Don't You Think the AI Shares Info w/ Others Too Quickly?

Omega607 · November 11, 2001, 00:00

If I give one AI civ a technology, by the next turn all of them have it! I think that's a little strange, don't you? Isn't it more natural that if you and somebody else are the only ones to have a technology, you kind of want to keep it secret. It's so bad it gets to where I end up striking a deal with ALL the civs for a technology because if I don't, others will.

Not that striking deals with everybody for a tech isn't lucritive.

dexters · November 11, 2001, 00:20

It's probably just your subjective biased view.

I am under the impression AI doesn't know who the human player is, nor does it care. This is true when declaring war, when it simply picks a good target and does not run a routine to look up whether the civ is human or AI.

dique · November 11, 2001, 00:28

It's so bad it gets to where I end up striking a deal with ALL the civs for a technology because if I don't, others will.

That's exactly the reason why the AI would love to sell the techs to all the others. Because if it doen't, either you the human will sell it , or others will have researched it eventually. So why not trade it for fast cash while it still can. The AI is doing it in its best interest. Good things are to be shared.

zeace · November 11, 2001, 01:18

I think the AI does a wonderful job of selling tech when it should. It makes a lot of money selling the tech. I've noticed, however, that the AI doesn't trade important technologies. I was playing a game where the Chinese and me were racing to finish our spaceships. I was way behind technologically, but I started building other buildings/wonders and switched them to the SS once I got the tech. At one point I actually had 9/10 modules complete and a final city 90% done the Manhattan project, which I could have quickly switched to the Entertainment lounge if I could have gotten The Laser. But the Chinese would not give it to me. I figured he'd have sold it to everyone else, but nobody else had it. I evetually tried to steal it from him, but I ran out of money, things to sell, and friends to borrow from. A few trurns later the CSS took off...

Ze Ace

yeesh · November 11, 2001, 21:46

I personally hate the AI tech trade deal, as I feel it kinda removes any possibility of technological differentiation between various cultures. But then again it does seem to keep them all up to speed so the game can't get too boring. HOWEVER, I take issue with the notion that the AI civ's treat the player equally. How could they possibly? I ask you to consider this: we all know that 1-2 turns after any AI civ discovers anything, the rest of them have it. Obviously, we assume, either the one that discovered it is shopping it around, or all the other ones find out about it and instantly make a deal. Yet, how many times does the player get approached by all the AI civs the turn after he discovers something? In my experience never. And how often does an AI civ that discovers something new immediately offer it to the player? Very rarely. So if the AI does not treat the player any differently in this tech trading, I must somehow be missing an awful lot of offers...

Jason · November 12, 2001, 08:16

I sell to the AI when one of the other AIs has the tech, or I need the money. When I do sell, I sell to EVERYONE that can give me anything worthwhile, even if some pay much less than others. If I don't they'll just sell it to the ones I don't and I won't get the money for my research.

Also, when I buy a tech from another AI (it happens sometimes) I immediately turn around and sell it to other AIs to defray the cost. This is precisely what I don't want the AIs doing with the tech they buy from me.

Incidentally, I can only economically sell a tech every 20 turns when everyone's "tribute" from the last sale ends. I can tell because my cash per turn goes from +79 to -50 or so.

barefootbadass · November 12, 2001, 10:46

I'm not sure about this, but it seems to me that civs will ask for more more money for techs if you have more to spend. I suspect this not only because I spend more when I have more, but I notice that trade the techs all around even when most of them are practically broke, although in my latest game most of them are broke and 1 has a bunch of money. Maybe that one is doing the selling.

I could be wrong, might be worthwhile to do an experiment to see. I do know that the one civ is isolated and behind technologically because 1 ai that had contact with it but that ai was ahead of it and didn't trade tech with it. In fact now all the other ai's are in contact and that one ai has yet to catch up. I think dexters is right in saying that the ai doesn't really 'know' who the human player is. And I don't think its always, the civ that has it that tries to 'sell' the tech, that it may often be the other civs that comes to 'buy' it.