Policy for selling/trading contacts

[Shiber]

I expect that we'll discover the lost civs during the next turnchat. As things seem we will most likely be the first to make the discovery, but not for long. We must be ready for the time when an AI discovers the lost civs as well. I propose the following:

After the lost civs are discovered, the president should check the diplomacy screen with each AI in the game to see if anyone else has discovered the lost civs by seeing if we can still sell them the contacts. As soon as another AI discovers one of the lost civs, sell/trade all contacts.

What do you think?

[Inverse Icarus]

make sure you sell to the richest civs, because as you whore them, they get less in value.

[Randolph]

If we are "whoring out techs" does that make Thud a pimp?

[GodKing]

What if we are not first, but have the option of becoming the second by purchasing contact from another civ? do we go for it and still do the contact whoring?

Before we sell the contacts, I would suggest we purchase all the maps and sell the maps first.

[joncnunn]

Sell all contacts for techs or money right after we have gotten all the lost civs contacts for free via exploring if possible.

(Start with the richest civs)

[joncnunn]

Value of contacts decrease with each new person having them.

So anybody with a contact we should instead buy maps to determine where they are and send our Galley there right away to get the contact for free.

[Togas]

Upon finding the lost Civs, we will do the following:

1) Get communications with all of them. In the process, we do not give them communications with anyone.

2) Get their WMs.

3) Determine what techs they need.

We then sell them all techs until their treasuries are empty. Selling them Nav may be advisable as it will allow them to trade luxuries with us. We may also be able to aquire their luxes for our tech once they have Nav.

Then, we shop our new WM to the people of our continent.

Then, we sell our new contacts to the people of our continent. By the time they contact the lost civs, the lost civs will be without money.

--Togas

[GodKing]

good plan togas

[Shiber]

Togas, they won't need Navigation to trade with us, only a harbor. If one civ has Navigation the two can trade over ocean tiles (tried and true).
Anyway, IMHO our first trade with any lost civ should be techs for their contacts, WM, every luxury that they can sell, all their treasury and as much gpt as they'll be willing to give. The second trade should be techs for all their treasury and as much gpt, etc', until they won't offer good prices anymore or until we've sold them all the techs.

[E_T]

First contacts doesn't allow you to trade Luxes/resourses, you have to wait a turn for that to kick in (and the game engine to do it's thing). This is from experiance.

E_T

[adaMada]

Does anyone else think there might be an advantage in holding on to the Lost Civ's location as long as possible? That way, we can continue to sell them techs as they are discovered, and vice versa. Of course, there are two major downsides -- if the AIs discover the Lost Civs before we trade contact, we loose out on a lot of money, and any techs we do buy exclusively from the lost civs will be rather expensive, since no one else will know them.

Does anyone else think there might be advantage to hanging on to their phone number? I'm not sure that there is -- I've got to think about it a bit more before I reccomend anything -- but I'd like to hear discussion on the issue...

-- adaMada

[Arnelos]

Originally posted by Randolph
If we are "whoring out techs" does that make Thud a pimp?

In this case I think it actually makes Togas the pimp

[Togas]

Originally posted by adaMada
Does anyone else think there might be advantage to hanging on to their phone number? I'm not sure that there is -- I've got to think about it a bit more before I reccomend anything -- but I'd like to hear discussion on the issue...

I like this idea, but my understanding of the AI is that it knows the map, and only limits itself to not building cities on undiscovered tiles. As soon as the AI has Navigation, it will go directly to the unknown civs and make contact with them.

If I'm wrong, please let me know.

But given that this is right, the AI civs will discover the lost civs shortly after we do ... or even BEFORE we do. Therefore, we have a limited window with which to pimp out the phone #s of the lost civs.

I'm going to do what I can to make back the cash we spent on Navigation, and hopefully make the investment worthwhile. However, we may tie knowledge of foreign civs and our new WM to a deal for Metalurgy or other technology.

--Togas

[adaMada]

Ah. Ok . Didn't think of that -- I guess it makes sense, though. Unless someone says otherwise, then, I guess it is up to us to pimp their numbers around .

I like the idea of using this to aquire tech -- the more knowledge the better, and I'm guessing the AI won't be paying us the worth of the contact in gold, so its probably a good idea.

-- adaMada

Originally posted by Togas


I like this idea, but my understanding of the AI is that it knows the map, and only limits itself to not building cities on undiscovered tiles. As soon as the AI has Navigation, it will go directly to the unknown civs and make contact with them.

If I'm wrong, please let me know.

But given that this is right, the AI civs will discover the lost civs shortly after we do ... or even BEFORE we do. Therefore, we have a limited window with which to pimp out the phone #s of the lost civs.

I'm going to do what I can to make back the cash we spent on Navigation, and hopefully make the investment worthwhile. However, we may tie knowledge of foreign civs and our new WM to a deal for Metalurgy or other technology.

--Togas

[Shiber]

I gotta admit I REALLY don't like the idea of giving trade orders before we've met the lost civs. It's just TOO easy miss out things this way. IMHO we should pause the game when we discover the lost civs and return to the forum for discussion.
This is just too unpredictable, yet too important! I ask the government to consider pausing the game when we discover the lost civs, for the sake of us all.