The Internet

[Diadem]

It should read:

"Grants any Technology aquired by 2 or more Known Civilizations"

Then it is clear.

[snoopy369]

More than likely they just assume that you know what it means, as every civ that's included a great library (Civ1 even, iirc) has this same functionality. Hence the somewhat ambiguous wording.

[Diadem]

Well it is one of those wonders who's effect is very hardd to measure precisely.

In the old civs you couldn't see what technologies the competition had. I'm used to the Great Library giving me technologies every now and then. But when you can't see what technologies other civs have, there is no way to check how it works. Or reason to suspect it might work differently than you thought.

Anyway, the Great Library was usually built by me only to keep the other civs from getting it. I always had such a big techlead I rarely got stuff from it.

[snafuc4]

Originally posted by Diadem
"Grants any Technology aquired by 2 or more Known Civilizations"

Even that can be misread: could 'acquired' be read as 'only has traded for/extorted froim'?

How about "Grants any Technology known to 2 or more other Known Civilizations"?

[Bogdanovist]

I fail to see what other meaning anyone has read into the description of the Internet. The statement "Grants all Technologies aquired by any 2 Known Civilizations" has a single unambiguous meaning. Can someone explain to me how this sentence can describe anything other than the obvious?

[Tuberski]

Originally posted by Bogdanovist
I fail to see what other meaning anyone has read into the description of the Internet. The statement "Grants all Technologies aquired by any 2 Known Civilizations" has a single unambiguous meaning. Can someone explain to me how this sentence can describe anything other than the obvious?

Took me a few tries as well:

Grants all (Technologies aquired by any 2 Known Civilizations)

Grants all of the technologies Civ A has learned, grants all technologies that Civ B has learned.

Civ A has Fusion and Robotics.

Civ B has Refrigeration and Robotics.

He thought he would get all three techs, whereas he only actually gets Robotics.

Does this help?

ACK!

[Diadem]

What I read into it is this: When you build the Internet / Great Library, the game gives you all the technologies that two other civs have. So the game selects two other civs (presumably the most advanced ones) and give them the technologies they have. If there are 3 civs who have technologies you don't have, then you only get techs from two of those.

That's how I have always read it, anyway.

[Quillan]

That may be how you read it, but that isn't how it works. If two or more civilizations you have met have the technology, you get it. If only one does, you don't get the technology. If you know one that has it, and later meet another that has it, you'll get it at that point.
In the previous games, it was very possible (likely even) to complete the Great Library before meeting all the civs in the game. By the time you get to Fiber Optics, you'll almost certainly have met everyone, so that shouldn't be a factor now.

[ghen]

What I want to know is if the internet works even after its built. IE: after I build the internet and two other civs build composites; do I get that tech? I think this is true, but its not spelled out specifically anywhere.

[Diadem]

I know it isn't how it works! I found that out the hard way.

I would have succeeded in an OCC conquest-victory (the genocide way!) on monarch, otherwise.

[Hauptman]

Oh how i miss the civ3 great library. Beeline philosophy, free tech liturature build library as i researched republic (usually 30+ turns at this stage in the game) fill out on all the other ancient techs through the library. Beeline astronomy and get a few of the mideval techs (usually up to invention) before i obsoleted my own library. thus having a HUGE headstart on the observatory.

Collosus + Copernicus Observatory + Newtons University broke civ3.

[MotownDennis]

Originally posted by Diadem
What I read into it is this: When you build the Internet / Great Library, the game gives you all the technologies that two other civs have. So the game selects two other civs (presumably the most advanced ones) and give them the technologies they have. If there are 3 civs who have technologies you don't have, then you only get techs from two of those.

That's how I have always read it, anyway.

Don't feel bad. The whole time I played Civ I (a long, long time ago), I always understood it as you did. Not till Civ 2 or 3 did I understand how it REALLY worked.

I thought the computer chose two other civs at random to give you techs from. They could be advanced or not-so-advanced, depending on the luck of the draw.

So you're not the only dummy around here.

[joncnunn]

Actually, in Civ III, just all up the other players one by one, that will tell you who's ahead of you and whos behind.

I do agree that Civ IV summary of techs along with a note of which ones the AI is willing to sell is much faster.

I think I built the Great Libary in Civ III once or twince and proceeded to turn research off for the rest of the ancient era before restarting it upon being granted Enginnering. I don't see myself building the Civ IV Internet at all. If I'm the first one to a modern era tech, chances are I don't need the internet; right?

Originally posted by Diadem
Well it is one of those wonders who's effect is very hardd to measure precisely.

In the old civs you couldn't see what technologies the competition had. I'm used to the Great Library giving me technologies every now and then. But when you can't see what technologies other civs have, there is no way to check how it works. Or reason to suspect it might work differently than you thought.

Anyway, the Great Library was usually built by me only to keep the other civs from getting it. I always had such a big techlead I rarely got stuff from it.

[JackRudd]

Great Libraries are a big game-balance problem. If there are beelines that can be gone for while they're active, they're very powerful. If not, they're barely useful at all.

[Quillan]

The internet won a game for me at least once. I'd gotten into the late game, and it devolved into a space race as usual. I'd gone Fiber Optics->Fusion for the great engineer, then dove for Robotics to be able to build the space elevator. All this time, the AI's were building Rocketry and Satellites, completing the Apollo Program, and building spaceship components. I got the Elevator finished first with the aid of the engineer, but they had all 5 casings, all three thrusters, and I think docking bay finished before I'd even finished the Apollo Program. Nobody would trade the techs, and I would have lost if I had been forced to research all the missing ones myself. Fortunately, I'd started Internet right after I finished Fiber Optics. When it completed, I got every single tech left to research.