Originally posted by nbarclay
If human players could trade Steam Power in an even swap for Nationalism under conditions where all else is equal, I might view the good of making Nationalism a prerequisite for Industrialization as outweighing the harm. Changing a tech from being optional to being a prerequisite for a second-tier tech is a huge change from stock, but the benefit of helping AIs trade for Steam Power more quickly might be worth it.
But right now, Nationalism and Steam Power cost the same, making a straight-up trade impossible when all else is equal. Further, I suspect that AIs place a value on Nationalism for trade purposes that is significantly higher than its research cost alone would warrant. (Can anyone confirm or refute that?) Under those conditions, I would strongly oppose such a change because it would change an optional tech not just to being mandatory, but to being mandatory under conditions that favor the AIs. Yes, that's good from a "helping the AIs" perspective, but I consider the impact on the feel of the game too big a departure from stock.
If human players could trade Steam Power in an even swap for Nationalism under conditions where all else is equal, I might view the good of making Nationalism a prerequisite for Industrialization as outweighing the harm. Changing a tech from being optional to being a prerequisite for a second-tier tech is a huge change from stock, but the benefit of helping AIs trade for Steam Power more quickly might be worth it.
But right now, Nationalism and Steam Power cost the same, making a straight-up trade impossible when all else is equal. Further, I suspect that AIs place a value on Nationalism for trade purposes that is significantly higher than its research cost alone would warrant. (Can anyone confirm or refute that?) Under those conditions, I would strongly oppose such a change because it would change an optional tech not just to being mandatory, but to being mandatory under conditions that favor the AIs. Yes, that's good from a "helping the AIs" perspective, but I consider the impact on the feel of the game too big a departure from stock.
Of course, if you never buy Nationalism from AI (or at least until very late), that will be another story.
As for 'feel of stock', well, to me that anything tweaking techs will push the gaming feel away from stock. AU mod is already full of this, like Literature, Polytheism, Print Press, and so on. And that is very reason I drop stock rules: it makes AI performing smarter, thus increasing challenge.
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