Secrets to trading with AI?

justjake73 · #1 July 27th, 2001, 01:53 AM

I guess you have to be at better than "warm" relations to effect a trade....

What level were you at when they refused the gift?

Phoenix-D · #2 July 27th, 2001, 01:54 AM

Murderous

Phoenix-D

Dragonlord · #3 July 27th, 2001, 02:48 AM

Justjake,
I have done the same, usually with success, with regular AI's. I do it in the early stages when their temper is still moderate.

Puke · #4 July 27th, 2001, 07:22 AM

a friend of mine used to have alot of luck making a treaty with a race, making sure he was a bit more powerful than it, and when relations warmed up he would just 'Demand' their colony tech. usually worked, that was on 1.19 though, and I never really tried it out.

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"...the green, sticky spawn of the stars"
(with apologies to H.P.L.)

fulgrymm · #5 July 27th, 2001, 12:13 PM

I have successfully traded colony techs (straight one-for-one) with AI's that I am at war with! In all the games I've played, the AI always seems certain to trade for colony techs it does not have. It seems to accept most trades I propose whatever its mood. I've had problems getting the AI to accept propulsion in trades, though.

Fulgrymm.

Saxon · #6 July 27th, 2001, 03:15 PM

Some great ideas here, I especially like the ship stealing to keep up in the technology race. Doing the trade for old worthless ships for new ones does seem pretty cheap, but capturing them in battle seems fair.

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 can�t see what the other guy has unless we are fighting, so I don�t know what to deal for. On top of that, I never get to see what he is offering me, so I don�t know what I am agreeing to trade. I suspect I am missing something pretty basic, please don�t be shy to hit me over the head with it!

Thanks!

Taqwus · #7 July 27th, 2001, 03:53 PM

Saxon, you've hit upon what's possibly a weakness -- it's tricky to find out what tech an ally has. You can use espionage to steal ship designs or more directly get a technology report, IIRC, but doing so risks irritating them... If you're lucky, a mutual enemy captured one of their ships, and you can use crew insurrection to take THAT back, and examine it.

AFAICT, AI allies generally keep mum about their tech, and whether or not they could help (or, conversely, whether they badly need assistance).

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-- The thing that goes bump in the night