Need Help Understanding Tech Trading

The only tech I trade for is other colony types.

Trading other tech is too labor intensive for me. I just research it myself.

Bonus:
Construction queues (alt Q) ... right side select "multiple queues" button, then "upgrade facilities" button. All facilities that can be upgraded will be added to each planet's construction list.

You can easily overwhelm your resource production with this option.

Ok apologies I'm half asleep but I'll try to be helpful.

1) Yes you are saying you want any 2 techs in return. When playing against other people they will replace these "any 2" with two other techs and make a counter offer.

2) The best way I can think of to figure out the number of research points a tech is is to start another game with the same tech cost and start choosing techs for a new race. As you select various levels you can note how much it cost. I pretty much exclusively play other people, so I check that sort of stuff before placing orders.

3) I've never traded for cargo, but if you make an offer the next turn you will seemingly receive a copy of your offer. It's just telling you what you sent them. I did once get confused myself and think the other side was making the same offer.

4) I can't think why, but at the moment I can't really think (bed time for me)

5) the other side will trade you the higher levels of the tech you want if they have more than you (not all of them I think, just the number of levels you asked for) If you want more than 1 level then ask for the same tech more than once. If you have a higher level than them you will be told it's worthless as you have a higher level.

6) your intel reports on other races and their tech levels are mostly a guess. I think theres a difference of + or - 50%. I don't make a habbit of trading tech with others as I prefer to keep tech to myself. I consider all other races potential enemies and dislike giving them something they can use against me. In a current game someone was giving me tech as gifts (It's only understandable to me as he said he wanted me to keep a common enemy occupied for as long as possible) and I started receiving tech I already had. You can agree to a treaty that will automatically share techs between empires.

you could try using ministers to automatically upgrade. I never use minsters myself so I don't know that it can work.

4.)They probably gave you a tech you already had.

2. The best way to figure out the number of research points a tech is worth is to enter the research window and count a little. Eg. you have the 4th level of the Stellar Harnessing and you want to know how much the 3rd lvl is worth. There is a number on the side, let's say 75,000 - it indicates how much the 5th lvl is worth. So it is enough to divide that nr by 5 and you are getting how much the 1st lvl is worth - 15,000. Now you only need to multiply it by 3 and you have what you want - 45,000.

Trading techs is cumbersome because of the terrible interface but when you get used to it, it is quite easy (though still cumbersome)

The main drawback with tech trading is that it is too slow and sometimes too much of a gamble. It's often a lot more efficient to reach a deal via e-mail and then just send through a deal which has already been agreed between the two parties. Also, it will never beat a partnership that shares technology between its members and organizes its research areas well.

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See my PBW game stories on http://users.pandora.be/banzaiboy/sevpbw/.

That's the whole trick - you have to guesstimate it and trust your trading partner but it pays off, usually.

Tech trading takes alot of honesty and trust from the two trading parties.

I find it easier to set up a deal through e-mail (as noted in previous posts). Then just send the techs to each other as Gifts instead of a specific tech trade.

Ah, I see you have found emails useful, Cerberus. This is really nice of you. Perhaps someday you will even find BM of clear superiority over stock and stop quitting games... BTW, the way you suggest (with gifts) demands even more trust between trading parties. You have to be really confident to trust your partners that much.

Or you could just right-click on the tech in question. You can find the cost of the first level in the window that opens.

Wow, it is a good tip! I have no idea how it happened I missed that.

I will NEVER play BM again.
I dispise it. It pisses me off that everyone thinks they need a bloody mod to make this game playable. Its not superior in ANY WAY whatsoever. I hope Aaron doesn't cave in to this absurd notion and change the style of Space Empires.

Does really everyone think stock is not playable? It is certainly not true as I, for example, think it is playable: you could even play with yourself so you are playable as well. But there is the notion about the degree of playability and I am sure BM is playable to much greater degree than stock. Let's take just one example: fighters. You said once you did not use fighters at all. I have no idea whether or not it has changed, as with your using emails, but if it is still the case I wonder how you fight players that use them in stock. You could not have fought them in BM where they are much more balanced so how about stock? In BM it is possible to win a war against a good player that uses fighters without resorting to them, though it is hard. In stock such a win is just impossible. Does it make BM more playable? Does it make it superior in this way? I say yes, and this is just one example, though very solid. The difference in playability is actually so vast that I, as many others, consider playing stock to be a waste of time.

You are entitled to be pissed off and I even understand why you are. I could even understand why you despise BM but not seeing ANY superiority makes me think you are just blind.

I wear glasses....