any chance of slowing down the tech race?

[sabrewolf]

i love playing maps with more than the suggested civs. standard with 12-16 civs is a lot of fun. my problem is, that the tech race (in ancient times) is waaaay too fast, even with 1.29f. all 16 civs know each other after writing and trade-trade-trade... usually i must buy the techs and can't sell it further to any other civ.

is there a chance of making tech-trading impossible? or at least only allowing it with literature or currency?

thanks for all tips

[GhengisFarbâ„¢]

I agree, I increased the research cost of Ancient and Middle Age techs and reduced the cost of Modern Age techs and it seems to work okay. The only other variable, besides trading, is the goody huts.

[DarkCloud]

If you select ISLANDS, it might slow the tech race down until the civs meet each other with fleets of triremes.

[Willem]

There's a bunch of things you can do in the editor:

First, in "General Settings", you can increase the maximum/minimum turns to research a tech.

In "Civilization Advances", you can increase the beaker costs of all the techs in the game. Myself, I've added 5 to each of the Ancient Era techs. I'll probably have to increase the Middle Ages as well.

In "Governments", you can set the rate caps so you, or the AI, can't devote all your incomes to research. Keep in mind that this setting affects all rates in the game, so it will also cap your tax and luxury spending as well. Or you can also increase the overall cost of a unit so that less money will be available for research.

In "Difficulty Levels", you can adjust the AI to AI trading in the game. I haven't used that yet so I don't know exactly how it works. I suspect that the lower you set it, the less they trade with each other.

In "Improvements", you can make it so that Libraries etc. can't be built in every city. If you use the "Must be near water" or the "Must be near a river" flags, you can restrict which cities can build one. Myself I've made Universities only available in cities near water, and Research Labs only in cities near a river. BTW, the near water bit refers only to fresh water, not coastal cities.

I'm sure there's something else I can come up with, but that should be enough to keep you busy for awhile.

[sabrewolf]

thanks for all the replies.

willem, most of your ideas just slow down technology all together. and to put up tech-costs in the ancient age also makes it slower for everyone... but tech-trading will still be going on... just a little slower (but then.. i'm behind even more )

until now, i just put tax rates to 90% (or 80%, if luxuries needed) and buy the techs.... until i've built a fair amount of marketplaces and libraries. after education, i usually start to take over the tech-race-lead.

my trick: go along one branch and let the AI get the other ones. while all AIs go for feudalism, chivalry and engineering, i'm hurrying to the really valuable ones: monotheism (sistine's chapel), education (universities) banking (money --> tech-slider can now go higher), economics (adam smith) and democracy. if there's an opponent bugging me, i might buy feudalism (pikemen) and maybe even go early into offense (knights at chivalry)... but keep 'em happy with trade (per turn) and bribes and they don't attack too often

firaxis: can you add a tech-option "allows tech-trading"? (like map-trading, and communications-trading)

[sabrewolf]

Originally posted by Willem
In "Difficulty Levels", you can adjust the AI to AI trading in the game. I haven't used that yet so I don't know exactly how it works. I suspect that the lower you set it, the less they trade with each other.

100% is the "fair" trade value as AI do it between each other. on higher levels, the human player doesn't get so good offers (i think it's 30% "worse" than AI-AI). so if AI2 buy techA from AI1 and pays 200g, you'd have to pay 260g.

[sabrewolf]

Originally posted by DarkCloud
If you select ISLANDS, it might slow the tech race down until the civs meet each other with fleets of triremes.

on standard maps, archipelagio are actually continents. usually you have 2 big land masses with most of the civs and maybe a few very small unusable islands...

your tip works fine on huge maps with few civilisations... or custom maps, where every civ has its own island

[Willem]

Another thing that I just had a look at. With Writing, the AI can share communications with other civs to each other. If you delay that until some later tech, they'll only be able to trade with their immediate neighbours.

[sabrewolf]

it's funny... you can trade techs immediatly, but to trade contacts, you need a tech...

[Der PH]

Originally posted by Willem
Another thing that I just had a look at. With Writing, the AI can share communications with other civs to each other. If you delay that until some later tech, they'll only be able to trade with their immediate neighbours.

I'm going to put the required tech to electricity (representing telegraphy) for my next game. I'm on the rack (don't know if this phrase is correct, I just found it in an online dictionary) for the results.

Modifying the AI to AI trade rate from my experience doesn't have much effect when you don't put it to 100 % or even lower.

Archipelago helps a lot (I usually play large maps with 12 civs).

[Admiral PJ]

I think the tech tree should have more techs, like civ2 and the expansion mods for Test of time.

I'd suggest putting Share maps forward into Navigation ,
as well as moving share Comms somewhere like Education.
Having later maps has many uses, it stops civs finding others so quick and stops them taking all the good huts(that often give free science advances) , the main thing is that this stops the civs expanding too much , asthey can't see what unclaimed land there is.
It shuld encourage more explorere units/ships to be made too.. at least for Multiplayer.

I thought on the rack meant you were in trouble for doing something wrong, it can be used if you need something to work or your job/something will be in trouble (eg. (for example) my lifes on the line if I don't get this work done by monday).. Say 'My idea is still on the test bed' or 'MY ideas still in the testing phase' perhaps.