Tech trading in Gal Civ is a hallmark of the game. I doubt anyone would want to completely disable it, myself being one of them. I tend to always play with disable tech brokering which makes it far more fun. You seem to have forgotten a tenet of 4X games and that is Xploit which what we do with the ai. 

Perhaps instead is an ai that can game the player with tech trades for its own victory path and make the tendency to trade out techs harder on the player based on how much it likes you. 

Upon initial contact most races are suspicious of you and this status should stay for a LONG while thus gating the ability to tech trade until you do something for it.  Killing pirates, initiating trade routes, disliking the same races, having same ideology would all be means to get past the 'suspicious' diplomacy position we should have on initial contact. 

This is just my opinion of course. Rather than remove a feature what would you do to keep it but make it more challenging to acquire?

+2 coppers. 

Since one can disable tech trading for their games, I fail to see the reason to take it away from folks like myself who like to trade techs.

You play the game your way, I'll play it mine.

How about no. I like tech trading, and plus its only way to get super powerful ships. Screw that e-tournament stuff. Such things bore me.

I vote a big NO!!  one already has the issue to disable tech trading and brokering if you wish.  If you don't want it than disable it.

I say no. I like the option to trade tech. If you don't, you can easily disable it at game start.

I understand your points and how disabling tech trade does not address all of your issues.  I fully expect the AI to get smarter and smarter over time, and more difficult to exploit.  That is the strategy Stardock uses for AI development.  If the purpose of your proposal is to make up for AI deficiencies, I would prefer to take the more patient approach and let the devs keep working on the AI instead of redesigning the game and the 4X genre.  As many people point out, tech trading is a source of much fun.  Making it also more of a challenge will make it even more fun for many people.

Completely agree with OP on tech trading.

It's time consuming, creates tons of micromanagement and it ultimately becomes mind numbingly boring and on top of that the AI simply can't cope with it.

GC3 has 300+ techs and lacks a good UI to make trading easier though with that many it would always involve tons of micromanagement.

Some previous posters have suggested disabling tech brokering or turning off tech trading.  Although that alleviates issues with micromanagement a tiny bit it does very little to address how easy it is to exploit the AI.  The whole existing bartering system is a get rich/get smart quick guarantee.  There's no skill involved just lots of the players time.

Stardock may be innovative when it comes to game architecture but actual games features they seem stuck in the past, many other 4X game developers are abandoning these features.

People would have said that about Firaxis's Civilizations series once... although not everyone likes the changes since Civ 4 I haven't heard many complain about the lack of tech trading.  I'd be surprised if people want it back in Civ 6.

Some posters have mentioned the AI getting smarter in future updates, I think you're massively overestimating Stardock's ability to balance this system and how much time/money they have to do it.  They weren't able to do it in GC2 and GC3 has probably gone backwards not forwards in this area.


I'd hope that Stardock gut a lot/all of the bartering system, perhaps roll tech trading into an espionage system, resources trade into the freighters mechanic and do something innovative with treaties.  They could do a lot better than this!!!  I don't understand peoples attachment to something that plainly works so poorly...  imo...

I like Fallen Enchantress tech trading mechanic. You trade reserach points of particular branch and some techs become cheaper (less turns to have them).

Okay, like others have argued the point, which still isn't answered here or shot down completely.  Why would you restrict one players game, when the option already exists at the start of the game to turn off both tech trading and tech brokering?  

Simply put if you don't want to play with tech trading on, you as a player already have the option to disable tech trading before you even start the game.  Simply put Stardock already has given you this option already in the game therefore the OP's post is already answered.  Tech trading is gone if you choose to make it gone.  

So again why would you take it away from other player who choose not to play the game the same way you play the game?  Last time I checked no one of us is the same.  What you like to do in your game is not the same way I play my games and how I play the game is not the same as another plays the game.  Now some of our play types and even game settings may be similar but, with a game that thrives on sandbox and playing the game the way you want, removing options from the game for a player to customize their game here reduces and narrows and ultimately makes the sandbox smaller.

Ultimately don't take things away from one person, just because you're too narrow minded to see why anyone would want to play that way.  I guarantee all the people at Stardock don't all play the same and maybe don't agree with all the options but, they are there to allow each player to get the most of the game.

I play Civ 5, a lot.  Civ is my other addiction.  The lack of tech trading is one of my least favorite features of that game.

We will see where Stardock gets with the AI.  If computers can play Go, they can manage something simple like GalCiv. 

I'm sure there are many others.

Yep, there are others.  But that's troll bait for a different forum. 

No, I am not serious.  I seldom am completely serious, I just sound preachy.  Also, I usually have points in my jests.  In this case: I am impressed at what has been done with Go.  The progress has beaten all expectations.   I know it is not the same sort of project, but it gives me hope that GalCiv AI progress may end up surprising folk, even me.  Software development of all sorts has done a lot of surprising things, things we then take for granted a week later.

In the meantime, we'll see what happens.

By the way, I actually registered to YouTube so I could subscribe to your channel.  That is pretty amazing for a social-phobe like me.  You do good Let's Plays.  I like the Terran Resurgence!  I could never play that!  I use them in my random list of opponents.  The object is for them to become fodder for some aggressive AI to take.  So far, that hasn't happened yet, but it's only been one game.

Can be hard to tell in writing if someone is saying something in jest or sarcastically unless you really know them or they make it obvious.  Quotes "" and winks can help

I think you're the first person who's ever said to me they registered to YouTube to subscribe to my channel, thank you I'm honored.  You may be aware that LP just wrapped up last vid was yesterday, should be a Mercenaries LP pretty soon after it's released as well.