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**mrtemba** · July 21, 1999, 01:25

I have a basic outline of the initial techs I think the Martians will need/have, but how do I know how many advances is enough?

its your call. It also depends on the rate of advancement.

How many can I have and will I have to start weeding out old techs for the British in order to make room for the new ones?

there are a lot of slots open, I doubt you'll have to erase all that many.

Can I get rid of older techs -- as long as they don't affect anything I want them to be able to do today?

Yeah, its in the cheat menu...Edit Technologies.

How do the tech name relate to the images in the image files?

it doesn't its the techs age (Ancient, Rennisacne, Industiral Genetic) and Application (Military, Social, Academic, Applied, Economic) that affect the picture.

What's the best way to get started??

draw out a tech tree. worked for me.

any more questions???

**Cam** · July 21, 1999, 07:31

Neil,

Firstly, I think the idea is great! I've been a big fan of the Jules Verne scenario, and I see great opportunities in what you're looking at.

As for your dilemmas, I think Mr. Temba's given you some short but effective responses to the matters you raise. I'll probably echo many of his views here...

Be wary of using Democracy. The rate of technology development can come at an avalanche rate if you're not careful. You need to either modify the technology paradigm to an oppressive level, rename monarchy as 'Democracy' (or something like that) and use that instead, or give about 60 tech's to any tribe that's likely to have access to the default Democracy government form otherwise. There are other measures, such as denying key city improvements (e.g. libraries) and Wonders (e.g. Copernicus), but these are mere alternate approaches to try and curb the juggernaut effect of using Democracy (and to a lesser effect Fundamentalism and Communism) in scenarios.

On the question of which technologies affect which images, etc, I suggest you check out the legendary Leon Marrick paper 'Advanced Scenario Design' as your first port-of-call if you have yet to do so; www.cyberaddiction.com/guide/advansce1.htm

On the issue of finding new slots, you can always adjust the renaissance prerequisites to 'nil, nil' and use the bulk of the ancient technologies for your new slots. You will have to bear in mind those 'special' slots such as Ceremonial Burial (required for temples) and so on. This is but one of several approaches.

And finally on designing new technology trees, ensure you create 'milestone' technologies in any new tree, where divergent branches must converge in order to enter a new realm of technologies. There are plenty of examples in the default game, but to illustrate an early one, Polytheism requires both military and philosophical advances in order to create the important Elephant unit. You should consider techniques to force the construction, philosophic, militaristic, economic, and academic branches together to make sure that a tribe can't run away with massive development in one sector to the detriment of game balance.

Hope this helps and I look forward to your results (provided it's not in MP Gold ).

**NeilM** · July 23, 1999, 17:43

No MP Gold. I haven't even tried to play an MP game yet, let alone make one!

I'm trying to make heads and tails out of all these tech tree suggestions. I've read and re-read Blackclove's tech tree guides, but it all seems to be too much for this "bear of very little brain".

I understand the concepts, but I can't even think of where to begin without damaging the tech tree as it is now. Which techs can have their prerequisites renamed to some generic root tech (as suggested in Blackclove's guide) and which ones can't be renamed due to inherent skills they provide (such as Bridge Building)?

Argh. Too many thoughts running through my head right now. And I can't even remember if I turned off the "acquire technologies" tab when I started this whole scenario, so I may have to start all over again anyway.

Nevermind...

-N

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Neil Marsh
Lepus MediaNet

**NeilM** · July 23, 1999, 18:37

Argh!

Yup, I have to start all over again. I didn't switch off the "do not acquire tech through conquest" feature. I want to control that more, but I didn't know I could do it with the Events.txt file when I started the scenario. @*$^$@&@!

45 backup files and none of them are of use.

Suppose anyone's told Microprose that should fix that? The idea of "if you don't do this now, you can't change it later on" really gives me the willies...

-N

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Neil Marsh
Lepus MediaNet

**DarthVeda** · July 23, 1999, 19:02

I think that Microprose should implement a "Stop Turns" feature for scenarios. No maytter how careful I am, I always endup accidentally ending the turn at some point and destroying anywhere from a half hour to and hour or more's work.

**Cam** · July 23, 1999, 19:15

Neil,

I'm not sure I understand your predicament. Can't you reopen your scenario selecting the first tribe and use the 'cheat' menu > 'scenario parameters' > 'edit special rules' > 'forbid tech from conquest (1)', then re-save it as your scenario?

Events.txt can use the 'received technology' trigger and the 'give technology' action, but it's not the area responsible for forbidding technology gains from capturing enemy cities. You may be referring to the non-negotiations command though(?) to prevent tech' swaps.

Not all is lost!

**NeilM** · July 24, 1999, 01:53

Cam:

Odd, because I was reading somewhere that the start of the scenario was the only way to set this option. Thanks.

As to the events'txt, that's what I meant. I wanted to control when humans might get ahold of Martian technology by using the give or related commands.

But speaking of the negotiation thing: just what does all that "if talker THEN" gobbledygook at the beginning of the events.txt file mean and how does it relate to me making sure they don't talk to each other?

BTW: Darth: I agree wholeheartedly. I can't think of the number of times I've hit that damn corner of the screen and accidentally spent my turn. *ugh*

I also think they should allow us to be able to put tribes in and take them out without having to start all over again.

Patches, Microprose?

Now, back to the bloody tech tree...

-N

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Neil Marsh
Lepus MediaNet

**Fast_Eddie** · July 24, 1999, 21:33

Nope Nope, this was stupid....
[This message has been edited by Fast_Eddie (edited July 24, 1999).]

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