Is it me or does the 1.04 AI have major malfunction trading certain techs

This isn't just 1.04 as best I recall, some of the primal techs and most of the military techs will *never* be traded in anything approaching a fair trade in a human initiated offer. The silly thing is, I just ignore defense theory and wait and trade deflectors from the AI because while I don't think they'd give up defense theory for dreadnought tech just about, they'll happily trade off both of the things it leads to :notsure:

Negative BB. This was present before 1.04.

Certain techs were valued much more highly by the AI, largely because they enable new ship classes. However, it is not wholly consistent as in 1.035 you could get Phasers, Deflectors, Shields and Turbo Phasers much more cheaply than Corvette, Interstellar Tactics and all the capital ship techs.
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I have also noticed that for some reason, the AI over-values the original techs for some reason. You can always get or trade or whatever for cheaper the techs behind the original techs, then get the original techs.

I agree with both of you (Code Monkey and RayChua), the AIs would value certain techs unevenly before 1.04 ... BUT, never like this (Defense Theory etc.).

I recall all the ship technology techs were especially valued (Corvette, Battleship, Interstellar Tactics, etc.) ... but that is inconsistent with 1.04 since they won't trade Defensive Theory when I offer Corvette Technology (something they would jump on immediately in the past).

Well, my impression is that they didn't just hose trade good trading, they hosed all the trading with the 1.04.058 release (the TGs are just the most extreme effect of this code alteration).

Now, granted, I've only played two complete games since the update (losses), but the trading, which already received a major efficacy cut a several updates back, seems to have been degraded even more.

For instance, in my last game, I got one of those 'minor race stole all the techs of somebody and is looking to sell, particularly for planets' events. Well, 3 trade goods, 3 systems, all of my techs that they didn't have (4 iirc), and a couple of thousand bc were worth, get this, *3* of the stolen techs, and they weren't even that good of techs.

Code Monkey, I really didn't get that feeling overall, as the only reason I won my game last night (Painful/Intelligent) was by trading techs on a regular basis for other techs or for money (i.e higher long-term spend rates). Of course, every time I've gotten the event you're referring to, it's been on a large or bigger map, and the thieving civilization was too far away for me to have contact with them.

I've noticed that some civs are more receptive to trade than others. For instance, I managed to get a completely even trade (Propulsion Theory for Industrial Theory) with the Torians, but when I offered a similar trade to the Altarians, they turned their noses up at it. It may have been because I was closer in alignment to the Torians, although my relations with the Altarians were considerably better. Combine that with the fact that I had a +80% Diplomacy bonus, and I'm not sure why the Altarians are being such snobs when it comes to trade.

Zelqadas: I think it's more a matter of different civs valuing certain techs more. You may have noticed that the Drengin often seem to be willing to pay more for ship techs, for instance.