Super awesome villagers

[johnmcd]

Just got Astronomy from a hut! I thought the Reconnaissance techs didn't get given out?

[Theben]

I had that happen to me once also.

[Solomwi]

Well, duh. If you're popping a hut that late in the game, it's got to be in a remote, desolate, barren wasteland, otherwise you or an AI would have already settled there. What else are the villagers going to do besides **** and gaze at the stars while they recover their energy to **** again? Hunt walrus? Sorry, Firaxis designed this world without any walrus. Now, when your explorer comes traipsing through the tundra and stumbles across the village, they want to be hospitable. They can't very well give him one of their wives or daughters to nail, because hospitality doesn't demand that kind of sacrifice (besides, who knows what harmless-to-you-deadly-to-them STDs your sailors have picked up on their travels around the world). So they show you their hobby of observing and cataloging stars. Hence, ASTRONOMY!

[Blaupanzer]

Apparently Ren-era barbs in CIV-land study Ren-era stuff. Pretty strange that a people isolated for over 5,000 years (4,000 BCE to at least 1,000 AD) would be able to teach you how to build the very galleons that would have ended their isolation. Be grateful, do not question the logic, unless you feel a need to fix it. Astronomy

[TriMiro]

Hm, I don't think Astronomy in itself gives the ability to build Galleons. I think Galleons should come with advanced carpentry and astronomy gives the large ships the ability to sail around without getting lost.

AFAIK, Maya and Inca and Aztec had good knowledge of Astronomy, but they were unable to build trans-ocean ships.

[joncnunn]

They could have ended their isolation centuries ago with Optics, a pre req to Astronemy.

[Unimatrix11]

Yeah, the tech-tree is kinda fudged up about astronomy. I remember pondering this after my first couple of games back then. Actually Astronomy is a very ancient art. It should come right after mysticm or some such and should be a prerequisite to calendar, and together with optics for navigation. Or so. Though acient astronomy is hard to tell from astrology sometimes... so i dunno... maybe really better not think about it too much...

[wodan11]

It's also possible that the tech called "Astronomy" in the game doesn't mean the same thing as what is being ascribed to it.

Most techs in the game are simply "buckets" of advancement that often hold disparate things. Even so, the designers have to come up with a 1 or 2 word name for each of them.

Why does Slavery come with Bronze Working? Why does Monarchy suddenly allow me to discover fermentation? I mean, really.

[okblacke]

While the correct answer is "it's a game", and one that probably gets better the further away it moves from attempting to accurately simulate history, I would add:

Astrology and astronomy were much more entwined until the late Renaissance. So, yes, while they're early techs, the purely scientific astronomy didn't really emerge until about where it is on the tech tree.

Not that it kept anyone from building boats...