Aye, many people have mentioned this (there are a couple of threads on it already, such as here: https://forums.galciv2.com/?ForumID=162&AID=103148). Seems to be a common problem.

Indeed.

Diplomacy is fun, but in this game I need to spend half the game trading techs to keep up with the AI. That's not fun. If you're in a war, you want to focus on the war, not trading techs will all your allies taking up all your playing time.

There should be a "no tech trading" option like Civ4 or at least have the AI trade techs a lot less often.

If the ai has COOL relations with another civ it doesn't make sense that they give up their best military techs for Sensors Mark II?

Give us options to reduce and turn it off. If you want it in, then you don't have to adjust it, period. Win/win!

Actually, the AI DON'T distinguish between you and other AI players.

That is a MYTH. M-Y-T-H MYTH!

if the AI did not have all categories of weapons tech,they would not be able to adjust their strategy to your ship building.You would know what race used what tech and could build ships accordingly.There would be no cross over tech for them to use.(Perhaps they should place a high priority for one type in the beginning.)Then the complaint would be how lame the AI is about adopting to your ships.
There is a feature to put tech on slow and vey slow,this might help out with this issue.

I think the role of minor races should be completely rethought.You should only be able to espionage tech from a pool they already have.This would slow down tech trade somewhat.Right now the only role minor races have are pools of tech trade and money.

Isn't there already a tendency for evil races to give better deals to evil and good to good?

The key word here is "option". I'm not interested in keeping up the the AI in tech by trading. I want to get ahead by focusing my income on research. Since the AI is pooling its tech, the game amounts to my ability to fund research vs the combined ability of all AI civs. That's not the kind of game I want to play. So, please give me the OPTION to turn tech trading off. Then, you can play your way, and I can play mine. To make another point, civs really shouldn't be trading tech unless they are allies with the strongest of relations. Anything less seems very unrealistic. The AI trading tech with another AI civ just because it's not at war that turn is just plain silly.

I believe that's Civ 3's tech trading scheme. Dunno about Civ4.

But a lot of the suggestions to restrict AI from trading tech with each other is basically - we want the AI to play dumber. I think the bigger question is, do they always accept every trade they're offered by another AI? If so, then that's a problem, because humans will not accept crap trades from the AI.

They don't. They actually can't distinguish between humans and other AI player.

That is a form of cheating and THE AI DOES NOT CHEAT! (except for econ bonuses at levels above Intelligent)

I think the agreement is the amount of tech trading that goes on in the game is too high right now. That's why I was thinking the value AI puts on tech should be increased, and the random tech trades should not be so generous.

Flat out - the AI's are trading too often, and they are making trades that they would flat out
reject if the human player made the offer. It also dilutes the diversity in weapon/defense
types that having different tech lines should create. Bottom line, its not fun.

There are two easy fixes that I hope get implemented.

First, an option to turn off all tech trade. This is not ideal (since all it does is mask the poor trading
AI), but its better then nothing.

Second - improve the AI trading algorithm.

For example, AI's should only trade tech to races that they are friends with. They should only accept fair
trades (modified as appropriate by diplomacy levels). AI's should never trade a tech if that is the
"most advanced" tech (of a particular line) known in the galaxy. This simulates keeping an "edge".
Also, there should be a limit to how many trades an AI (and player) can make. That is, they can only trade
away one tech every N turns. Perhaps AI's are more willing to trade if they are at war and are at a lower tech level
then their opponent. They could be allowed to trade more often with each other if they fall "too far
behind". Etc.

The above are some examples of some simple algorithms that could be used to get a handle on this.

Flat out, every minor race in the galaxy should not be at the highest tech level because of the massive
amount of tech trading that is going on between the AI's. Would any "major" race trade away advanced
military tech to a minor race, when that race would "know" that the minor race will just go out and trade it to
everyone else in the galaxy? I'm tired of having to check all the races every few turns to see what the
latest tech being passed around is.

You guys are totally wrong about the the inapproriateness of trading good techs for "lesser" ones. I'll give the AI a good tech for a "lesser" tech all the time. Why? Because I'll then turn around and trade that "lesser" tech to 4 or 5 other AI's for 4 or 5 AI's for 4 or 5 other techs. So I can take 1 tech and turn it into 4 or 5 techs. I maintain a tech lead over the AIs all the time by doing this. If the AI's didn't do it to the extent they already do, they'd fall even further behind. The AI's are not making "poor" trades as some have asserted because of this multiplication factor.

The AI is only doing what a smart human player will do. So don''t blame this on a poor AI - it's actually very smart.

" Actually, the AI DON'T distinguish between you and other AI players.

That is a MYTH. M-Y-T-H MYTH!"

If thats the case, how come they rarely approach you for trading purposes, yet share techs amongst themselves quite frequently?

Thank you for the spelling lesson, btw.