How much easier does it make the game when u turn on no tech trading?

[Jarkorsis]

I was wondering how much this cripples the AI?


When you play 6 opponents, some of them will chose a different tech path, but they all trade all tech's with one another, so very quickly in the middle game the all have all the tech paths researched.

So, do the ai's still trade tech, or does that just prevent me from trading tech with the AI?

[Tsar_of_Cows]

You know, you can trade techs with them too...

But if you turn off tech trading, nobody can trade techs, everyone has to do their own research.

But be warned, this makes it much more difficult to build up a good relationship with the AI, and if you have aggressive AI turned on, they may just attack you off hand.

[Thedrin]

Tsar of Cows, I regularly play with tech trading turned off and aggresive personalities. Recently I switched to allow tech trading. I find that it makes good AI relations much harder to achieve. Reason: the AI repeatedly request technologies that I do not yet want to give up.

[Jarkorsis]

Tech trading

The AI always offers a tech that will take 1 or 2 turns to research and isnt just filler for the most part for a key tech, that requires 10-20 turns to research and wants you to pay them money on top of it.

I do not know how that helps relations. ALso, the AI's seem to dog pile you if they can. Limiting their tech, might make the AI play be weaker at all difficulty levels.

I was curious if it did. I gues I will try it next game.

[occam]

I find this to be a very interesting question.

First, in terms of relations, no tech trading will help some and hurt some, depending on your own diplomatic leanings. If your idea of diplomacy is clicking "no" when the AI asks for Astronomy, then TT off will suit you to avoid those awkward demands. If your idea of diplomacy is feeding the AI outdated techs until they are your Tony Blair, then TT on will suit you.

Second, like oh so many of these questions, the answer is strongly influenced by game settings (map and level) and playstyle. If you like low level games with broad research and infrastructure, TT off may help you maintain that tech edge -- take away the AI catch-up speed. But if you are planning a high level slingshot, you may have to RELY on TT to catch up yourself.

[MasterDave]

I have tried no tech trading on Monarch level a couple of times and I was very quickly left in the dust technology wise. The AI already expands far faster than the player can at this level and pays far less in city maintenance. That means that they have many more raw beakers than the player. In 95% of the games I have seen, it is only through judicious tech trading (i.e. the player trading a particular tech to five different AI's for five different techs, the human player maintaining a monopoly on Alphabet for a while, etc.) that the player has the option of keeping ahead or even with the AI's technology on Monarch and above.

I imagine that the AI will struggle with no trading on noble level or below, where their economies are somewhat similar to the human player's economy.

[marvinkosh]

The AI may trail on the lower levels with TT off, but eventually they can catch up to you, particularly if they have established good trade with their neighbours, or have built a largeish and propserous empire (or both). If you wait too long to press the advantage of your lead, it may vanish, although that pile of tanks you've built will not

[Dauphin]

Leave TT on, and make sure you tech whore good and proper.

[Older than Dirt]

I tried turning off tech trading once on either Noble or Prince level and found that seemed to ****** the AI civs quite a lot. I played my usual aggressive strategey. I need to try it on Monarch level to see if it makes that level much easier. I suspect that it would make it exponentially easier the higher the level one plays.

[Dis]

I didn't notice that much difference myself. Each has their pros and cons.

[Blake]

TT on/off has a fairly dramatic effect.

The main difference is that TT off results in fairly "flat" relationships and the formation of power blocks based on religions. It's extremely hard to get another civ to go to war for you, they'll only do so if *THEY* want to. It is quite possible though to set up dogpiles. Relationships naturally improve and the demands are usually reasonable (like they'll want one of your spare resources, which you can just cancel after 10 turns), of course relations with your non-friend naturally degrade via "trading with worst enemy".

With TT on bribes and demands result in a chaotic diplomatic situation, where friends can be turned on friends be 3rd parties and relationships naturally decay (via unreasonable demands).

In terms of difficulty in researching, TT off is definitely easier for the isolated start, when you have equal trading oppurtunities I don't think it makes much difference either way.

I kind of prefer the TT-off diplomacy, as religions play a larger part and power blocks are more likely to form. Also you can trust your friends to a greater degree, and setting up dogpiles is less cheesey.

[Sirian]

I think to a large extent, the impact of turning off tech trading depends on the player's trading skill. Players who are particularly strong in the ways of brokering will make a net gain from tech trading, so turning it off will make the game harder. Players who lack understanding of the AI and/or the trading system will probably get less out of trading than the AIs do, so turning it off will make the game easier.

It's there as an option, not something imposed on you. All you can really do is try it and see what you think. How it affects you may differ from how it affects others.


- Sirian

[Adagio]

Originally posted by Tsar_of_Cows
But be warned, this makes it much more difficult to build up a good relationship with the AI, and if you have aggressive AI turned on, they may just attack you off hand.

Not true, it makes relationships much easier, as the AI's don't come up with their stupid demands all the time

I play with TT off, because of those stupid demands. I'm tired of the fact that every turn some random AI makes a stupid demand, and nomatter what I do, it wont do me any good. If I say yes, the AI probably sells it to my worst enemies, making it even harder to take them down, if I say no, they will hate me for the rest of the game, giving me one more foe... it's really a no-win situation

[Dis]

yeah but then you can't improve relations by gifting the ai some semi-useless tech.

as I said. There are pros and cons to no tech trading. I just play normal game anyways, as my custom games seem to be broken.