Another embarassing newbie question..

You basically, say, sell a tech to AI and he pays you for it over a period of time (e.g. 10bc per turn for 10 turns). I think thats what licensing means (correct me if I am wrong)...

Licensing is kind of abiguous on this board. In the game, you can give or ask for licenses for Trade Goods, allowing the reciever's empire to benefit from the good as if they built it, except that they can't pass out licenses.

The licensing talked about on the board is trading Trade Goods, Tech, Ships, or even systems to the AI's for BC's. You select what you want to give to them, then select on their side to give you tribute. Because of a bug, the AI will accept a lot of these deals, allowing the player to get an obsurd amount of BC to supercharge his/her economy and easily win.

I think the 'licensing' is when you sell a trade good to another player. Since only 1 trade good is available in the galaxy, you're not selling the trade good, you're licensing its use by another civ.

I think. I'm working on 3 hrs sleep because Brad decided he wanted make this really cool game.

idle

~SDC~

"In the game, you can give or ask for licenses for Trade Goods, allowing the reciever's empire to benefit from the good as if they built it, except that they can't pass out licenses."

That's the part I don't get.. how do you do this? I have not seen an option for it. I have sold the monopolized tech to other races, but I have not been able to license it. Or do I really still own the thing and don't know it? I'm totally confused on this..

For instance, what benefit comes of having a monopolized resource? Do you get more revenue from existing trade routes, or do you only see a benefit when you sell/license it? And how do I figure out how much benefit (if any) I'm getting from that good, and how much I'd get if I licensed one from another race..

interesting. when you sell "diplomatic translators" are you selling the license rights or the diplo translators themselves? ie, can you then sell diplo trans to other races?

Trade goods have been compared to patents. If you trade them to another race, they gain the benefits of them, but cannot trade those items to others.

It seems to me that the game lets you sell trade goods to other civs for x for y turns, but shouldn't a license be something like x for infinite turns, or x for y turns and then renegotiate the contract?

Feadhel, Trade Goods don't improve your trade routes. Building one gives your empire a bonus, and the power to decide who else can recieve this bonus. Getting one from another empire (meaning you've traded for a license) means you get the bonus that Trade Good gives.

ThreeSpy, you're thinking of Tribute. Once you give or recieve a Trade Good, the effects are permanent.

Here's an example of how Trade Goods work: Let's say the Carinoids get Tri-Strontium Steel (a common occurence in my games), which gives their ships a 20% bonus to hit points. Now, I'm interested in Tri-Strontium Steel to keep my ships lasting longer. I can't build it, because of the Carinoids monopoly. However, I can go to the Carinoids and give them something of value to them in exchange for the rights to use Tri-Strontium Steel. Now I have the 20% hit point bonus and the Carinoids keep their's. I just can't give out rights for other empires to use Tri-Strontium Steel.