quote:
However, if I want to be a peaceful trading race, making deals with everyone and coming out ahead of all of them, how do I do it?
I've been there, and life as a merchant can be quite rewarding.
The first thing to do is build lots of Escorts (be sure to include at least one weapon).
Then when you meet your first Alien race, try to establish a peace treaty. I always give a gift or tribute on the first turn in order to make a good impression.
When you have a trade alliance or better, start offering trades. Three escorts will get you anything up to about cruiser size.
Always choose the lowest ship in the list of AI ships to trade with, but avoid transports and colony ships (once you have their colonization tech).
Take your new ships home to analyse, and continue to pump out your ships. Be sure to keep enough ships in stock to beat back attacks on your homeworld, and let the sold ships clear out of the area before you sell a second batch to the same empire.
This way, you get the best technology from each of the other empires, and by combining it, you get a wide base of tech areas and are second place in each specific tech.
I always put the best technology on the ships I sell to the AIs, since I know they won't analyse them, but for a human, I would install the only buyer-known regular techs with lots of racial techs added on.
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[This message has been edited by suicide_junkie (edited 27 July 2001).]