Ignoring early techs

[Strudo]

I noticed in some threads people saying that they don't research calender at all to get the maximum benefit from stonehenge. Does this effect how quickly later techs are researched? I thought I read in the manual somewhere that neglecting early tech branches can make things difficult later in the game. I can't remember what it said exactly, so thats basically how I interperted it.

[LzPrst]

for one you cant build plantations. however, this is another thing I consider to be poor design. in the original civ games a wonder became obsolete when the first civ to get the obsoleting tech got it. the ability to simply avoid a tech in order to get prolonged bonuses seems like an exploit to me.

[Sirid]

The new system of tech branching allows for multiple research paths to arrive at the same result. You can skip several techs this way without consequence, and still research later techs at the same cost (what techs you already have researched does not effect your research speed). Of course if you find that you do need to open up another research branch in the late game, you could always do so rather quickly; your research output is going to be high enough to allow you to research ancient techs very quickly because the cost is constant.

[vmxa1]

Well actually you could avoid the Great Lib going obsolete by not learning Education.

Exploit, not sure as ou have to risk a price for it. Now in IV you have to give up Plantations and tech trading. This may be a good deal for games that you will not be trading. Say a variant of no Open Borders, no trade.

[Aileron]

Originally posted by LzPrst
in the original civ games a wonder became obsolete when the first civ to get the obsoleting tech got it.

So it's definately *you* researching the tech that obsoletes *your* wonder, not the first civ to? There was another thread that mentioned that, but I never got a definitive answer.

[Saurus]

Originally posted by Aileron


So it's definately *you* researching the tech that obsoletes *your* wonder, not the first civ to? There was another thread that mentioned that, but I never got a definitive answer.

Yes, it IS your own research that obsolotes your own wonders.
Since the tech-tree is so flexible now, the other way around would be a bad game concept.
(Otherwise should my opponent build stonehenge for instance, I could almost instantly cancel its effect by aiming directly at calender.)

[alva]

the ability to simply avoid a tech in order to get prolonged bonuses seems like an exploit to me.

IMHO it offers you another tactical/strategical choice.
With calender for example, do I keep the effect of the wonder, or do I research it and get the bonus from the resources....

[baboon]

Well the idea is by the time you can get Calendar the bonuses by it are better than that of Stonehenge. And usually I'm glad to get Calender.

I don't see any problem here.

[ZanThrax]

If I don't have a lot of resources that I need to use plantations on, I'll avoid calendar & use Stonehenge to simplify expansion. If I do have 3 or more types of resources that use plantations, I'll avoid Stonehenge and focus on Calendar early (not beeline it, but focus in that direction).

Like many decisions in CIV, the situation on the map is the key element to the choice that I make.