anyone ever run into these ?

'Core-Tap Mining' unlocks Tier 3 Mines.
'Warp Node Attunement' allows Hyperspace Anomalies to improve your fleets' range as if they were your own bases.
'Harpy Repellant' prevents Arda Seed units from automatically attacking your fleets in real space.

me never, last two needs friends ship with Herald (so that maybe a reason), but Core-Tap Mining doesn't ?

They're all Herald-sold techs.

yeah, I was never offered those 3, multiple play-through ... not sure why

I believe it's random.

siyoa wrote:yeah, I was never offered those 3, multiple play-through ... not sure why

the odds of getting any particular arda tech; particularly the higher level ones, are pretty low. that's intentional; we wanted to set things up so that even experienced players would have a chance of encountering something new every once in a while.

he keeps coming back offering nothing to buy ... is it that only certain techs are generated from the pool per game ?

siyoa wrote:he keeps coming back offering nothing to buy ... is it that only certain techs are generated from the pool per game ?

Hmm. No -- the tech offer is re-drawn each time he arrives. What's your reputation level with the Herald? You may have just out-teched him. He won't offer you any higher-level techs unless your reputation is above a certain level, and atm, the only way to increase your rep with him is buying techs. So, I believe you can get into states where it's no longer possible to gain the rep necessary to unlock the better tech offers.

I thought that only techs with this min_herald_attitude are affected by reputation ? but i never looked into the code for herald itself

I don't think he likes me much though as I keep attacking them, but with galaxy of 150 stars it takes so long for his second visit that I already need to start taking words from harpies, usually his third visit he has nothing to offer anymore

EDIT: ah, ok ... EDIT2: hmm, what exactly 'i' is here ? EDIT3: is it number of the column from master_columns ? so higher tier tech needs higher attitude from range of -1 to 5, right ? EDIT4: Core-tap Mining is column 9 so you need attitude of minimum 4 (1+2*4=9) to get it, Friendly or Very Friendly ... isn't it defeating the purpose of Harpies needing metal desperately ? later in the code the price for tech is based on attitude level, shouldn't they just charge arm and a leg for high tier tech (if bad attitude), but offer it regardless ? ok, maybe not to hostile or very_hostile ...

siyoa wrote: EDIT4: Core-tap Mining is column 9 so you need attitude of minimum 4 (1+2*4=9) to get it, Friendly or Very Friendly ...

you have indeed figured out the underlying equation.

siyoa wrote: isn't it defeating the purpose of Harpies needing metal desperately ? later in the code the price for tech is based on attitude level, shouldn't they just charge arm and a leg for high tier tech (if bad attitude), but offer it regardless ? ok, maybe not to hostile or very_hostile ...

that's a fair point. it could be worth tweaking the rules here to have low rep act less as threshold for tech level, and more as a multiplier for metal cost. (unless Arioch sees some issue here that i'm missing).

Got offered all three techs by the Herald on multiple games - were also working as described

The reason is probably this: always bought every tech the Herald was selling on each occasion and almost never attacked Harpy infested systems.
This way the relationship to the Arda was always maxed out - maybe this effects the probability of the tech being offered?

With the above approach I found it actually too easy to get all these nasty advantages so stopped doing that in the last few games