Tech's and Trading

from GalCiv2 Forums

Total newbie here so please indulge my newness.  If at anytime there is someplace else I need to find info please let me know and I willl make sure to hunt there also.  I have found the On-line Wiki to be a great resource so far, along with a couple of the guides I have found here.

That said, my main question is about Tech and trading.  First of all I have noticed that some of the other Civ's have a tech with a * in front of it.  I'm assuming this is a tech limited to that race, is it possible, for me to obtain it from them, and if I did can I even use it? 

In my current game I have a pretty good tech lead and I have been able to sell off a pretty good amount of those techs between the other AI's and the minor's, is this normal, or should I be denying those techs to them?  I have found that they are much more likely to spend cash on techs than making a tech for tech swap without me having to throw in 2 or 3 to 1.  I don't think most games I will be able to reproduce the huge tech advantage that I have, so I'm just wondering if this is a singular thing, or if the AI is always willing to spend cash to get techs. 

Thanks.

strategies
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Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

The techs with a star are unique to that race in the sense that they are the only one able to research it. Once you acquire it through trading, you get the usual benefits from that technology.

Especially the minors are perfect to sell techs to early on in the game, as that can help your economy to stay afloat. The added benefits are that it causes the minors to develop faster; in particular technologies that give them access to tech / econ / manufacturing capitals are interesting if you're planning on taking over their planet later in the game }:)


With regards to the other AIs you need to be a little more careful that you don't give them too much of an advantage. In any case (minors or other AIs) never sell them techs that grant a bonus to diplomacy since that will make future negotiations less fruitful.

The whole trade thing is a balance but generally speaking the AI tends to value quite a few technologies rather high, which leads to the "2 or 3 to 1" scenario you encountered. Don't forget you can also add up to 999 influence points to help make a deal. The whole balance strongly depends on your versus their diplomatic ability (see also the comment in the middle of the screen when youre trying to make a deal - this will indicate who has the diplomatic advantage)

After one year, you can easily get economic and research treaties from the minors in return for a few more advanced technologies. Some that I love are population growth techs and less advanced weapon techs, especially if the minors already researched another weapon branch there's little reason not to give them access to some basic stuff they won't use anyway but pay good money for.

Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

I play DA, so there are no race-unique techs.  Thus, I cannot answer that part.

A standard tactic is to sell techs for cash to minor AIs.

In an earlier post (I think of yours) I recommended working to expand the flagship reach to grab more anomalies and contact Minor AIs.  I research Trade not because I use freighters, but because I want the Minor AIs to send me THEIR freighters.  Additionally, most of the Major AIs do not research Trade early, so it is something they will barter for, and once they send freighters to you they consider that a reason not to declare war on you early.

The Economic Capitol is also nice, and the more Minor AIs contacted, the more freighters and more folk to sell the same tech too.  I try to trade to Minor AIs not just useless techs, but also research ones and economic ones so that they can be harvested!

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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

A great thanks to both of you.  I have been making a good little chunk of money selling off stuff to the minors, and I have limited what I've swapped with the major's outside of the couple that seem to be friendly at this point.  I figured giving them anything to do militarily wasn't a good manuever, but I had thought about the boost of getting them some Econ stuff.  LTJim, I remember, from that other post, what you said, in this particular game it's to late for that, but I have a feeling I'm going to start another game here in the next day or so and I will put your flagship upgrade gambit into the game and see how well I can manage.  Thanks for the info, it's greatly appreciated.

 

PS - Noctilucus, I'm playing the Terrans, so I obviously don't have access to a description of the other races "special" techs, any idea where I can get a description of them? 

Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

In the trade screen, right-click on any technology (either from the AI or yours) to get its description.

Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

I think you meant the mining ship upgrade, not the flagship.

One day, I will play a game with essentially NO habitable planets and use space mining but on all other settings, space mining is just not worth the trouble.  I used to delay the mining ship conversion to a colony ship until after developing the asteroid belt right at the home system, but even that seemed not worth the delay in that second colony.

Remember that you will get incrementally more in each Minor AI trade if you have better diplomacy levels.  Thus, it is a reason to grab/build the Translator trade good along the way, as well as another reason to work one's way up the government path.