mur'phon

I already knew about the replacements for rets, and was planning on doing it, but only if I can't break the trade agreements any other way (fortunately easy to justify story wise). However I'd ideally like to keep them because A: one ret is a trained scientist soldier so unless the kid is high level, I loose out B:the ret is, well, a ret, and thus has those nice psionic abilities (especially the fact that you can target enemies he detects without spotting them is nice) and can use psionic goodies and C: I don't really need another soldier that much. Again, my *only* reason for declaring war is because my trade agreements prevent me from getting enough metal/chemicals, so if there is a way to cease trade without going to war, it'd be great.

Well, I kinda guessed they aren't the good guys, however this isn't made clear in game yet so it feels weird/selfish to go to war with them because I can't break trade any other way since the only thing bad they have done is to not share all their data with me. Also, like I wrote, my problem isn't lack of resources per say, but that my agreements with them means I can't utilize all (i.e I have 6 metal, but only 2 overall because the rets take the third one), so if there is a way to break the agreement without war, it'd be nice. Still I'd like to keep the scientist/soldier since he is high level and quite useful for scouting/using psi weapons from behind cover. But if the replacements are high level, I guess I don't mind as much.

By inevitable I mean either A: that they'll declare war on me eventually or B: that I'll be forced to do it in order to get enough resources. Basically I seem to be unable to get enough resources while trading with them, and have no way to break the agreement without declaring war. What is weird is that I produce more than enough of the resources in question (metal and chems), however it's not added to my storage (yes I know the storage space is limited, however before the trade agreement I could store enough for my needs). I'd rather not fight them as it doesn't make much sense from a story point of view, but without the metal for heavy suits (and domes), I'm having trouble dealing with environmental hazard. Either way, am I bound to loose my rets whether or not I go to war? I rather like the scientist/soldier in my squad, and I heard that if I keep him in the science buggy, he'll leave as soon as I ally with some new rets. And before you ask, yes I used the search function and checked the (few) guides I could quickly google.

Thanks, though I bit the bullet and restarted yesterday, of course, now I'm getting my ass handed to me on a regular basis (still winning though, I think).

Is there any way to change the difficulty (specifically the tactical game difficulty) once a game is underway? I'm asking because I really, really don't feel like starting a new game just to get a decent challenge.