What triggers a new age?

[vandelescrow]

Does anyone know what triggers a new age? I.E. Renaissance, modern, Genetic, Diamond.

In a multi player game I was leading my opponent in population by over 1/2 million and was higher in the power graph almost the entire game. Then all of a sudden my opponent got the Modern age and the opponents population jumped by 10 million while I was still in the Renaissance age. The last thing my opponent researched was railroad, which I already had multiple turns ago.

P.S. I did get the Renaissance first but still do not know what triggers the new age.

Thanks

[Justin_Phillip_webb]

Below are a list of advances that trigger the new age in the original game, I am assuming that is the version you are playing. Also included is an excerpt from the const.txt file that shows how population is multiplied depending on age, but as far as the game mechanics are concerned, it doesn't make any difference, purely visual.

# Renaissance Age
AGE {
AGE_NUM_ADVANCES 4
AGE_ENABLING_ADVANCE ADVANCE_ALCHEMY
AGE_ENABLING_ADVANCE ADVANCE_CLASSICAL_EDUCATION
AGE_ENABLING_ADVANCE ADVANCE_ENGINEERING
AGE_ENABLING_ADVANCE ADVANCE_BANKING

# Modern Age
AGE {
AGE_NUM_ADVANCES 5
AGE_ENABLING_ADVANCE ADVANCE_AGE_OF_REASON
AGE_ENABLING_ADVANCE ADVANCE_RAILROAD
AGE_ENABLING_ADVANCE ADVANCE_MEDICINE
AGE_ENABLING_ADVANCE ADVANCE_OCEAN_FARING
AGE_ENABLING_ADVANCE ADVANCE_CANNON_MAKING

# Genetic Age
AGE {
AGE_NUM_ADVANCES 3
AGE_ENABLING_ADVANCE ADVANCE_ROBOTICS
AGE_ENABLING_ADVANCE ADVANCE_SPACE_FLIGHT
AGE_ENABLING_ADVANCE ADVANCE_GENETICS

# Diamond Age
AGE {
AGE_NUM_ADVANCES 3
AGE_ENABLING_ADVANCE ADVANCE_WORMHOLES
AGE_ENABLING_ADVANCE ADVANCE_NEURAL_SILICON_INTERFACE
AGE_ENABLING_ADVANCE ADVANCE_ARCOLOGIES

SCALED_POP_ANCIENT 10000
SCALED_POP_RENAISSANCE 10000
SCALED_POP_MODERN 100000
SCALED_POP_GENETIC 1000000
SCALED_POP_DIAMOND 5000000

[vandelescrow]

Hm, so the population number is purely "fake"? I mean the scaled population does not add to your science or production?

And thanks for the info

[quinns]

Hm, so the population number is purely "fake"? I mean the scaled population does not add to your science or production?

And thanks for the info

Yes, the population number is "cosmetic" but you can still use it to find the actual population. You just have to divide by a different number to get the true population -- I THINK below is the breakdown to get the "meaningful" population depending upon age:

Pre-Renaissance -- 10 thousand (e.g. if your population reads 40000, divide by 10000 to get pop = 4 [4 cities size 1, or 2 cities size 2 for example)
Renaissance -- 100 thousand
Modern -- 1 million
Genetic -- 10 million
Diamond -- 100 million

I rarely get to genetic and diamond so can someone else confirm my above numbers??