This question got buried in a scoring discussion, so i thought I'd ask it here. In my current game I'm trying to make nice with the Torians (currently friendly).
Does trading techs to other AI make people that don't like them unhappy? For example, if I give a tech to the Torians, then immediately sell it to the Yor and Drengin, does that defeat the purpose of giving the tech away (I'm assuming the Torians don't like them)?
In my last game I traded with the Drengin a lot, and the Torians and Alterians were always ticked...could this have been one reason?
The enemy AIs are not privvy to what techs you trade with other AIs, so they shouldn't get mad if you trade something to one of their enemies.
I often trade techs/ships/trade goods to AIs that are loosing a war against a dominant foe that I'm also worried about, and I haven't seen my relations affected as a result of those trades.
Thanks, I wasn't certain. It makes sense to me that if I'm going to give a tech away to one group, I might as well get what I can by selling it to the others.
Yes. If one computer, major or minor, has a tech you can pretty much assume that all the others will get it from him very quickly. There is nothing more frustrating than having dreadnaught technology before the computers even have battletech technology... then having a minor race pop up and getting it automatically since you have it, then trading it to all the computers the next turn. Sometimes it takes a turn or two, so if you can stomp them fast you can put a halt to it on occasion. But at any rate, if one computer has a tech, they all have it. So you might as well play tech broker and supercharge you economy with the tribute.
Yes Richard that does sound like a very frustrating scenario. Those pesky minors! Sounds like that's a 'feature' that could be toned down at least for future releases. It takes a long time and a lot of sacrifice to research dreadnaught tech. Having a new minor appear and open up a bargain basement tech shop just doesn't sound quite right. Talk about an equalizer ...
Hmmm, in my experience, mostly on Genius, the minors (and majors for that matter) aren't particularly quick to give up their weapons techs, unless they're being seriously extorted, and advanced weapons techs can tone that down in a hurry. I know I've given dreads to a minor once, and no one new got it for at least 10 turns thereafter, and that easily could have been simple research. As far as the techs which you can on occasion buy for less than 2 arms and a leg, those should be considered as gone within a couple turns of the first AI getting it.