Q about research...(getting back to the game)

[Lemmy]

i've been playing smac again lately, and one thing that annoys me is that whenever you conquered about 1/4th of the map, research goes so fast, you can't even adjust to any new changes, so my question is, what does moo3 do about this?
Are there any things implemented that somehow counter the research spree?
And i'm not just talking about tech costs, but maybe stuff like weapons are researcjed faster during war, but slow during peace.

[Bleyn]

That's a very good question, one that I've noticed and been annoyed at myself (currently with Civ3).

Actually, as I think about it, all of the Civ/Smac/Moo 4x games have suffered from it. About the only TBS 4x game I've played that I can think of that hasn't suffered from this was Master of Magic, and then only because what you are researching is not technology but spells. And for the most part, they were stuff that you could always use immediately upon gaining it, if you wanted to.

I know what one reason behind this is, at least for me. I'm a perfectionist player. I don't like starting a war without a very strong army, and I don't tend to like building that up when I'm still building on my empire's infrastructure. Thus I tend to emphasize research as much as I can, and for a while at least am scrambling to keep up with everything else.

It would be nice though, to see a game with a slower pacing where things actually stay useful for a while even for a perfectionist player.

[LordEd]

Many games (Alpha Centauri for example) had an option that allowed you to toggle 'tech stagnation.' Perhaps this option could come up in MOO3 as well.

[vishniac]

I always play with Tech Stagnation. It allows me time to fully master the possibilities.

[Spaced Cowboy]

It is not always the tech....Once you get ahead, you tend to stay ahead. This is true for troops, number of cities, development, etc. If only there was some way to compensate??

R:PM