master crafters is way way OP

[taltamir]

Biggest advantage I found for master crafters is... automation.
As I start gobbling up my neighbors and going wide I switch from managing my planets to automating them.
At that point without master crafters the AI builds me into a consumer goods shortage, with master crafters it builds me into a consumer good surplus.

 

[7ED]

To really stress this point, the Dabbax Compact doesn't like me, has known me for 1 month, and has a below average trade acceptance from its personality.
The primary factor of an AI's value of resources is not how much it likes you, how loyal a trade partner you've been, and certainly isn't how much it needs the resources (the AI is floating 7.4k food and making +170 a month in both screenshots). The AI looks at your monthly net production, and bases its values almost entirely on that. Overproducing food? You "only" get 1.3 credits per food. Did you, like I did, fabricate a food deficit by setting up a temporary monthly market order? You get triple the profit.

I just reread this post. I didn't realize you were using a one month trade to pump up the price of food. I have to take back that "not an exploit" statement and say this is some real spicy cheese.

 

[Franton]

I have literally never seen this, but I play primarily with Starnet AI which is far too cynical for that sort of thing, so I'm willing to believe the vanilla AI would do this.
How much does it offer?

To be sure, I didn't see this often myself. When it happened, the gift is typically on the order of 1000-5000 in total market value.

Edit: Franton--hitting these numbers with inward perfection is impressive.

I have to amend those statements: I checked my old savegames , but apparently I misremembered the time frames of my tech rush. It wasn't in 2250 that I hit such numbers, it was closer to 2280, at least in my IP games. I got curious and checked other games, including the aggressive ones, but all of them turned into an actual tech rush some time past the 2250 year. Before then, I spent most of my effort into expanding and colonizing as many planets as I could. That eats a lot of time and resources, but it consistently lets me win the game well before 2400.

I suppose I could get much closer to 2250 with the tech-rush part if I simply stopped expanding with about 5-7 planets colonized rather than 15-20, but that would slow down and diminish the snowballing later. However, with so few planets and no aggression you simply can't get enough pops