Apolyton CS: Civilization III: The List v1: Technology (page 2)

TECHNOLOGY
-Summarized by Thread Master: SnowFire-
snowball56@worldnet.att.net

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3. THE TECHNOLOGIES THEMSELVES...    TOP

Currently existing advances are in quotes.

3.1) TECHNOLOGY ADVANCES TIED TO GAME FEATURES -- Features such as 'borders' should only be enables once the appropriate technology is discovered. See point 35 for an example.

3.2) RESOURCE LIMITATION LIFTING TECHNOLOGIES -- In SMAC there were some technologies that you needed to research before you could gather more than 2 resources of each type. While an interesting idea, the implementation in SMAC was too limiting. The technologies that lifted the limits were too indispensable, and came in too late, often choking off an empire until they could be found. Perhaps there should be a more gentle gradation over the ages? And should Social Engineering continue to play a role?

3.3) TECHNOLOGIES SHOULD HAVE SOME 'BASIC' BENEFIT -- Each technology should have some effect of the 'basic' parameters of a civilization, the kind of things that are likely to be influenced by Social Engineering (e.g. "Trade" should benefit your Economy rating, and "Crop Rotation" should benefit your Growth).

3.4) AN OPTION FOR A LESS 'MECHANISTIC' WORLDVIEW -- Some people feel that Civilization emphasis science and technology, not allowing for the possibility of a civilization that has a less mechanistic worldview, and focuses instead on other pursuits, like philosophy or psychology.

3.5) MORE EMPHASIS ON FOOD MAKING TECHNOLOGIES -- Plants cultivation, Farming, Irrigation, Genetic manipulation... see 41 for what purpose they would serve.

3.6) GREATER EMPHASIS ON THE ARTS -- The technology tree in general focuses on military hardware and hard science, leaving the Arts somewhat unaddressed (this suggestion probably needs to be fleshed out more). More than a few posters question whether this is a good suggestion.

3.7) MAKE ARTS ADVANCES 'SCORE BOOSTERS' -- Maybe Art and Culture advances should simply be score boosters (like "Future Tech") or one time benefits.

3.8) TECHNOLOGY SHOULD INCREASE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ENTERTAINERS -- Certain technologies should enhance the effectiveness of your "entertainer" specialists in the city screen (e.g. Television).

4. ISSUES OF TECHNOLOGY COST    TOP

4.1) HAVE THE NUMBER OF TECHNOLOGY POINTS REQUIRED FOR A TECHNOLOGY BE FIXED INSTEAD OF RELATIVE -- Pottery should not be just as hard to research as Nuclear Fission, even if you are actively researching them both in 1945. Basing the number of research points needed for a particular technology on the number of technologies you already possess can lead to ridiculous situations like that, like in CivX. Instead, if using the SMAC chart, make all technologies labeled as level one cost 50, level 3's cost 400, level 5 technologies cost 1500, etc.

4.2) DIFFERENT COST FOR 'TRAILBLAZERS' AND 'FOLLOWERS' -- Civilizations who research a technology already discovered should get a bonus on the cost of researching it, since pioneering new technology is hard, while reproducing an already known advance is easier. The extent of the bonus might be based on civilizations you have diplomatic contact with, and the extent of that conflict.

4.3) LESS DETERMINISTIC RESEARCH PROGRESS -- Instead of just "100 Research Points gets you an advance" it should be "There is a number close to 100 Research Points that will give you the technology, here's our rough estimates for when we hit it." The number of technology points needed for each technology would be randomly determined at the beginning of each game. This way you can have a rough idea of when you will discover a new technology, but you can never be exactly sure because there is an element of uncertainty, just like science in the real world.

4.4) TECHNOLOGY SYNERGY -- you can research multiple technologies simultaneously, and researching related technologies provides synergistic effects, i.e. researching "Physics" and "Calculus" together would get you done faster than researching "Physics" and "Communism", since the results of one field are applicable to the other.

4.5) RESEARCH SYNERGY THROUGH DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS -- We should get bonuses to our technology development rate if we are on friendly diplomatic terms with other civilizations researching similar technology because of international science conferences, wider circulation technical journals, access to each other's research, etc.

4.6) TECHNOLOGY BLEED -- Scientific Advances should be able to "leak out" from high-technology civilizations to low-technology civilizations, giving the civilization that lacks the technologies the high-technology civilization has bonuses on researching it. The rate of leakage should be proportional to the age of the technology (If we drove up to a stone-age tribe they would probably realize the significance of our advanced "wheel" technology before we even got out of the car...) and also proportional to the level of diplomatic relations (if we constantly interact with another society, we are likely to be more familiar with their technology). This is quite similar to point 6.

4.7) REVERSE ENGINEERING -- Fighting and destroying or capturing enemy units with superior technology should aid in the discovery of that technology with bonuses on the technology cost.

4.8) BASIC THEORETICAL RESEARCH -- Have some research points devoted to "basic research" that isn't likely to produce any specific advances (i.e. won't give you a specific building or unit or something), but which enhance research in other areas (e.g. research in "Basic Physics" might enhance the speed at which you research "Lasers", "Nuclear Fission", and "Nuclear Fusion", but you could achieve those advances without doing the basic research, just at a higher cost. This would be a tradeoff -- Do I want Fission now, or do I want to invest a little more up front, and be sure of getting all three sooner in the long run, even though I wouldn't get any specific advance until later).

4.9) MAXIMUM RESEARCH RATE -- Have a maximum rate at which research can be accumulated. No amount of "prodding" will enable your scientists to research faster than some basic human limit (probably limited by communication in the real world). This could also be handled by the "efficiency" theory of technology of number 4 being applied to changes in the tax/science rate over the empire, giving efficiency penalties for straying from the accepted that would slowly decay.

4.10) MINOR NATION TECHNOLOGY BLEED- If the Major/Minor civilization concept is used, then perhaps there would be a special set of technology bleed rules for Minor civilizations to keep isolated Minor Nations from advancing far beyond the Stone Age (like the Native Americans) with no technology bleed and to keep Minor Nations in areas surrounded by tough, Major civilization enemies have high rates of technology bleed (like Belgium).

5. SCIENCE: ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH INFRASTRUCTURE AND SOCIETY    TOP

5.1) DIFFERENTIATED 'SCIENCE BUILDINGS' -- Have buildings which enhance the scientific output of a city differentiated: You have your choice of a Physics Lab, a Biological Research Hospital, etc., which only add their bonus when the city is contributing to the appropriate kind of research.

5.2) DIFFERENTIATED 'SCIENCE BUILDINGS' ALTERNATIVE- If the system described in 2 is used, when a new library is built, it can be dedicated to one of the five categories of science. When a university is built, one more discipline can be added. These disciplines get bonuses in research done at the city, in addition to the library and university's normal effect. Then, the bonus in research provided by other buildings is only received if the city is dedicated to the correct discipline (like Nuclear Plant: Normal Effect. Adds +50% to Math & Physics research, if the city has M&P as one of its specialties at the library or university. Research Hospital: Normal Effect, and same as Nuclear Plant except with Biology. Capitol: +100% to Philosophy. Etc.).

5.3) DIFFERENT BUILDINGS HELP WITH DIFFERENT KINDS OF RESEARCH -- Barracks can conduct military research, temples can conduct religious/philosophical research, all independent of the normal science output (similar to the Biology Lab in SMAC- a set +2 Research/Turn, in a specific category of science. See idea #2).

5.4) HAVE GOVERNMENT/DIPLOMATIC CHOICES AFFECT TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT -- Would a Fundamentalist government like to research "Genetic Engineering"? Link penalties on the costs of certain technologies to social engineering, due to opposition from scientists.

5.5) TECHNOLOGY PRESERVATION -- If a civilization doesn't work to maintain a technology (e.g. by building libraries) they should lose the technology. This can simulate the Dark Ages. Perhaps this can be a randomized global event (Dark Ages descend upon world!), similar to the "Loss of technology research at base x! Build a network node to prevent this!" except, say, every 10% of your population without a library loses you one technology.

5.6) LOCATION DEPENDENT RESEARCH LABS -- Research is done in labs and universities, and labs and universities have to actually exist somewhere. If you lose an important science city, you shouldn't just not get it's future research, you should be penalized research points, especially if your communications technologies aren't high enough to spread the work done there.

5.7) FACTION/CIVILIZATION SPECIFIC TECHNOLOGY TREES -- different cultures look at the world in different ways, so it wouldn't be surprising to see that they would follow different paths or discover different technologies in different orders. (concerns over accusations of unfairness and "racism" abound, not to mention game balancing...)

5.8) FUTURE TECHNOLOGIES ALLOW MINIATURIZATION- Future technologies currently don't do much. Instead, especially if the categories of research idea is used, have future technologies count for a decrease in the cost of all improvements and related items in that category.

5.9) TECHNOLOGY VICTORY CONDITIONS: This probably shouldn't be in this summary, but there are several ideas on this. One of the classic victory conditions has been technology based- research to a certain level, and then build something. The general expectation has been that you, along with other civilizations willing to participate, build the UNS Unity, the logical predecessor to SMAC. First among proposals is that it cost much, much more than the Ascent to Transcendence in SMAC- it's a cooperative project, so that shouldn't be too much of a problem. 3,000 resources on Chieftain up to 6,000 on King by increments of 1,000 sounds good, and then up to 10,000 on Deity in increments of 2,000 per level. Secondly, there should be more sense of drama and real danger of not winning in the final sequence. To accomplish this, the turmoil that engulfed Earth before the Unity launched should be put in- around the time that the technology to build the Unity is near, revolts and riots start happening more often, as do crazy terrorists burning down your buildings. Conquered nationalities should press even harder for independence, with constant revolts against their conquerors. As the Unity actually starts being built, things should get even worse, with paramilitary organizations like the Spartans and the Christian States of America springing up in revolting cities and leading them against you and the other remaining civilizations. More Minor Nations should go on terroristic and conquering streaks as well. The idea is for all the remaining major civilizations to band together against the chaos and finish the Unity before they perish. If you wait too long, eventually nuclear missiles (or even worse, nanotechnology) starts getting stolen from you and the rebels start launching nukes left and right. Once this happens, and enough nukes have been launched to have a nuclear winter, you still do not lose. You simply get to keep playing on the nuclear wasteland that is Earth. All of your Modern Age and some of your Industrial Age technology is lost, though it can be researched again at a much reduced cost since there are still books and stuff on the topic. By that point, the rebels stop attacking you, and you and your remaining 2 cities can rebuild and try and retake your old cities that long ago revolted against you, and bring civilization back to the point where you can try and build the Unity again (and go through another end-game rebels sequence).
Another idea along this line is that if you don't want to get the co-operative UNS Unity win, you can win solo by transcending on Earth, except instead of becoming part of Chiron's fungus, your civilization uploads itself into computers.

6. GAME OPTIONS SET AT THE BEGINNING OF THE GAME    TOP

6.1) DIFFERENT TECHNOLOGY DIFFICULTY SETTINGS- There should be 2 or 3 difficulty levels of research systems, say "Novice Research," "Standard Research," and "Advanced Research." It's easier for beginners, and more realistic and challenging for veterans.

6.2) BLIND TECHNOLOGY -- People seem to either love or hate the blind research from SMAC.

6.3) BLIND 'HISTORICAL' TECHNOLOGY -- research follow Blind Tech model up until Industrialization, after which the player can use the Directed model, emulating the superior control and direction that people have over scientific discovery with modern methods.

6.4) BLIND 'HISTORICAL' TECHNOLOGY ALTERNATIVE -- Have a 'ratio' which controls how many technologies you get to pick. When you first start, all of your technology choices are blind. Then after some time, you get to pick every 4th technology. Then every 3rd technology, etc., so you start with no control but eventually get complete control. Perhaps the changes from every 4th to every 3rd to every other be controlled by specific advances? (The University: May pick every other technology from now on?)

6.5) DOWNLOADING TECHNOLOGIES -- Some would like it if Firaxis periodically expands the technology tree by posted new technologies on the website to incorporate into the game (Could this be done without ruining play balance?)

7. THINGS NOT TO DO

7.1) HAVE OVERBROAD TECHNOLOGIES -- For example, "Industrialization" encompasses many things (technical, social, and economic), and should not be lumped into a single technology. This is assuming the current CivX system (under point 5's suggestion, it would be the exact opposite- you'd want broad technologies with many facets).

7.2) NONSENSICAL TECHNOLOGY/ADVANCE CORRELATION -- Certain advances were linked to technologies that really didn't make sense, e.g. "Labor Union" and "Mechanized Infantry".

7.3) SCIENCE CITY IMPROVEMENTS MORE IMPORTANT FOR SCIENCE THAN ECONOMIC BUILDINGS -- Apparently in C:CtP, buildings which boost your economic output are more worthwhile for your research progress than Libraries and such. That's bad.

7.4) POOR SPACING OF TECHNOLOGIES IN THE TREE -- Make sure that the technologies are judiciously placed in the tree so we don't have too few in one era and too many in another. Try to keep it balanced (no jumps from Knights to Tanks, like in Civilization I).

7.5) AN UNHELPFUL SCIENCE ADVISOR- Traditionally, he's usually tossed a coin and told you to research that technology. A better advisor would be nice. The beta-testers can probably help you with that.

7.6) HAVE SILLY FUTURISTIC TECHNOLOGIES- C:CtP had some of the most ridiculous ideas of what the future was like around. SMAC was much better, but still had some silly bits. Whatever you do, no female cyborgs with swords conducting futuristic combat (Plasmatica) or "War Walkers." Instead, we'd like AI's, nanorobots, and neurohacking. See the technology list below.

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