a new take on tech research

[grappleman]

i recently had an idea while playing conquests the other day. I dont know if this has been brought up before or thought of already but ive never seen anything mentioned about it. My idea is this: Everyone knows about the science slider on the domestic screen. Well i thought "why should all this gold be thrown into one tech....why cant i research more than one tech at once?" Its not unrealistic to research more than one field at once in this day and age. But anyways back to a gaming solution... My idea to allow for multiple techs to be researched is to have not one grand slider (like there is now) but three little sliders designated "Tech 1, Tech 2, and Tech 3" For example, if you are just starting the modern era you could designate 70% of your science research to rockets and the other 30% to computers. This would allow you to research multiple techs at once. However the rate at which they are researched is greatly slowed, but nevertheless it allows for a player to have multiple technical research projects at once going.

I dont know if this idea is possible or even a good one for that matter, but id like some input. Thank you.

[Dry]

It has been done: Master Of Orion 1.

On the idea, I think you need to specify a little more.

If you allow to split your research force into different techs, without gain or loss, then I think all average players will chose the 'concentrate on one tech' solution.
If it takes 5 turn to discover one tech, then I prefer discovering 1 tech every 5 turns over discovering N techs after N*5 turns.

In order to give the players a real choice problem, you need to reduce the advantages of 'concentrated research'.

Solution1: (ala Moo1) All techs are spread among 'research fields'.
The player has to allocate his research force amongst those fields. (Optional: Inside every field, the player will have to chose the tech he wants to research).
A change in this proportion (I move a rocket scientist to biology field) has an immediate negative effect in the field that loses strength, but a delayed positive effect in the field that increases strength (need time for the rocket scientist/team to become a bio scientist/team).

Solution2: you reduce the efficiency of scientists with their number. This simulates the communication problems, bureaucracy,...
If it takes 100 turns for 10 scientist to discover tech A, but it will take 60 turns for 20 scientists, 35 turns for 40 and 25 for 100.

Solution3: same as solution2, but more complex.
Each tech has an optimal number of researcher (say 10 for wheel, 100 for Industry). As long as this optimun is not reached, there is no loss in efficiency. As soon as it is reached, there is a decrease in efficiency for the newcomers.
After, say 5 * optimum, any newcomer is pure waste (0 scientific contribution).
The speed of the inefficiency and/or the upper limit of efficient researcher maybe related to some 'communication techs'.

[Rhothaerill]

It won't happen as part of Civ3. You might try to find the Civ4 forum and suggest it somewhere there as I've heard that Firaxis does peruse that forum while working on Civ4.