Let's face it, few mechanisms have been more exploitable then the trading of techs. With the diplo-bonuses of the human faction in GalCiv2 it became even more crazy. I like the way the diplo-skill worked in GalCiv2, but I've never liked tech-trading.
The AI can't cope with it, research progress goes to fast, and it causes the boring type of micro'ing (micro can be good for gameplay, but not this kind of micro, checking AI diplo every turn to exploit tech-trade as much as possible). It just feels cheap.
Civ 5 got away with it with their new Research Agreement mechanism. People here have any thoughts about how we can change Tech-Trade and still make good diplo skills usefull (not that diplo-skills didn't have other good benefits too then getting cheap tech)?
The goal should be a mechanism that is weaker then Trade-Tech, but have some elements of it. If it's diplomacy related, like for instance Research Agreements, diplomatic skillfull Civilizations will still have benefits in getting them.