Knowledge Sharing is an AI Problem

[Haresus]

Doing the usual observer game on the newest patch, and I look around a bit and see this:

Great Britain is crippling its own Technology Spread in order to help Gwalior, Hudson's Bay Company, and Mysore. Sure, maybe there isn't all that much technology spreading to Great Britain, but this isn't limited to just Great Britain. Austria does it, the Ottoman Empire does it, Russia does it, the Dutch do it to help Luxembourg even. I'm not saying that the AI should never spread technology to its subjects, but could this penalty not be made less punishing at least? Maybe pay 10% of the sponsored country's income into the void? Maybe have the knowledge sharing country pay for all university upkeep and sponsor the construction of a couple new universities instead? Reduce the penalty to -1% instead of -10% tech spread per country? Just spitballing ideas here.

Other than edge case scenarios where you can't benefit from tech spread because you are ahead in everything (which will never be a problem for the AI) or trying to get a subject to be more loyal so that you can reduce their autonomy, is Knowledge Sharing actually ever a good idea in its current implementation?

 

[Normannus]

Knowledge sharing in general shouldn’t have any penalties. What is that even trying to simulate?

 

[monksimus]

Some cost to simulate the sending of specialists or scientists to actually do the spreading makes sense, but it probably should be represented as a bureaucracy cost (and thus financial cost).

 

[Dman1791]

Knowledge sharing in general shouldn’t have any penalties. What is that even trying to simulate?

I don't think it's trying to simulate anything. I imagine it's purely there as a penalty to discourage slapping it on every subject for LD reduction.

I would just increase the diplo cost and remove the penalty, personally.