Trader Joes house of shady deals

[Emperor's Child]

How do you tell exactly what is offered in a trade in a PBW game? I have never had the computer offer a trade to me, and now I’ve been offered a trade in a PBW game. I am curious how you tell exactly what is offered since I’ve heard of players gutting ships before a trade and other shenanigans like that. Technology trades you can’t fake, but if you can re-name planets you could also pull a fast one by colonizing a minor moon and then re-naming it to the name of the planet offered in the trade, etc.

[Alneyan]

You can't figure out *what* exactly is offered for trade, though you know the names of the items to be traded. By the way, any entry under Systems is pointless, so be wary if someone offers those to you: it should remove claims over the system, but I'm not even sure if *that* works, and it won't affect the colonies, ships... in the system.

Other than that, you just have to trust the other player. Ship trading is particularly risky, given all the opportunities you have for deceit here, and I think you can also promise to give a lot more resources than you actually have (though it will create some trouble for your own economy).

For ships though, you could put a Long Range Scanner and require to scan the ship before trading. It will only work on ships without a Scattering Armour (or the much rarer Scanner Jammer), of course. There is no such trick for planets or resource trades.

[Suicide Junkie]

Just keep the trades small, and don't trade with anyone who's ripped you off in the past.

The less you swap in any one trade, the less you stand to lose.
Breaking up a trade over a couple turns means you only risk a fraction of the trade's value it each step and can back out at any time.


Of course, if you're not quite so paranoid about your neighbours, you'll be a little more easygoing.

Note:
If you meet a race called the "Hedgemony of Evil", paranoia is probably justified.

[Slick]

That's the game. Is your opponent trustable or not? If so, for how long? If you aren't comfortable, then you might consider not trading at all; but maybe everyone else is and you'll fall behind... Is the game using role playing? If so, read the empire's description. If no role playing, you could take your chances.

For absolute certainty, you could request that your opponent "gift" the items to you, and you will "gift" your stuff the next turn after examining the gift. I don't know a worse way to carry out a trade from the perspective of trust, though, nor many who would agree to this.

I'll say this: most of the regular players will not intentionally screw you on a trade. (Sometimes the game screws up diplomacy so make sure that it is the very last thing you do in a turn.) The trade may be better for them than for you, but most won't lie. They know that it'll be the last time they are ever trusted, and reputation is something that most players like to keep clean.

[Fyron]

With someone I have no idea is trustworthy, I would demand a sample ship of the intended design, especially if the trade will be for a lot of ships. If they don't like your response, they can always cut off relations and destroy that one ship...

[bearclaw]

I'm usually not too worried about the ships I trade to others. If worse comes to worse and I have to fight them, I just change the strategies for those ships to something like Don't Get Hurt. Found out by accident that regardless who controls a ship, the creator still controls the strategy. I rationalize it with the thought that if I build a ship, I'm going to retain the default command codes.

[Alneyan]

You don't know the true meaning of Paranoia, Fyron: they could still cheat you. Trust no one, and attack them first.

Specifically, you could deceive someone by using two designs with a very long name, as in, say, Littletradevesselformylovelyallyknownasfriendlyblo ke. It will be cut off by the game, allowing you to create another design with the same beginning characters, but something different at the end: "oneborneveryminute" instead of friendlybloke, for example. For everyone involved, both designs will appear with the same name, as the game cannot display the whole string of characters.

Disclaimer: what is described above should only be taken as a joke. Please do not sue me.

Bearclaw: that sort of thing might be bypassed by giving the traded ships a mandatory fleet strategy (not turning on "All ships break fleet orders"). Retrofitting might also help, though I seem to recall having odd behaviours with ships coming from a retroseries with different ship strategies.

[Atrocities]

I like to trade ships with useless technology to the AI for thier more advanced technology.. works every time. Stupid AI.

[Slick]

Unless it is the point of the game for a team victory, everyone wants to win so everyone will be looking for an advantage and to deny one to other players. I always give players the benefit of the doubt on honesty until proven otherwise. I also scale up the amount of risk by starting small like SJ recommends. It's a game and it should be fun. It will take weeks to months to finish. Not many people will be willing to ruin that much of a time commitment and ruin their reputation over a trade.

Just remember that under most circumstances, in-game good will between empires is simply a means to an end - which is winning the game by eliminating all enemies. Play under that pretense and expect eventual war. BUT, don't take things personally; after all everyone is tring to win. The SEIV community is mostly mature and people usually don't resort to cheap tricks which will end up in being ostracized from future games because of poor sportsmanship.

[Fyron]

Alneyan, I would have to black list anyone that did that.