FIRAXIS: trading for techs.

[Theseus]

Uber, oscillate.

[Theseus]

(god I love short posts)

[bongo]

Do you want back the tech model from the original civ? I once conquered an small city using a legion (3.1.1), pure luck of course as the city was defended by a rifleman(3.5.1 ?) Then I stole steel, which allowed me to build battleships(18.12.4) which I could use to conquer more cities and steal more techs so I could bypass half the tech-tree. Kinda cool but very unrealistic.

[MoonWolf]

Funny, I agree on both sides... Some of the tech bonus you got from cities in civ1/2 should be back I think. Maybe not the newer techs, but the older ones. Only seing an other tech gives new ideas. Think of it; a group of spearman is beeing attack by a group of horsemen. Just by luck they survive the fastmoving attackers. They noticed that the men and the animals are two seperate individuals, they are not one, strange monster! Then one the surviving spearmen says "Hey, guys, let's try to sit on these animals ourself! I think old Bradir Redbeard has some lurking in the forrest by his farm!". Techs like this are more ideas than actual developing. Maybe the whole system should be changed (civ4?)

[bongo]

Having contact with another civ already lessens the cost of research towards techs the other civs know. Thats good, and realistic.

Here's a suggestion for civ4. When you conquer a city which belongs to a civ more advanced than you, then you should get a small bonus when you start researching that tech yourself. Like, if there is a library in the city you get a 25% bonus, 50% with an university. Maybe even a bonus if you kill an advanced unit.

[olaf]

I already think the game forces the player to adopt certain strategies/exploits to win at higher levels. I dont think this change would make that any worse.

One of the draws of the Civ games, for me, was that there was more than one way to play. In Civ3, the higher the difficulty level you choose, the less viable ways there are to play and win. That sucks IMO. Not to say it wasnt like that in previous games...I just wish they could make it so that more peaceful empire building and less duplicitous tactics could result in wins past Regent.

Back to the point though, I definitely think the AI should have its survival as its #1 concern. I dont think you should necessarily be able to extort numerous techs out of a civ all the time, but when they are faced with certain extinction or giving up tech, they should choose to give out the tech.

olaf

[bongo]

They will give you everything they have to aviod destruction, but not always. They will be more stubborn if you have extorted them earlier in that game.

[Ribannah]

Originally posted by olaf
In Civ3, the higher the difficulty level you choose, the less viable ways there are to play and win.

Well, that is not exact. You can still play and win in many ways at deity level (even OCC if you have a good location).

But on ALL levels, if you want a high score (eg when competing in a comparison game), your choices are limited.

[Jamski]

Really the only way to get a really high score is by total conquest before the AD's kick in. That's hardly "Building an empire to stand the test of time" is it? But I don't play for score, it just annoys me that my best scores are for games I can hardly remember, while my OCC cultural win on Emperor scores 322 points and doesn't even come on the score table.

-Jam

[steven8r]

UberKruX

Since you and your buddy are allying against the AI's, try this: You trade with the Babs for Engineering and whatever else for Peace.

Then give Engineering to your buddy and have him try to get Invention from the Babs to then give to you.

This approach works well, IF you and your buddy are willing to trade techs on 'faith'. Then y'all can whoop-up on the AI's even more effectively.

[Panag]

Originally posted by Dominae
Civ3 is not about realism; Firaxis explicitly said so to the community during the design of the game. Civ3 is about a fun and challenging experience.

Putting the Science slider at zero, building a bunch of Horsemen, extorting every tech until Chivalry, upgrading all Horsemen to Knights and repeating this process would be the way to play Civ3 with the change UberKrux is proposing. The game would not be fun because there would be only one good way to play it, and it would not be challenging because this way would be too easy.

If you're thinking that this would not happen, consider how dumb the AI is, and how easy this situation is for the human player to set up (can we say vassal states?). And yes, this could be exploited to hell even on Deity.

Finally, although any body would give anything to ensure its own survival in real life, this is a game and so this golden rule need not apply. In fact, it does not apply: what human player would give all his techs to his conqueror in a MP game? Not me! I would claw and fight my way to the end, never giving a moment's respite until I'm finally gone. Which is more or less what the AI does.


Dominae

hi ,

why on earth would you want to extort every tech until chivalry , .... , even if it would work you still fall behind , ..... or going to war with each civ , ....

the best is to get the great library , with an asap republic government and then race towards cavalry , ....

it seems to work at almost every level

have a nice day

[Zurai]

Originally posted by panag


hi ,

why on earth would you want to extort every tech until chivalry , .... , even if it would work you still fall behind , ..... or going to war with each civ , ....

the best is to get the great library , with an asap republic government and then race towards cavalry , ....

it seems to work at almost every level

have a nice day

Because, following Uber's wishes, you'd be able to get every tech in between horseback riding and chivalry in one fell swoop. There would be no need to waste the shields or gold on the Great Library or on research. All you'd have to do is build hordes of cheap units, kill their pikemen, and all of a sudden you'd jump an era and a half. Not balanced at all.

[miike]

Originally posted by bongo
They will give you everything they have to aviod destruction, but not always. They will be more stubborn if you have extorted them earlier in that game.

It does not appear as if anyone has brought this up so far. I have read and seen in the game, where if you have a low reputation, then the computer will not give you techs when you are conquering them. But if you have a high rep, then they will give techs. I have played both peaceful and warmonger. And this seems to be true. I actually love it, when the computer declares war on me, I usually play with a very high rep, just by minding my own business. So, when the AI declares war on me, I can expand my empire.