Apolyton CS: Civilization III: The List v1: Technology (page 3)

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

PAGE 1 | PAGE 2 | PAGE 3

8. ACTUAL TECHNOLOGIES SUGGESTED TOP

Many of these technologies are narrow enough that they would only be palatable as "minor technologies" as described in idea # or under the system in point 5. Also note that I mention some CivX, but not mentioning one doesn't mean it shouldn't go in- they're just offered as extras, to put the rest in context. These are supposed to be mainly the new ideas. Also, note that I have not removed the HTML/UBB commands here (as in other places), to make the category heads stand out more. In any case, grouped by rough categories (which might be the "fields" described under point 5):

8.1) Arts Technologies so far:

8.1a) History
8.1b) Literature
8.1c) Rhetoric
8.1d) Sculpture
8.1e) Psychology
8.1f) Music - A dead end technology that adds +50% to the effectiveness of entertainers. So an entertainer gains an early boost of +100% with the discover of music and construction of a market place. Since music has been around since the beginning of civilization, many dispute the need to actually research it. This suggestion has been criticized strongly by many, since music has existed since the Stone Age.

8.2) Mathematics Technologies:

8.2a) Algebra- The lowest level math discovered.
8.2b) Trigonometry
8.2c) Seed AI- A "baby" artificial intelligence that can learn and develop itself.
8.2d) Calculus- Vital for physics research.
8.2e) And computers, a subcategory of Math:
8.2f) Programming -- the art/science of making computers do what you want.
8.2g) High Level Programming Languages -- An easier way to program computers.
8.2h) Semiconductors- Makes those microchips possible.
8.2i) Systems Analysis -- (what exactly would this do that can be modeled on a civilization-wide scale?)
8.2j) Computing Machine -- A mechanical or electrical device that demonstrates that arithmetic and logical tasks can be done by machines. Examples would be an adding machine or a punch-card sorter. This would be a prerequisite for...
8.2k) Stored Program Computer -- A device which maintains its instruction sequence in a dynamic storage medium (e.g. the DRAM in the computer you're using right now). Allows much more flexibility than a direct input computing machine.
8.2l) The Transistor- The transistor is arguably the basis for all modern computers. Integrated Circuits (ICs) use transistors to accomplish most of their functions. The Transistor is what made the "Information Age" possible.
8.2m) Vacuum Tubes - Among other things, can be used to build digital logic circuits. Vacuum Tubes were the basis for the first electronic computers. (This is an excellent candidate for some of the prerequisite ideas -- Transistors and Vacuum Tubes are mostly unrelated technologies that both allow computers, but the Transistor has other benefits. So the prerequisite for "Computers" might be "Computing Machine AND Vacuum Tubes OR Computing Machine AND Transistors", but you need "Transistor AND Computers" for Microprocessors. )

8.3) Engineering technologies:

8.3a) Road Building- perhaps not something you start out immediately with.
8.3b) Masonry- As in CivX.
8.3c) Ballistics
8.3d) Architecture- Is this the same as "Construction?"
8.3e) Canal-Building
8.3f) Paper- Not really engineering, but vital to scholarly study.
8.3g) Printing Press- Same as Paper.
8.3h) Plumbing- A prerequisite to Sanitation, probably.
8.3i) Clockwork
8.3j) Hydraulics
8.3k) Gunnery- early muskets, arquebuses. The Death of the Knights.
8.3l) Fortifications- Another more specific minor technology to add.
8.3m) Interchangeable parts- perhaps better than "machine tools?"
8.3n) Ceramics- Usable in everything from shells to rockets.
8.3o) Internal Combustion Engine -- A pre-req to "Automobile," perhaps.
8.3p) Aerodynamics
8.3q) Electric Light -- This would probably be a minor technology in addition to electricity that improves the living standard of homes, is my guess.
8.3r) Simple Machines -Another very basic technology that would be discovered soon into Engineering research.
8.3s) Satellites- Let's see the whole map revealed, not just the enemy cities (like in Civilization I)!

8.4) Physics Technologies so Far:

8.4a) Electromagnetism- One important branch of classical physics.
8.4b) Thermodynamics - Another one.
8.4c) Optics- Yet another one.
8.4d) Quantum Theory
8.4e) Nuclear Theory- as in CivX.
8.4f) And Astronomy Techs, a subcategory of Physics:
8.4g) Orbital Mechanics- Very high level astronomy, traveling into space.
8.4h) Astrolabe
8.4i) Astrology- Is this the same as mysticism, or considered something developed after mysticism to allow astronomy?
8.4j) Relativity - Perhaps the most important concept in modern physics. Good pre-req for nuclear power.

8.5) Chemistry Technologies:

8.5a) Physical Chemistry
8.5b) Organic Chemistry
8.5c) Industrial Chemistry -- A minor technology after chemistry that gives a slight bonus to factories.
8.5d) Periodic Table -- An important advance in chemistry. Realizing the "order" of chemical elements allowed discovery of new ones and prediction of their properties. Aided understanding of underlying theory of chemistry.

8.6) Biology Technologies:

8.6a) Genetics/Inheritance Theory- Gregor Mendel style understanding of inheritance
8.6b) Evolution- Perhaps it would also cause slightly less effective churches as a side effect.
8.6c) DNA- enhanced genetic theory.
8.6d) Genetic Engineering- As in CivX.
8.6e) Botany

8.7) The Sub-category of Medicinal Technologies:

8.7a) Lens Grinding- A prerequisite to Germ Theory?
8.7b) Physiology
8.7c) Immunization
8.7d) Antibiotics
8.7e) X-Rays -Perhaps a physics technology as well?
8.7f) Cryogenics- Perhaps increasing the effect of hospitals?
8.7g) Anatomy
8.7h) Germ Theory- Diseases aren't caused by demons getting into your body.
8.7i) Circulation of Blood-it's the same stuff recycled over and over.
8.7j) Surgery- cutting people up to make them healthy.
8.7k) Antiseptics- Insures they don't die after the surgery's done, probably more important than Surgery itself (IMHO).

8.8) And Agricultural Technologies:

8.8a) Crop Rotation -- Important agricultural concept. Improves farm productivity.
8.8b) Mechanical Farming
8.8c) Seed Drill
8.8d) Cotton gin
8.8e) Artificial selection
8.8f) Olive, Silk, and Tea Domestication- Early trade goods.
8.8g) Artificial Fertilizers- Improve food production at the expense of money and industrial pollution?
8.8h) Herbal Remedies- These have been around since the Stone Age. Not sure if you should need to research these.
8.8i) Cash Crops -- farm goods which are grown primarily for export because they can command a high price, not because of their local food value. Coffee, cotton, and tobacco might be examples. They might allow you to turn excess food into money.

8.9) Economics Technologies:

8.9a) Venture Capitalism
8.9b) Credit
8.9c) Multinational Corporation
8.9d) Advertisement
8.9e) Tourism
8.9f) Currency- As in CivX.
8.9g) Mercenary Warfare- Not sure if this should need to be researched, but buying armies is always nice...
8.9h) Mercantilism- Running Imperialist Economies. Works great if the "minor nation" idea from other threads is included.
8.9i) Capital Markets -Using the minor nations idea, perhaps this could allow ruthless trade policies and imperialist economies.
8.9j) Keynesian Economics -- The notion that government fiscal (i.e. taxes and spending) policy should be used to limit the effects of the business cycle: low spending during boom years, high spending during recession/depression.

8.10) Metallurgical Technologies:

8.10a) Copper Smelting- A very very early technology.
8.10b) (plus all the standard ones, like Bronze Working, Iron Working...)

8.11) Everything else suggested:

1. Paper
2. Standing Army
3. Bureaucracy
4. Potter's Wheel
5. Vertical Loom
6. the plow (early)/ Mouldboard plow (late, with cast iron advance)
7. Animal Domestication
8. Mass Communication
9. Submersibles
10. Wheelbarrow
11. Greek Fire
12. Chemical Warfare
13. international law
14. Deism
15. Diesel engine
16. epidemiology
17. heliocentrism
18. Enviornmentalism subcategory: hydrogeology, exotoxicology, bioremedition, extinction prevention, contaminated land reclamation
19. Oceanography
20. Geology
21. logic
22. photography
23. Telegraph
24. Pulse Communication
25. Concrete
26. Fireworks
27. lightbulbs
28. wooden barrel
29. hot air balloons
30. tanning
31. the bayonet
32. scientific method
33. telecommunications
34. textiles
35. Painting
36. Weaving
37. Horticulture
38. distillation
39. Brewing
40. drafting
41. Gearworks
42. Urbanization
43. Regulation
44. The Pump
45. Calendar
46. the chimney/fireplace
47. Aristocracy
48. Civilian Watch
49. Civilian Rights
50. Veteran's services
51. Social Reform
52. Women's Movement
53. Legalized Prostitution
54. Prohibition
55. Gun Control
56. Revolution
57. Training
58. Code of Conduct
59. Targeting
60. Military Algorithm
61. Mobilization
62. Martial Arts
63. Geography
64. Total War
65. Environmental Ethics
66. Cuisine
67. Entrepenurialism
68. Globalization
69. Humanism
70. Empiricism
71. Nuclear Disarmament
72. Art of War
73. Rationalization
74. The Enlightenment
75. Money Economy
76. Nuclear Deterrence
77. Nuclear Warfighting
78. Nuclear Defense

8.12) Futuristic Technologies, possibly realistic:

8.12a) Metallic foam- Useful for ultralightweight construction.
8.12b) Laser induced fusion- Powerful lasers, and a prerequisite to-
8.12c) Orbital construction- pretty self-explanatory.
8.12d) Fuel cells- Dramatic power possibilities here. Perhaps a bonus to ships and spaceships.
8.12e) Commercial spacefaring- make $$$ for space exploration.
8.12f) Lasers- Heck, we have them now, but for a usable SDI.
8.12g) Terraforming- IF we colonize the Moon, Mars in Civilization III, this will be useful.
8.12h) Microgee agriculture- Another good way of growing stuff in space.
8.12i) Mass drivers- a gun in space that drives mass into other things at high speeds.
8.12j) Nanomedicine- Another use of nanorobots for cell repair and removing blockages.
8.12k) Organic industry- The ultimate in clean industries, it produces remarkably little pollution.
8.12l) Cloning- A growth bonus that perhaps also increases chance of revolts from angry religious people. No bonus in fundamentalist societies.
8.12m) Arcologies- dramatically increases population limit, allows deep sea colonies, reduces pollution, and crowded people more prone to riot.
8.12n) Deep core mining- This can be a city improvement or a terrain improvement that's a primitive thermal borehole, depending on how you look at it.
8.12o) Wakeways- "trails" of fuel pods in space that primitive ramjets use to quickly speed from one planet to another
8.12p) Artificial intelligence- While this is supposed to be discovered in SMAC, if you let the Seed AI grow long enough you may end up with an AI anyway. Be armed with an excuse for why this wasn't taken to Alpha Centauri if you do put this very realistic technology in.
8.12q) Spaceport- More of an improvement than a technology, it allows, well the futuristic version of an airport.
8.12r) Eugenics- Similar to cloning, Hitler would have loved to have had eugenics. Growth and happiness bonus in fascist SE's; cannot be researched by fundamentalist societies.
8.12s) Neural interface/neurohacking- So that Zakharov can be hooked up, and the intelligence of children can be improved in certain areas through surgery.
8.12t) Nanotechnology- Vital for ultra-high speed computer, terraforming, and makes a fantastic destroy-the-world machine. Spies can plant nanorobots in societies to turn people's brains and bodies into goo and that ravage entire cities and lands.
8.12u) Fusion drive- What makes the Unity go, aside from the solar panels it also carries. A vital technology to allow the UNS Unity Wonder.
8.12v) Antimatter/antimatter containment- Even in primitive form, allows extra power to go to space colonies and increases the speed of the Unity.
8.12w) Hydroponics- Growing plants by putting them in nutrient-spiked water tanks. Useful out in space and on the moon.
8.12x) Personality constructs- Perhaps with AI's, they can simulate human personalities as well, aside from their normal AI-self.
8.12y) Twin ion engine- A bad method for short range travel, good for intermediate distance; takes a long time to build up to speed, but useful for driving items across interplanetary distances with little fuel.

8.13) Futuristic Technologies and realism questionable:

8.13a) The ekumen- A form of interplanetary government.
8.13b) Matter replication- Discovered in SMAC, so it's probably out.
8.13c) Eptification- A form of re-education.
8.13d) Warp drive- Considering that the Unity doesn't use one, this certainly can't be developed in Civilization III's era and have a reasonable plot- not to mention the little problem of the physics. Actually, bigger than little.
8.13e) Psychohistory- Not likely. Asimov was wrong, Large societies are much harder to predict than small ones.
8.13f) Robopsychology- I personally doubt this will be a problem, but who knows? AI's with psych problems might occur.
8.13g) Zero point energy- Energy from nowhere. Since E=mc^2 and mass can be neither created nor destroyed, energy can be neither created nor destroyed, rendering this idea impossible. A more plausible alternative may be a "space vacuum" where atoms floating out in space are sucked up and turned into energy.
8.13h) Xenobiology (exobiology)- There may be microbes on Mars, and learning about them would be quite helpful.
8.13i) ICE- "Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics," used to protect your mind, and thus your spies, from detection? Or just mental conditioning, which has been around for ages?
8.13j) Artificial gravity (antigravity)- It'd be really useful if we had it, though it may well be impossible. Discovered in SMAC, late game anyway.
8.13k) Universal translator- Perhaps an AI that is devoted to learning all languages and translating them?
8.13l) Hyperatomic motivator- A good weapon, making your enemies atoms jump around. Problem: Heisenberg's uncertainly principle.
8.13m) Liquid metal (mimetic polyalloy)- A la T1000. Might actually be possible with nanorobots. Would create very strong tanks, planes, etc.
8.13n) Positronic matrix- Uses decay of positrons to emulate a human brain. A different way of creating an AI. Rather hard to control.
8.13o) Spindizzy generator- A way of using anti-gravity to put cities in flight with a different name.
8.13p) Planckscale machines- Nanotechnology taken to the extreme, where work as done at lengths of down to 1x10^-30 m.
8.13q) Kinetic Weapons & Inertia Nullification- Highly mobile units with de-stabilizing weapons that send enemies spiraling out of control. Problem: Inertial Damping was a proposed technology for SMAC.

I hope this list has proven informative. Of course, there are various suggestions here that I especially agree with (or disagree with), but I'm sure that you'll be quite able to decide that for yourself. Best of luck in designing Civilization III, and we will await your initial design decisions, so we can further structure our ideas to go along with what you're thinking.

-Peter Ingraham, aka SnowFire, dedicated Civilization fan.

P.S. A bit of editorial- I believe that the most important item in Civilization III's longevity is the ability to create scenarios so that the challenge of one player can be maintained. I strongly suggest a look at Heroes of Might & Magic III's map editor would be extremely instructive, and if that kind of map/scenario editor supplied there is combined with Civilization's hackable .txt files, I'm sure that many scenario-building fans would be ecstatic. Going back to technology, I'm also a strong supporter of the endgame race to build the Unity sequence against the nukes as well as the "research slider bars with inertia" idea.

PAGE 1 | PAGE 2 | PAGE 3


Apolyton Civilization Site Copyright © Daniel C. J. Quick All trademarks and trade names are the properties of their respective owners