Anyboby Tech Whoring?

They stop researching because their research money is going to you. I definitely broker the early techs, but later on I go to war and, uh--research by alternative means. Pwahahahahahaaaa.

One thing I've noticed: an AI with lots of cash in hand offers much more for techs than an AI nearly broke. So it's good to drive them into the ground at first, but then give them a breather. If they're over +600bc they tend to pay more than it would cost to research it.

I sell nearly anything (except planets, useful starbases and a few key techs and things) to nearly anyone. Makes good money.

I rush built some luxury (spices?) in my current game and whored it to minors and the weaker friendly majors for a tidy profit. I rushbuilt and whored all subsequent luxury specials (but controlled my selling of gravity accelerators).

I play at beginner level but I gather the AI gets stingy at the higher difficulties so such strategies may become unviable at higher levels (I dunno).

If the AI is stops researching that would not be a bug (as tetleytea mentioned). The same thing happens when tech whoring in Civ3.

Yeah, the AI gets quite stingy at the highest difficulty levels in 1.04. So don't become too dependent on this strategy if you plan to move up to harder games or you will have to unlearn everything your previous experiences will have taught you.

vincible

Yep, reckon you are right. I was having a field day pimping away then I read a couple of posts by highest level players mentioning that the AI might only give a one or two gold for a tech. Oh well, have to unlearn the bad habits I am getting. Been down that path before though particularly with Imperialism 2 and Civ, what works wonderfully at Tutor level is a disaster at Impossible. Umh, interestingly a good strategy at highest level can be a suboptimal strategy at lowest level. OTH Nowadays Imp2 is the only TBS game I want to play at impossible so I probably will not try to go up to the highest levels.

I'm playing at Crippling (one below Maso) and tech brokering fine. It just takes a few games in 1.0.4 to know what techs the AI will pay for. Being evil seems to really hurt, too, unless you have good Influence. And I usually will not sell a tech for less than 60% research price. I can wait for him to accumulate some cash, when he'll pay more.

By the way, if you keep the AIs' cash low they won't Purchase any Trade Goods. This is a very GOOD thing!!

I too play on crippling, and I trade techs every chance I get, both selling and buying. The AI's will often trade with each other, so why not beat them too it and act broker. You may get techs "for free" by buying them from race A and selling to race B. Or with high diplo, even make a small profit.

I do not wait for higher cash prices - money in the pocket now is worth more than possible money later. Waiting may just result in an AI doing the trade before you.

Note that on easier difficulty levels, I find it easy to stay ahead on tech and generally wait with trading the really good stuff.

I've been playing masochistic. You can never get large tributes out of the AI at that level, for tech or trade good or anything else. It is still essential to trade for techs--indeed, you need to do it constantly, otherwise you'll never keep up--but you can't be a "tech broker" as he put it.
[Message Edited]

On maso, I trade anything and everything, I got
dreadnoughts and you dont, but you have some techs I
dont have, you better believe im trading.

1. Your the AI, you will have it soon enough no
matter what I do.
2. Its worth a lot in trade!
3. And I can then take what you gave me and trade it
to other civs.
4. And then I can take those trades and get the
rest of what you had.
5. Every game, several times, I have turned one unique tech
into 20 techs, by just going from AI to AI, being
careful to aquire from one Ai what the other Ai's
are missing.

[Message Edited]

One tactic I find to be very useful is to trade obsolete ships for technology. Whenever I research a new type of ship, I usually replace my fleets with the newer ship type. This leaves a lot of older ships sitting around taking up money to maintain.

I used to just disband the ships, but now I rename them something to distinguish them from my useful ships for the diplomacy screen (I usually rename them "lend lease") and give/sell the ships to a friendly neighbor. Not only do other races appreciate the ships as gifts, but you can add them to a tech deal to help take the cost down.

Depending on the situation, the AI will even trade techs for ships. Since the AI considers all military ships to be of some value (even if they're just starfighters or defenders) I find its a good way to catch back up in the tech race should I fall behind.

I don't let a little thing like being at war prevent me from trading techs.

Last game the friendly Altarians had some nice techs and I didn't have quite enough to swap for it. I was at war (as usual) with the Drengins who had some tech so I swapped with them (without making peace) to get enough to offer the Altarians.

Am I a whore?

Obsolete ships! Nice one! I'm going to give that a go this weekend!

#10 Peter,

No, you're a tech pimp.

Remember, the only enemies a pimp has are (a) customers without money, and (b) other pimps.

~SDC~

I play on normal right now and I sell every tech I get. I research some of the main ones to give me new ships but I also research all the smaller ones too. I then sell them to any AI with at least 100bc in it's treasury. I try to get 100 bc for as many turns as I can, even if it is only 4 or 5 (like it when I can get 20 or 30 ).

I trade with everyone, even if it helps boost their combat abilities (except gravity accelerators and aphrodisiacs). I frequently swap several techs for transports and ships with enemies I'm almost ready to take on. They'll sell almost any of their ships if you have techs they value highly (ship designs, weapon upgrades, shields, etc.) I usually have 800 to 900 bc coming in every turn. If it drops below 600 I go whoring again.

I especially like the minor races because they have major cash. This also drives their economies into the ground so they hardly build wonders or trade goods before I can. This also allows me to run my economy at 100% for almost the entire game. I leave tech spending at 40-50% all the time and trade for any tech, even if I don't get a good deal if it opens new research areas.

BTW, buying transports and combat transports with full loads can be extremely effective because you can get 4 or 5 from each civ without impacting your population. They also are typically within striking distance of empires I'm ready to take out. I typically never get war declared on me because I sell to everyone equally, so I can mass my forces and pick off an empire at a time.

You'll be surprised how quickly ships and improvements are built around the middle of the game if your spending is at 100%. I also usually end up with around 150bc extra each turn with my treasury getting as high as 15000bc. (Really handy for those quick purchases.) This also lets me colonize 13 and 14 worlds because I buy soil improvement and habitat imp immediately. My social spending usually stays around 20%, and this builds my core planets up to the max.

~SDC~

Guys, tech whoring is an essential part of my strategy on masochistic - it still works, it just doesn't pay as well. The trick at that level of difficulty is
(a) Keep people who pay well alive - ie. the Terrans wont let anyone mess with out little friends the Alexians (and some majors pay more depending on their strategy that game)
(b) With people who don't pay well, get other things for the techs: I take freighters first, then perhaps some combat ships, later maybe their starbases, then back to ships
(c) Remember that part of the value of tech-whoring is levelling the AI playing field, so none of them gets too strong...
(d) And no, I haven't seen them stop researching - they just waste a lot of cash working on something that I then trade to them.

I have even sold off Star Fighters and Corvetts to lowere Maint fees, make friends, and get $$. In my last game, I must have sold 15 ships. That triggered a "Close" relation, which ended the game with an Alliance Victory.

noo not the fighters and covetts. I love those things, they make my mil rateings so high.

As for tech whoreing, it still works great. I use it in my opening. My basic opening is go 100% spending 100% mil until Im done colonizing. Then I tech to diplomacy. Once I get there I can useualy trade for all the non military techs and maby some money.

I was a bit dissapointed to find tech whoring so effective - i've only had the game about 30 hours now, and just started my second game (i quit my first game, huge galaxy was a mistake, too much micromanagement hehe)

I decided from the start to trade tech for whatever I could get, to whomever, regardless of situation.

By the time I'd researched my 8th Tech, my tribute income was about 600ish (my tax at this point was around 70!!) - I was spending 100% and still making a fortune.

And worst of all.... using espionage i found every single ai had bankrupted itself to pay me off (spending was 0 in most everything)

Oh well, guess i'll try a harder difficulty level. Still, tech whoring seems a little too.... easy....

Gezeder

Yes, it is overpowered, gezeder. Only at Maso do you find yourself unable to sell techs for any significant cash, still works at Crippling.