{The List} - Technology

[TitanTim]

Other suggestions:

- Instead of investing all research into a particular area make it so that half the research actually gets applied to the tech you are trying to research and the other half would randomly go to other techs. This would show that some ideas are funded while others are accidental.

- Instead of research being applied to "the current tech" the research points should be accumulated on a "per tech" basis. Let's say "The Wheel" costs 50 and your research is 10 points per turn. If you are researching "The Wheel" for 2 turns then change your research focus to "Horseback Riding" then "The Wheel" remains at 20 out of 50 researched and you start at 0 with "Horseback Riding".

- The cost of the tech should be fixed (not sure if Civ3 did this but I know that Civ2 increased the difficulty of the tech as you discovered each tech). For example, "The Wheel" should cost 50 research points in BC 2000 or 1000 AD, not 50 now and 300 later.

- Research points should "spill" over into the next tech (or maybe allow "lost" research to be invested randomly). You should be allowed to discover more than one tech per turn if you can. If you get 200 research points and "The Wheel" costs 50, "Horseback Riding" costs 100, and "The Republic" costs 300 then you should be able to discover "The Wheel" and "Horseback Riding" with the 50 left-over research points being applied to "The Republic".

- You should be able to allocate research funding to more than one tech at a time. This could be beneficial if the tech cost goes down (as mentioned earlier).

- As more civilizations discover a particular tech the cost of the tech should be reduced. This could be modified such that this only applies to the number of civilizations with which you have contact.

[Adagio]

Originally posted by TitanTim
- Instead of research being applied to "the current tech" the research points should be accumulated on a "per tech" basis. Let's say "The Wheel" costs 50 and your research is 10 points per turn. If you are researching "The Wheel" for 2 turns then change your research focus to "Horseback Riding" then "The Wheel" remains at 20 out of 50 researched and you start at 0 with "Horseback Riding".

Agree... I have a simular idea, but it's not very Civ'ish
Maybe I'll post it later...

[Kuciwalker]

That's how it works in C3, except research degrades when you aren't researching a tech.

[DarkCloud]

except research degrades when you aren't researching a tech

Which makes good sense

[DarkCloud]

I think that the first thing we can agree on is that there should be a difference between techs like Democracy and techs like Steel. They should be treated slightly differently. You can't "steal" the concept of Communism with a spy. It's just silly.

I agree with Jaguar Warrior.

Cultural Advancements should gradually 'leak out' to neighboring nations with which you have an embassy... This would make the discovery of such advancements less of a benefit and cause the player to have to make more overall strategic decisions.

[SAMUEL2904]

Future Age. Change Modern Age

Well I don't like the modern age, on this era you are only researchinf for the space ship.
I don't like that kind of victory, so that age dont' have anything new to me.
No new weapons, no new buildings, and that's stupid, come on, this is the modern age, and the science aren't only researchin a space ship.

And I want a future age whit new techs, maybe crazy, but with something specific to research.

At the end of that age, then we can star researching "Futures techs"

[Kuciwalker]

You don't call Modern Armor, Mech. Infantry, Stealth planes, and nukes new units? IIRC there was a HUGE consensus not to have a "future era" (besides stuff around 2050).

[Adagio]

I created a poll shortly before PTW was released... many people voted for a near future era (It was the poll option which got most votes)

[Kuciwalker]

Which I don't think he's referring to - I think he meant CtP(2)-esque.

[SAMUEL2904]

Originally posted by skywalker
You don't call Modern Armor, Mech. Infantry, Stealth planes, and nukes new units? IIRC there was a HUGE consensus not to have a "future era" (besides stuff around 2050).

Ok, but if I don't choose the space race victory, there are only 3 or 4 techs that I'll need.

I'm not agree that the modern age techs only research space ship's parts.

And I think that could be cool futuristic units or buildings, like in CTP2.

[Kuciwalker]

Actually, you have to research TWELVE techs to get all of the useful Modern Era units, and if you want Precision Bombing and Missile Defense, you have to research 15 - all but two of them.

[joncha]

As long as what each tech gives you makes sense (ie, no civ2 style war elephants from polytheism or mech infantry from labour unions) I'm pretty much satisfied.

I would, however, prefer a less linear research path (divergent techs), but only if they converged again by industrial or modern times... or if you had the chance to converge when you came in contact with civs on other paths.

jon.

[Q Classic]

i'm dead set against any futuristic units or buildings. honestly, that's a lot of what made ctp not very fun for me.

civ is civ--i want to get a feeling of history playing it, but having futuristic buildings and units makes it feel less civ-like and more sci-fi. if i want have that sci-fi feeling, i'll play SMAC or MOO2, thank you very much.

also, as much as i like the idea of having separate categories and even a differentiation between theory and practice, i keep having nightmares of how that would be implemented poorly--like how it is in moo3. if we're having categories, i'd like to see it more in the nature of smac: theories would be "discover" and wouldn't have any real applications, but they lead to applied results. kinda like filler research, but they'd be able to lead to multiple paths.

[SAMUEL2904]

Originally posted by skywalker
Actually, you have to research TWELVE techs to get all of the useful Modern Era units, and if you want Precision Bombing and Missile Defense, you have to research 15 - all but two of them.

That's what I'm saying, Why do I've to research all those techs to get 1 or 2 units?, Come on, It's ridiculous.

I want that modern age techs have more units or buildings.

Originally posted by Q Cubed
civ is civ--i want to get a feeling of history playing it, but having futuristic buildings and units makes it feel less civ-like and more sci-fi.

All about the space ship is sci-fi, so you're agree that Civ has to change modern age techs.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by SAMUEL2904
That's what I'm saying, Why do I've to research all those techs to get 1 or 2 units?, Come on, It's ridiculous.

You mean about nine or ten units?

Let's see... Jet Fighter, Stealth Fighter, Stealth Bomber, Modern Paratrooper, Modern Armor, Mechanized Infantry, AEGIS Cruiser, Mobile SAM, Cruise Missile, Tactical Nuke, ICBM, Nuclear Submarine, and Radar Artillery. I think that's all - I did that off the top of my head. That's 13 units - probably more than any other era in the game. Maybe Industrial has more.