Please provide assistance

(in the Displomacy dialog)

I just bought the game the other day. I have to say the Diplomacy screen is annoying the crap out of me. PLEASE provide functions like COUNTER OFFERS:

For example, if I pick what I want from the race I'm dealing with on the trade screen, and pick nothing on mine, then when I submit the offer PLEASE have the computer request stuff from me for what I asked for. It should only flat out deny me if I don't have enough stuff they want in return for what I'm asking (which would let me know to remove some stuff and try again). Right now I typically select every tech I have and then click one by one through all the techs they have to see if any stay red. This lets me know if they have any techs that they have that they won't trade with me period (although this ignores money and other trade items). This is time consuming and annoying when dealing with a large number of techs. Another strategy I use on occasion is to select all the techs they have and go one by one through each of mine to see if there is anything they want so bad from me that they'll trade everything they have for it. Again, time consuming and annoying.

Please allow us to look up the techs (both our own and the other races). I can't remember what all these things are, I have no idea if what I'm trading is the great uber tech or just some minor one. Furthermore it would be nice to have some way to compare them so that I can for example offer 17 and 25 research point techs in return for a 40 research point tech. (the research points in this case are just fictional examples to illustrate a point, don't take them literally).

Please let me know if there is an obvious solution for this that I'm missing. Right now I typically research the cheapest stuff first and then trade for the more expensive stuff so I tend to have A LOT of techs. So far I haven't even been able to make it through a game (even the smallest galaxy size) because I end up getting frustrated with the deplomacy screen and just offering everything I have for anything I don't which quickly leads to my demise. I generally enjoy the game but this is quickly becoming a show stopper for me. Thank you.

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I generally trade everything except for my weapon, defense, logistics, and hull technologies away. Assuming I get a good deal and that I don't think the AI will rape me with it. After a while you can figure out which ones are the low end techs that you want to acquire or can safely get rid of. I admit though that sometimes I have to close the diplomacy window, look at 2-3 of my techs, and then return to the diplomacy window to dump them off. You should do alot better if you don't blindly trade all techs, and keep your military advantages for yourself.

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I don't trade all my techs at the start, that's what I do when I become so frustrated with the game that I give up. Then I usually quit a few turns later. I start out trading as few as I can for whatever the opponents have. This works ok at the beginning because I might only have two or three techs to their one. As the game progress though my cheap techs start adding up fast and before long I have like 30 techs to their 2. I can't remember which of the 30 techs I have are the cheapest, if I'm unlucky then even when I select all 30 of my techs they won't take it for either of the two they have (that might sound strange but it happens.) Then I get nothing but at least I figured it out quick. On the other hand if I select one (or both) of their and go one by one through my list I can see which of my techs will allow me to trade one of theirs and this is what I typically have to do but it's less then ideal. First of all of 3 of those techs light up green then I can trade any one of those three for their tech... if one is a weapon I'll probably not trade that but generally speaking I'd like to trade the cheapest of the three but I have no idea which one that is. Likewise it may be that there exists in my 30 tech list a combination of like 2 or 3 techs that they would accept that even together cost much less than the one I'm about to trade to them but I have no way in the existing system to try to find that. This is HIGHLY frustrating to me to the point where I'm considering returning the game. I'm not sure if it's possible but something like this would be great:

I select a tech (or techs) on their side.
I ask an advisor (click a button) or something and the computer (behind the scenes) starts combining my techs from the cheapest to the most expensive until the AI will accept (text turns green) or I run out of techs (and it never turned green).
Once it turns green the tech combination is loaded on my side to match the selection on theirs. (I could then exchange some if I like. For example I could take out some weapon techs and substitute in some other techs higher value tech(s) instead)
If it never turned green I get a dialog telling me that a trade is not possible. (If I was trying for multiple techs from them I could then remove one and try again)

That's the most simple version (and I'd be happy with just that) but it could be MUCH more complex with the routine taking into account other trade items not just tech and allowing you to customize it so that it does or does not include certain types (don't trade planets for example, or even don't trade weapons techs)

Other information that would be GREAT to know when trading is how many/which other races already have a tech. I'd be far more likely to trade a tech that EVERY other race already had because one of them is probably going to give it to them anyway. Likewise how much did a given tech cost to research, generally speaking I'd like to trade the cheapest ones first (though exceptions exist such as weapons and such) but I have no idea which ones were cheapest. Sure I know Mass Driver II was more expensive then Mass Driver I but other than that I'm lost. Heck last game I gave my latest weapon away after I thought I removed all the weapons because I didn't realize from the name it was even a weapon! The Techs are color coded by category or something in the tech tree right? So why not similarly color code the techs in the trade dialog so I know red = weapon or something like that.

I'm not sure if these are great solutions, or how hard they would be to implement. All I do know is that right now the diplomacy screen is a HUGE source of frustration for me making the game virtually unplayable and I'm trying real hard to give useful suggestions on how this otherwise GREAT game could resolve this for me. Sorry if I'm rambling on.

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duplicate post, please delete

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