Seven questions to the experts

[Hendrik the Great]

I was just about to send my latest scenario out for its first round of playtesting when I noticed that I have a small but very annoying problem with my tech tree and negotiations. In the process of trying to figure out what was going on I totally confused myself and now I can't tell it apart anymore. Also, there are some other things I'd like to clear up.

Now, here are my question for you:

1) Can a technology with NO, NO as preresquisit be traded in negotiations, stolen by diplos/spies or be optained by some other way?

2) If I have tech A, can it be normally researched, traded or stolen if both its prerequisits are NO, NO tech? (Of course I would have both techs that are NO, NO.)

3) If I have tech B, one of its prerequisits is a normal tech that is NIL, NIL or something other, and the second is a NO, NO, can it be researched, stolen or traded?

4)What ways are there to make sure that techs, units and city improvemnts remain restricted to a certain Civ other than to disallow negotiations between them and giving the other civs a tech that makes them obsolete?

5) Could someone please explain to me the Once Removed and Twice Removed idea in a way that I can understand it? I really like that design tip on SLeague, but I keep misunderstanding it. I'd really appreciate it because I have several partially divergent tech trees to achieve obselence of units and city improvements that are unique to only a few or one civ and I want this to work correctly.

6) Could someone also explain to me how exactly the ChangeTerrain event works? Will it only change a single square? What if I want to change an area the size of 25 squares, do I need 25 seperate events for this?

7) How can I make absolutely make sure that civs that are in contact in a scenario do remain in contact for the duration of the scenario? I read somewhere that embassies help but I have seen othwerwise in the last days...

I hope I am not overwhelming you with all those question and I think I akready have the answers to a few of them but I would like to be sure before I take a decision.

Many thank yous in advance!

------------------
Mathias' Civ II Page
http://members.nbci.com/thalys

[Captain Nemo]

I will just tackle a couple of these from my experience:

5)In order to create separate tech-trees for several Civs you need to make a civ-specific technology for each of them and base all advances they can research on this tech.

In order for this tech to be usable as a prereq for other technologies it cannot be a no,no tech therefore you need to make it a "once-removed technology" which means it appears to be buildable but is not because it has a no,no tech as prereq.
Example:
Impossible Tech = Pla, prereq: no & no (Impossible to build, does not appear in Science Menu) Do not give this tech to any civilization

German Tech= Chi, prereq: Pla & nil (Once removed from the no,no tech which means it cannot be built but can be used as a prereq for other Techs that will be buildable) This tech is given to the Germans when the scenario is set up.

German Language= Lit, prereq: Chi & Alp (Twice removed technology, can be researched only by Germans once they discover the Alphabet, since they already have Chi)

Note that this does not preclude other Civs from stealing those techs (IMHO the only way to avoid the stealing of techs is to not make any diplomat or spy units in the scenario)

5) Changeterrain can change a square of terrain to one type of terrain using the same format of coordinates as the moveunit (upper-left,upper-right,lower-right,lower-left). Make sure all coordinates match (odd-odd or even-even) and that the corners line up:
5,5,5,11,9,11,9,5 works
5,5,5,10,9,10,9,5 does not work
5,5,7,11,9,11,9,5 does not work

Hope this helps you get started

[St Leo]

1) Can a technology with NO, NO as preresquisit be traded in negotiations, stolen by diplos/spies or be optained by some other way?

You can select it as the target but you won't get it.

2) If I have tech A, can it be normally researched, traded or stolen if both its prerequisits are NO, NO tech? (Of course I would have both techs that are NO, NO.)

It cannot be researched, but it will show up on the lists for trade and theft.

4)What ways are there to make sure that techs, units and city improvemnts remain restricted to a certain Civ other than to disallow negotiations between them and giving the other civs a tech that makes them obsolete?

Instead of giving a tech that makes units obsolete you should give a tech that enables them.

7) How can I make absolutely make sure that civs that are in contact in a scenario do remain in contact for the duration of the scenario? I read somewhere that embassies help but I have seen othwerwise in the last days...

Giving them unit contact should definetly keep them in contact.


------------------
St. Leo
http://www.sidgames.com/hosted/ziggurat/
http://www.sidgames.com/forums/

[Gothmog]

quote: Originally posted by Hendrik the Great on 03-05-2001 04:30 PM 3) If I have tech B, one of its prerequisits is a normal tech that is NIL, NIL or something other, and the second is a NO, NO, can it be researched, stolen or traded?

The answer to this one is mostly YES. All techs that are not No,No can be stolen pr traded. Whether it can be researched depends on whether you have the preqreqs.

I have seen no mention of Nil,no techs. These can be stolen or traded, but never researched. This is useful as pre-reqs for improvements that you don't want anybody to build or special units. This helps you to get things listed in the civilopedia.

[Miner]

Use ToT

[Henrik]

quote: Hendrik the Great

Nice name
[This message has been edited by Henrik (edited March 06, 2001).]

[Hendrik the Great]

Oh yes, the clouds are starting to clear up!

Looks more or less along the lines as I expected it. I think I realise my mistake with the tech tree. I gave the civs also the No, NO tech and the others. Now it makes sense!

Seems like I will have to remove all diplos from the scenario after all and disallow negotiations, too. Too bad

Just a few questions left...

@Miner: I know close to nothing about how to make a scenario with ToT. It take me a decade at least...

@Henrik: Oh thank you very much!

------------------
Mathias' Civ II Page
http://members.nbci.com/thalys