When does the era change ?

zsozso · February 13, 2009, 09:56

OK, this is obviously a noob question -- please, excuse my ignorance I have grown up on SMAC/X where such notion does not exist.

What determines when the era (ancient -> medival -> industrial -> modern) changes in a game ?
Is it a fixed year ? Does it depend on reaching a specific technology level ? Or a given number of technologies ?

Faction bonuses depend on the era, so I'd like to know when to expect the next change so that i can plan on it.

Thanks in advance for educating me !

UnOrthOdOx · February 13, 2009, 12:14

Hey, I've been wondering that too!

I don't know the specifics, but:

It's Technology based, I'm certain of that. Most Civ games, it's a specific Set of techs are "Medeival", and once you get ONE of them, you trigger the Medieval age. I'm GUESSING CivRev is the same, but I'm either confused as to WHICH are required, or they've added a second requirement (1 medieval tech +X number of ancient ones, perhaps). I haven't fully unlocked the mystery just yet.

But, then, I'm all of 8 games played now, and the manual lacks that info...

But, you only advance when a tech is researched, so it's CERTAINLY tech based.

Unlocking that mystery and creating effective beelines would be a key MP strategy.

zsozso · February 17, 2009, 10:16

In the in-game Civilopedia under Concepts -> Research it states that the Era changes according to the number of techs. I also had a game where I already had Monarchy (from the English) and did not advance to Medival (which was my previous suspect trigger), but when I got Pottery from the French I have advanced. Clearly, Pottery cannot be a trigger-tech for Medival as it is a first level tech. So this seems to confirm that indeed it is simply the number of techs. Now we just have to count them for each transition then verify the limits.