balanced.
While no tech brokering would be a really nice option, i don't think that it would be as good implemented as in CIV4, because normally in CIV4 races(civs) are a lot more picky in trading techs than in GC2. Super Diplomat ability is also tied to tech trade, turning it on make it overpowered, turning it off make it underpowered.

A better choice would be in my opinion to simply make tech trading less powerful, with a blueprint system like in Hearts of Iron 2.
With blueprints you would trade not just the tech but x% of this tech, so that it would be more balanced.
Another thing interesting would be tech leaking so that you get randomly some research points from other civs.
Both those options are less extreme than tech trading on/off, more realistic and more balanced.
To be honest i don't understand why in all TBS games devs come up always with those extreme solutions of tech trading when some milder solutions could give them less balance headaches and introduce less cheesy tactics which are not that different from cheating.

I'm no programmer, but that sounds like a horrid nightmare to program. Even worse to play with - why should I have to keep track of whether I personally researched a tech or traded for it? Perhaps putting a time limit or something - you can't trade a tech you traded for until after a 10 turn delay or something. Maybe also include that you must have all prereqs for a tech before it becomes tradeable.

My suggestion for racial techs was probably more feasable - a race should not be allowed to trade a tech they can't research. I can buy anyone's tech, but I can only sell those techs appearing on my race's tech tree.

I would LOVE No Tech Brokering.

But I'd also love the "No trading other race's special techs."

I'd like to be able to help out the people I choose with my racial techs without them getting spread all over the freaking galaxy.

This would be great IMO. I believe the majority of my games would go from no tech trading to no brokering.

With the specific racial techs that appear now in TA, this makes even more sense to implement, assuming it wouldn't be a programming nightmare as Willy pointed out.

I can't see that it would be hard at all. When you research a tech, the game can put it in a list. When you go to trade techs, it consults the list and only those techs can show up in the trade screen.

Fantastic idea. This is would be very useful in TA.

Definitely! Correct me if I'm wrong, Stardock, but I envision a system like this, that is easy:

We already know that SD can dub techs 'not-tradeable', as in many racial techs. But... could there not just be another variable... researched or not--that can toggle 'non-tradeable' on or off?

Then again, I'm not sure how the game knows what you research. It may just classify techs as 'have' and 'don't have'.

So please correct me if I am wrong, SD.

I have to agree with the proposal. Two options for tech trading would be a great solution.

It's been a long time since I programmed anything (and I was never that great at it anyway) but when you finsih researching a tech the game has to trigger several events such as marking that tech as researched, displaying the tech description, enabling whatever new abilities the tech unlocks, etc. Adding the tech to a list of those you've researched yourself wouldn't be hard, and since the game already has the ability to mark techs as tradeable or not, it would seem that the basic framework for the No Tech Brokering Option would be in place already.

In fact, if I were designing it I'd probably have not tradeable as the default state in a no tech-brokering game, then it would be quite simple to determine tradeable techs by looking at each race's list of self-researched techs. A simple check would keep non-tradeable race-specific techs off the list.

Yes... I haven't done much for a while, but I find you still keep the frame of mind: logical processes and suchlike. What you said is true, too.

TA could indeed benefit from such a "limited" span in tradeable techs (or even more items, yup... Cash may come to mind, too!).

One might also figure that IF the complexity in coding the gizmo outweighs the overall perception players get from examining all the new differences and starting to juggle with the creepy feeling that any true value(s) (estimates, btw) isn't nearly only in the tech-tag-name but certainly in the "importance" AIs give to it.
The brokering effect prevents a wide-spread leveling of research edges while maintaining uniqueness - for a reason; the advantages remain effective.

There's another aspect, players should consider about each gameplay technology race to the wire. Which consequences create too much unbalancing conditions and more importantly, for how long... at near victory status or for the entire game from first discovery made by anybody?

It always boggled me that most of my strengths don't exactly last enough to really exploit. With Brokering at least i'd have some kind of control on the essentials i decide to focus on. As does anyone else which makes it even more interesting. Now, comes better spying options - outch, counteracting the purpose.

One more thing -- Linear actually ASK for a steady path and rapid growth; with brokering you'd alter this "impression" to some degree. Just imagine too, the micman of general knowledge involved. Experienced players won't bulged at that power but i fear new gamers might get stuck in numerous tech-nodes while being outpaced by the lucky givers of un_brokered key-alternates to others. Though, the street has two lanes. The trick would then be to NOT fall behind active traders since you have the choice to go straight North never looking back. Check the back-mirror, buddy. Someone out there is still releasing science (that you locked, uselessly!) like candies for more speed, weaponry & top-notch buildings.
See, where the new sort-of trap is.

I'd test the function just for kicks. Optional if i hate it.

- Zyxpsilon.

I also would like to see this second option.

But didn't Frogboy mention something about a second value by which the AI can decide if it wants to trade its tech.

You wouldn't have to keep track of anything, Willy.

Techs you haven't researched yourself simply shouldn't show up in your Tradeble Tech List.


Well, if you use "No Tech Brokering", you automatically get "No trading other race's special techs" as well.
Since you can't research other races' Special Techs, you can't trade them away either - should you get knowledge of one.

Glad to see I'm not the only one who would like to have this option.
Personally, and from the CIV4 experience I have with this option, I'd say it would give Galciv2's play a tremendous boost.
Gone would be the days where you sell 1 Race a Tech, only to find out that next turn, everybody in the galaxy has the Tech you just sold ....

So, is there any chance Stardock
A- notices this request
B- gives it some thought
C- implements it ?

Well as long as the tags are in the game already we can basically do so in one of our mod projects.

Of course I would have to keep track of it - like everyone else, I use tech trading as an intelligence tool to see how far other civs have advanced. If this option is on, it would be harder to tell if the AIs haven't researched something yet, or if I stole it (I almost never buy tech) and just can't trade it to them.

I haven't had the same problem with techs getting passed around that much, mainly due to my trading pattern. If I trade a tech, I sell it to EVERYONE I have contact with. Sure, maybe a minor or two I haven't found yet will buy it from someone else, but me selling it to as many people as possible all at the same time prevents others from brokering my tech. Since I talk to everyone on the same turn, the diplomacy timer runs out for everyone on the same turn, and I repeat the process with whatever I've researched between sessions.

For the last part:

A: Almost certainly someone will see this.

B: Almost certainly they will kick it around the office some (assuming they haven't already)

C: Certainly not in the first TA release. TA is feature-frozen at this point, so that Stardock can refine and finalize the features currently in the betas or already slated for following ones (AI upgrades, editors, etc). There is a pretty good possibility of something like this being in a later TA upgrade or, more likely, in version 2.0.

This has been brought up before and I'd love to see a 'no tech brokering' option in GalCiv2.

It'd be nice to make it even more complex, but the basic thing would be good enough for now.

Another idea I've seen floated (didn't read this whole thread so it might've been repeated here already) was to not actually trade techs, but trade progress towards tech or blueprints that speed up research instead of just instantly getting techs via trade.

Well then, don't check the option.

Just to point out Beta 4 is broken on tech trading, previously you could only trade and or steal some techs with other races, some where deamed to race specific tomake sense I imagine this will be fixed to be as intended in the next beta.

As previously stated, tech brokering is not really a huge concern of mine. The only time I notice it is when I'm doing it   

Lately, I've been playing with tech trading off. Again, brokering isn't an issue.

The point is, if this option is included I will eventually try playing with it, and so would like to see it implemented the best way possible. Very likely I am wrong in my opinions about how it should work, and I'm fine with that. I just want to make sure all angles are examined, all ideas explored, and the ones that seem worthwhile are torn apart bit by bit to make sure they don't have hidden pitfalls.

The only part I'm really interested in is controlling tech brokering for race-specific techs. If I'm playing as the Arceans, I may want to sell weather control tech to my allies, but I wouldn't want them selling it to someone else afterward.

I haven't played TA yet. But in DA, in the diplomacy screen, right under the picture of the race you are talking with, there's a little text box. You can choose a number of things to look at from this box, including techs you have in common.

KD