2.0's Tech Cost Slider

[Emperor_Peter]

So I's started a new game (which is going really well - i was able to isloate almost 15% of a 1000 star map behind 6 choke points...so much funnn lol)

My problem is that I, for ♥♥♥♥♥ and giggles, set the tech slider all the way down to .25; everything seems to be working, things are going well, then the other empires start revealing themselves....and are 20 to 30 techs ahead of me in all 3 categories (you can check with the research agreement tooltip) literally ALL of them are way ahead...and I'm hoping it is a bug, not just me doing something dumb.

Anyone have any insight? I know they were talking about adjusting the timed event timers to account for longer travel times, is this also something they've said somewhere they're going to look into?

[Big Mad Wolf]

They have more tech, that does not mean, that they are ahead of you. The just might be have more 'cheap' techs than you, techs you probably did not bother to research.

[Emperor_Peter]

Thats what I thought initially, but when i got some of them to share sensors, they are definitely ahead of me, some had battleships at the point where I had just gotten destroyers.

[Beefcakes]

The AI cheats and doesn't even try to hide it. AI has arid world citizens, trapped in the corner with snow planets, some how colonizes them and they turn into arid. The AI is twice my size yet he has double my tech, half his planets have nothing built on them. You just unlocked a strategic resource? AI already knows you have it and wants to trade.

I really wanna know why people keep claiming the AI doesn't cheat

[Tomdroid]

Originally posted by Beefcakes:

The AI cheats and doesn't even try to hide it. AI has arid world citizens, trapped in the corner with snow planets, some how colonizes them and they turn into arid. The AI is twice my size yet he has double my tech, half his planets have nothing built on them. You just unlocked a strategic resource? AI already knows you have it and wants to trade.

I really wanna know why people keep claiming the AI doesn't cheat

Because it doesnt. Terraforming exists, and you can get it fairly early if rngsus favors you. The ai simply has more labs than you, they are prioritizing science.
About strategic resources, you can do the same, trade for a resource you havent researched. The AI only cheats above normal, and thats just a resource boost.

[Serafine]

The AI definitely cheats in some way.

The prime example was me switching empires via console (I switched to one of my neighbours to destroy a colony he had just started to colonize behind my borders - turns out if you give a system to another faction after resettling all the pops it switches to neutral if that faction has no pops that can inhabit it) and when I switched back to my own empire I could suddenly build cruisers despite I never actually researched the tech.

[Combine overlord]

Originally posted by Serafine:

The AI definitely cheats in some way.

The prime example was me switching empires via console (I switched to one of my neighbours to destroy a colony he had just started to colonize behind my borders - turns out if you give a system to another faction after resettling all the pops it switches to neutral if that faction has no pops that can inhabit it) and when I switched back to my own empire I could suddenly build cruisers despite I never actually researched the tech.

was it an avalible for research around that time?

[Tomdroid]

Originally posted by Serafine:

The AI definitely cheats in some way.

The prime example was me switching empires via console (I switched to one of my neighbours to destroy a colony he had just started to colonize behind my borders - turns out if you give a system to another faction after resettling all the pops it switches to neutral if that faction has no pops that can inhabit it) and when I switched back to my own empire I could suddenly build cruisers despite I never actually researched the tech.

You were using the console. All this proves that the game is buggy after you screw around with the console. Could you actually BUILD cruisers, or just design them? If you restart your game, it should be fine.

[Army Pea]

Clearly the slider only affects the player and not the AI , if they OP is correct.

Can anyone confirm this?

[Taddl]

My guess is that the AI just played "better" as in they are more "used" to the new mechanics than you, putting all costs on 1/4th the original price just means that if an AI would normally be 4 technologies ahead of you it now is 16 ahead of you.

Is it the first 2.0 game you started, cause if you claim too many systems without offsetting it by claiming colonies you are going to fall back a lot against the ai especially if it is materialist or tech focused and 4 even worse if you set the costs at .25.

[Emperor_Peter]

Originally posted by Taddl:

My guess is that the AI just played "better" as in they are more "used" to the new mechanics than you, putting all costs on 1/4th the original price just means that if an AI would normally be 4 technologies ahead of you it now is 16 ahead of you.

Is it the first 2.0 game you started, cause if you claim too many systems without offsetting it by claiming colonies you are going to fall back a lot against the ai especially if it is materialist or tech focused and 4 even worse if you set the costs at .25.

It's the damn starbases. I didn't realize that outposts had such a big impact on tech requirements. ugggggg

[Ryika]

Originally posted by Army Pea:

Clearly the slider only affects the player and not the AI , if they OP is correct.

Can anyone confirm this?

That's nonsense. If the slider did not affect the AI, then the AI would be behind in techs, because it has a 1.0 modifier (tech base cost is at 100%), while the player has a 0.25 modifier (tech base cost is at 25%).

Instead, the AI is probably just producing more science (or has a lower +%-modifier, which can be quite harsh if you have a lot of systems in 2.0), and everything else is just math. All else being equal, the cheaper the technologies, the bigger the difference in number of technologies will be at the same year in the game.

[OxenWright]

Originally posted by Ryika:

Originally posted by Army Pea:

Clearly the slider only affects the player and not the AI , if they OP is correct.

Can anyone confirm this?

That's nonsense. If the slider did not affect the AI, then the AI would be behind in techs, because it has a 1.0 modifier (tech base cost is at 100%), while the player has a 0.25 modifier (tech base cost is at 25%).

Instead, the AI is probably just producing more science (or has a lower +%-modifier, which can be quite harsh if you have a lot of systems in 2.0), and everything else is just math. All else being equal, the cheaper the technologies, the bigger the difference in number of technologies will be at the same year in the game.

+1

This is probably due to an over expanded empire. Watch some videos on "tall" vs "wide" empire strategies and why an empire with only a handful of systems can out-research one that is larger.

[Church]

Actually.. if you look up on the Wiki site, it states that at the LOWEST difficulty setting, the AI has only a slight advantage in their resource, and I believe tech, capabilities. However I've had no problem dominating at the lowest. If you go a single difficulty higher, the AI gets a much larger boost to resource production, research production, and basically everything. Meaning they'll be Superior to you until at least mid game, when you might be able to catch up.

But yes, the AI will always be given boosts and advantages to keep them "competitive".

[Tomdroid]

Originally posted by Pyro:

Actually.. if you look up on the Wiki site, it states that at the LOWEST difficulty setting, the AI has only a slight advantage in their resource, and I believe tech, capabilities. However I've had no problem dominating at the lowest. If you go a single difficulty higher, the AI gets a much larger boost to resource production, research production, and basically everything. Meaning they'll be Superior to you until at least mid game, when you might be able to catch up.

But yes, the AI will always be given boosts and advantages to keep them "competitive".

ACKTUALLY, at the lowest difficulty, they only have a slight decrease in cost to genemodding, and do 33% more damage with ships. Nothing to do with resources at all. Also, this post is about as old as a fallen empire.

[Emperor_Peter]

Originally posted by Tomdroid:

Originally posted by Pyro:

Actually.. if you look up on the Wiki site, it states that at the LOWEST difficulty setting, the AI has only a slight advantage in their resource, and I believe tech, capabilities. However I've had no problem dominating at the lowest. If you go a single difficulty higher, the AI gets a much larger boost to resource production, research production, and basically everything. Meaning they'll be Superior to you until at least mid game, when you might be able to catch up.

But yes, the AI will always be given boosts and advantages to keep them "competitive".

ACKTUALLY, at the lowest difficulty, they only have a slight decrease in cost to genemodding, and do 33% more damage with ships. Nothing to do with resources at all. Also, this post is about as old as a fallen empire.

Actually you two, way to reserruct a dead post...a lot can change on the wiki in 6 months...oy