Tech Trees

[HisMajestyBOB]

What do you scenario-making veterans use to plan out your tech trees? Index cards, or somethign on the computer? I've got a good scenario idea going, but planning the tech tree is a pain, so I'm hoping you'll be willing to share some of your secrets and wisdom.

[Dr. Nick]

Pencil, paper and concept boxes.

[Case]

I do it all in my head

Needless to say, my tech trees never work at first

[ravagon]

I make sure I start off with the tech tree poster that came with my original civ2. That way I don't forget about any of the special flag techs that can do such undesirable things to an otherwise good scenario.

[Mercator]

I usually start out using some text editor, writing all techs I can think of down, in no particular order. Then I'll use the text editor and/or paper and pencil to construct the tree itself.
First and most importantly, figure out which techs will form the basis and get the general idea of how the different branches will interact. Write any ideas down on paper.
Then I'll start arranging the techs, mostly cutting and pasting techs behind eachother in an orderly fashion, like this (just a silly little example):

Writing		Literacy

		Trade		Currency

				Map Making

		Code of Laws	Monarchy

Literacy, Trade and Code of Laws require Writing. Currency and Map Making require Trade. Monarchy requires Code of Laws.

It's usually easiest to disregard any second prerequisites first, that way I can keep a nice and simple tree structure. When this is done, I can create the links for the second prerequisites.

The hardest, or at least most tedious, part probably is getting it all into the rules.txt, avoiding any special techs (or using them appropriately)... Especially when I want to order them alphabetically.
But well, I've only made 2 or 3 tech trees so far, and not the most complex ones either.

[our_man]

Despite having some impressive word processing packages on the computer, I usually find it easier to do it the old-fashioned way i.e. Pencil & Paper.

[hardjoy]

Paper and pencil, and notepad, much in the way Mercator described. With my latest projects, I have found it increasingly helpful to do a visual tech tree with Paintshop Pro, i.e. a large image file, where units and icons can be pasted in along with the tech names and their effects (in connected boxes), and cut'n pasted from this file to their respective slots in the graphics files. Makes it very easy to see which units and which improvements will appear when and if they make sense, and that no tech slots are left useless, unless they're supposed to.

I must add that this part without doubt is the hardest part for me, especially when doing something historical, where I have to think really hard to consider which advances will be the crucial ones to players in the scenario, in a way that actually reflects historical changes.

[kobayashi]

see this page

http://www.civfanatics.com/doc/customtree/TechTree.html

[Exile]

Tao of Exile.

Generally, I begin with a firm idea of the period and the techs that I want to employ, with a rough idea of how they're connected. Then I go in with the advances editor and start changing things. By now, I know which techs also have other features and which don't, (and if I miss one, I can always fix it). The next stage requires an hour or two of examination of the tree to make certain that there are no reflexive techs (writing-->literacry-->writing) that will crash the program. If there are any blanks left over, a little thought will usually suffice to find a place to squeeze them in. In summary, it's mostly done in my head, with the specific concept in mind. I don't find creating tech trees difficult at all. As a matter of fact, it's one of the most enjoyable aspects of scenarion creation.

It helps to have a couple of degrees in history too.