As leader, I get -1 relationship reset every production cycle just for being a leader, but I am assuming non-leader position such as my second place rival does not get their relationship reset at each production cycle and can continue to buy tech from the AI.
That may be fine on it’s own but what makes it exponentially NOT FUN is coupling that with AI having tech level up cheat. There’s no way AI with much lower science than me levels up multiple tech at each production cycle, just for second place to buy up all the tech from the AI, basically the second place person is cheating by proxy.
Treat the human players fairly at least not reset the relationship if you did not attack AI, but just for being the leader is dumb when second place human can abuse the AI tech cheat. OR and preferring this turn off AI tech level up cheat.
Going to quit this game after this. There’s no challenge or skill to this. It’s flat ANNOYING and waste of time.
the a.i. will trade with any other a.i. within range (unless they are actively hostile with each other). that is if you have scan-trade on. if you don’t scan trade on then the a.i. will trade with all of them unless actively hostile.
all that being said. when the second place person gets to first place the shoe is reversed.
if you want a challenge try playing dark galaxies or the large 64 player games.
That’s bad mechanics for human player to get tech level up cheat. It is a thing for AI because AI is dumb and meant to be a handicap. Why are players who failed to get 1st should get a cheating handicap?
The big thing here is it is not a cheat - the AI are working within the rules of the game, just like how players could if they played the same strategy. It can feel unfair when second place is choosing to remain second place, but then it incentivises you to strategically take stars.
The other side of things is that it becomes harder for second place to do this as time goes on. The AIs will build economy, making trading with them harder and harder. So unless the second player is also selling techs to the AI (not just buying them), then at some point it won’t be possible for them to continue.
Echo what @BelSon is saying… it’s not a cheat. It’s part of the game you haven’t learned how to incorporate into your strategy. Watch you star count and abandon worthless stars until you are ready to make your move
I remember this behavior was programmed in a few years ago due to the pattern of top players racing ahead with the technologies where laggards had trouble catching up. Games would end early as the leading top player would frequently trade techs with several AI to cement a technology lead over the remaining live players. The -1 relationship mechanism vs the top player was a simple fix to keep laggards engaged in the galaxy, hoping for a chance to catch up. That hope would prevent a few of these laggard live players from quitting the galaxy too early.
…
The -1 relationship is not only a tech trade hinderance. AI players may opportunistically attack a player with (-) relationship, but most often it is the top live player. This combative behavior by all the AI’s against the top live player can alleviate some of the combat pressure otherwise exerted by the top empire against any remaining laggard players.
