tech tree - general questions

[Fiji]

has anyone ever rewritten the entire techtree (like the guy who made the BIO mod)

i need to a few things ... like is there an upper limit to the number of techs?

the bonus advance you get when discovering philosophy, how is that coded into the game?
does the game give you the extra tech when you discover the tech called Philosophy or when you discover the tech who's mnemonic is Phi or something else?

what about governments, how are they hooked up to the techtree? is that linked to the tech name or the mnemonic or something else?

is there any way to make a city improvement or wonder do anything else than in the original game? (like king richards causes the city that builds it to produce units free of support or NONE units)

other tips on how to do a major rewrite are welcome

[BeBMan]

Many Mods/Scns include big changes in the techtree.

To your questions:

1 - Yes, the max. number of techs is limited, you can´t have more than the techs in the rules (but remember that some of them are disabled in the normal civ game)

2 - Some of the other things you mentioned are hardcoded in the game an can´t be changed, so the effect of Philosophy or the governments. That means you can change the names for these techs, but the effect is still the same in the game, for instance the additional two techs for discovering Philosophy...

Please visit the Scenario League here at Apolyton, there are the best design helps for civ2, including detailled descriptions of the techs...

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Civ2000

[Cam]

Just to add a little to BeBro's answer;

The game checks for the number of lines of code after @ADVANCE - the first tribe to discover technology #60 (Phi) gets the two free advances. The names of the advances (e.g. 'Machine Tools') may be amended, but their corresponding codes (e.g. 'Too') should be left unchanged.

You can find out about the specific advance slots in William Keenan's tip for the Scenario League.

As for governments, you can use events to quarantine the forms available to each tribe - see about two-thirds of the way down my tip on this.

Also, be aware of technology tree splitting.

As for your final question, there are many approaches to developing technology trees. I personally like to ensure that there are some tech's that draw together prerequisites from all of the disciplines (much as 'gunpowder' does in the standard game) so players can't race off down one branch without getting other aspects of technology covered. Some people have found a pen and paper is all you need to write a tree, while William Keenan has found MS Power Point's flow-chart feature to be useful.

The effects of Wonders are hard coded, but their build cost, prerequisites, and obsoleting tech's may be amended. In 'Test of Time' you may give a wonder via the events file. Note the effect of ceremonial burial and mysticism with The Oracle, and monotheism, theology, and communism with Michalangelo.

Game balance is very important when developing a scenario, and playtesting will help enormously in terms of checking technical as well as playability slip-ups.

[Shadowstrike]

Redoing the entire tech tree can take days on end...

First, you need a good idea of what you are going to do. Make a flow chart on paper. Save some extra tech slots for ideas that may pop up later.

And use the design guides... They're great... Now if only Sleague offered a downloadable version for when my cable connection goes down... *wink*

[Cam]

Shadowstrike,

All things are possible! Do you see value in me compiling the entire design tips section into a zip file? Views? Anyone?

[Fiji]

thanks, that was very helpfull

can someone tell me where Plumbing came from?
I remember looking through the rules files when i played a few games and i'm fairly sure Plumbing wasn't there

so, where did it come from???

[BeBMan]

I think it´s one of the techs that are disabled in the standard game...

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Civ2000

[ColdWizard]

plumbing is in the rules.txt as a no, no tech, but i don't remember why its there

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Wizard of the Sayen Tribe

My civ2 page

Moderator at the Mod Asylum Forum

[Allard HS]

Plumbing was one of those things like picking your portrait and multiplayer support that were skipped apparently only short before release and are still to be found in either the rules, manual or text files.

Just consider it an extra "free" tech you can use in your tech tree.

[Shadowstrike]

Sure, Cam, it would be great. That compilation would probably be like a bible to scenario makers... along with the "Advanced Scenario Design Guide"

*Sigh* I really need to get back to that scenario... I've been really busy lately, but I have some good ideas...

[Dr_Strangelove]

Powerpoint is great for designing techtrees!

[zyxpsilon]

The easiest way to "redesign" techs is to keep in mind the -preq- path, charting is usefull.
As for coded *** refs, they link themselves to invariable procedures (Gov, Wonders, etc.).
>Future< is in fact, the unlimited "expansion" of that tree, too... as scoring bonus.