Can Thalans steal farming techs?

from Stardock Forums
IIRC, techs now have 2 properties, CanBeTraded and CanBeStolen. I'm wondering if farming techs are non-stealable because I've played several Immense Thalan games, invaded hundreds of planets and never gotten a farming tech. The pop cap for Thalans is just brutal, more than ever with the AI being a little tougher now.
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Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I think they can be stolen. I think it's just a matter of horrid luck.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Are they marked as cannot be traded as well? He's right, I'm playing a game with the thalan tech tree. My planets are toast if I get attacked at any point, and in order to keep a decent revenue going, I have to have *tons* of planets.
Offworld Trading Company
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I'm sure I stole them in an invasion somehow... Or did I trade for them... Can't remember...
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
They're not flagged, at least (Beta 5), but my guess would be you've already checked that.

(Have you tried trading for them?)

As far as stealing techs goes, there have been a fair number of threads on the apparently odd behavior involved with it. My theory is that you always "steal" a tech...but sometimes it's a tech you already have. In essence, when you invade a planet, one of the defending AI's techs is chosen for you to steal, at pseudo-random, and if you already have it, nothing happens. I don't know that this is valid, but it fits with the observed behavior of tech stealing.

Obviously in larger maps/longer games/more planets/faster tech rate you're going to have more and more techs in common, so less opportunity to pick up the ones you don't.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
As far as stealing techs goes, there have been a fair number of threads on the apparently odd behavior involved with it. My theory is that you always "steal" a tech...but sometimes it's a tech you already have. In essence, when you invade a planet, one of the defending AI's techs is chosen for you to steal, at pseudo-random, and if you already have it, nothing happens. I don't know that this is valid, but it fits with the observed behavior of tech stealing.
End of quote


I used to think the same thing, but I don't think the statistics bear this out. It seems more like a 50% of a steal, and then it is randomly chosen from the techs you don't already have. I say that because if it's the way you're describing, the odds of stealing a tech would fall way way off later in the game.

Usually late in the game you'll get the one tech you could get for example.

Me personally, I'd love for them to add a miny game for the tech steal, and perhap not allow you to research further from a stolen tech until you get it's pre-reqs.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Or at least let you choose which color tech to steal....