Trade goods/wonders - AI cheats? Capturing?

from Stardock Forums
In my last few games I have had a gigantic tech advantage from turn 1, and buy most wonders/tradegoods after a few turns of building to take the edge off the cost. Most games, though, have the Drengin empire (exclusively) completing the galactic stock exchange and the galactic monument(?) very, very early - I'm not even close to the techs needed. They usually have 4-6 planets at this stage (I've usually got 15+) and have a huge fleet. Is the AI cheating? I'm playing all AI races at Genius/Smart. When I capture/buy their planets they have most structures built out as well. They are not skimping on mil to build soc, or research to build mil.

Another note, others have mentioned it too - shouldn't we be able to capture trade goods and wonders? Also, only a few trade goods/wonders get galaxy-wide announcements when they are completed. I'd sure like a notice that something I'm building (e.g. a trade good) has been removed from the queue so I can start something else. I don't mind losing the investment, but I have missing a few turns that could have been put to good use.
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Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
It's all about the money. AI players are very good at getting money from other players. Look in your debug.err and you'll see some of the transactions.

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
'Another note, others have mentioned it too - shouldn't we be able to capture trade goods and wonders? Also, only a few trade goods/wonders get galaxy-wide announcements when they are completed.'

From what I've seen, all wonders and achievements do, and no trade goods do.
Galactic Civilizations III
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
'Once you trade a good to a Race, can that Race then trade it to another?'

No. Only the race that originally built a trade good can trade it.
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
The star system that built it has the exclusive galactic franchise. If somehow you lose the system that makes that tradegood then you can't trade it anymore. :p

rich
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
I wonder if anyone has gone back to their saved game to check, but the AI sometime has the trade goods on the same turn as they have the technology required for that trade goods. For example I was notified that the AI empire has built Ultra spice, so I went to the diplomatic screen to trade, and both Ultra Spice and Interstellar Business are there. But I load the save game from previous turn, and Interstellar Business which Ultra spice requires is not available for trade from that same AI empire.
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
The AIs can purchase wonders and trade goods just like human players, and they will do so aggressively on higher levels. In fact, they will even modify their behavior based on player actions. If you approach an AI and obtain Advanced Trade from them before the Galactic Stock Exchange has been built for example, they are very likely to purchase that wonder on the immediate turn as a denial tactic.

The only problem here is that human-AI diplomatic trades can be very difficult to pull off while AI-AI trades are often too easy. Take a look at this message from "debug.err" in my latest game...

Debug Message: Year: 2190. Drengin Empire traded Majesty to the Arcean Empire in exchange for Overlord Technology

I think what the human player needs is some more options in diplomacy so we can use threats of war, trade embargo, or some other type of blackmailing (e.g. accept this offer or we sell weapons to your enemy). In the meantime, you can counter the free trading between AIs by extorting the weaker races for technology they have obtained from the stronger ones. Cash is still very hard to obtain through diplomacy on higher difficulty levels though.
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
Suggestion: I have never had a problem getting the tech I wanted, but the highest level I've played is Normal. When you start your game. Figure out who your immediate neighbors are and put all money into researching techs if you are safe. When you get the tech you need for Gal. Stock Exchange, make sure your highest PQ planet builds it and switch funds into building social and reduce tech spending, but not to zero. Make sure you have very little spending on military at this point.

What is important to me is that you get as much economic/cultural advantage as you can in the beginning on a 'galactic' size map. Later on you are so far ahead that you can slack on tech and start off your military by building dreads.
Make sure your immediate neighbors aren't evil. Once you have built all of or most of your 'only 1 race can have' goods or buildings, gradually reduce social spending, but keep research high. If you need money, sell all techs to non-evil alliances, because by this point they are at war with the evil ones and trade with minors. Make sure you have your trade routes set to all the strong evil guys, so they don't declare war on you and keep them happy. Once you build and research significantly ahead of them. (i.e. You have dreadnaught they have battleship) You can do whatever at this point....become evil or good.
My problem was the Drengin declared war on me (current game is Alterians...but I was dumb enough to build a culture station right next to their planet...hmm) because I had almost no military, but by this time, I was so far ahead tech wise, that I shutdown most of my tech spending and concentrated all planets on pumping out dreadnaughts (6 turns on the quickest planet)...had all of drengin and most of alterian planets...under my control just in a few years...I only invade systems with large PQ or multiple Planets...this tends to wipe their population and production down.

Sry for the long message.

Thanks, J
Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
"The only problem here is that human-AI diplomatic trades can be very difficult to pull off while AI-AI trades are often too easy. Take a look at this message from "debug.err" in my latest game..."

I complained about that after my first few days of playing. It qualifies as an AI cheat, in my opinion.