I like the idea of the first country to reach a new technology gaining some additional benefit from doing so.
A general problem with tech trees is that the player wants to gain some advantage through research, but many times the player is able to get so far ahead that the game is decided (the classic tanks vs. mongol cavalry in civilization). How can this be avoided without taking away all of the advantages of research?
One way is to give advantages to the first player to reach the new technology. That's an incentive to research. But in the same vein, it could also become easier for others to research that technology because it's out in the world now and it's always easier to copy than to innovate. Perhaps the technology becomes easier and easier to research the longer it has been out in the world. That would help prevent having some countries with space ships while others are still using cavalry. The first person who got gunpowder will always have better guns than everyone else, but it's a lot easier for other people to make guns once there are working examples out there to be copied.
There could also be bonuses to research gained when conquering cities. For example, if you conquer a city from a country with a number of technologies that you don't have, you could get research bonuses related to those technologies. Say the city has a farm and you haven't researched farms yet. It stands to reason that it would be easier to research them if you've got a working sample.
I don't think technologies should ever be given away, though, even in trade between countries. THere's a world of difference between knowing how to build something and having the infrastructure to build something. I think part of the research process is developing the human and physical capital to actually implement the idea. Farms, say. It's not just knowing that plows exist. It's having enough smiths who know how to make them and have access to enough metal, coke, etcetera to do so, and then have them distributed to the farms, and then teach the farmers how to use them, not to mention getting livestock to do the pulling.
So when i read the last part of your post then i have an idea about research bonus from landscapes your city is near.
Example:
Hills : Bonus for Mining research
Plains: cavalry research Bonus
Copper: Weapon research bonus
wood: build research bonus B
lue Magic Crystal: Water Spell research bonus (just an example for fantasic landscape)
Lair: Monster research bonus *g*
and so on...
Think will be another interesting choice where to build the start city!
That's a great idea! Historically civilizations tended to develop technologies based on their available resources, and your idea would help capture that. The best horsemen tended to be plains dwellers and the best ship builders were near waterways and bodies of water.
Nice idea. While it sure was fun to nuke those primitives in Civ 4, I agree that from a strategic perspective I didn't make a great deal of sense.
Good idea ... It's so just plain ... logic.
Wow I like this idea a lot, I do hate having too big of an advantage because of technology or vice versa. I think it is logical that the more you encounter new tech and survive the faster you should be able to research that specific tech. This also brings up the option for spies to steal tech.Also maybe you can use advanced tech found in a battle field but not neccessarily reproduce it. Maybe opening up an option to skip the in between steps required to research that tech. For example you might be using slings and stones and stumble upon a crossbow and bolts. Well maybe give the player the option to skip research of a short bow, then long bow, then crossbow and go straight to the crossbow.
I also am a huge fan of this idea, but would probably restrict the "bonuses" from being the first to more of the milestone techs, and not each and every one.
For instance, if you are the first to research "metal weapons", ALL your metal weapons get a bonus, even if you only figure out how to make a steel beatstick first, you can apply that knowledge to sharp steel beatsticks, and steel axes.
Also, for conquering a city that has a tech you do not have, it should be pretty easy to award a small fistful of points up to and including each tech your victim has that you do not. something small, like 100 RP or so, but for each tech you do not posess. Over time, if you go all out aggro you will be able to kinda ablate your production losses to innovation.
This is a great idea. I agree that such a system needs both a) bonus to first to research and reduced cost to research for everyone else to be effective. It incents a technology race, but keeps the race artificially close. A Player can make a reasonable decision to lag everyone else on purpose, at the cost of never having the "best" of something.
Very cool.
I especially like the idea of a research bonus for terrain/resources which makes a lot of sense with you think about how armies/technology developed around these sorts of things.
Likewise I like the idea of getting a bonus for getting a tech first, but I don’t really want to see it for every tech. I really like how Civ did it, by giving you a free tech, founding a religion, getting a free unit ect but just for a few key techs.
That's a great idea and actually not too hard to code either. Simply decrease "insert tech research cost here" every time a faction successfully researches it thus making it easier for the other factions to catch up and your technological advantage won't last as long.
I completely agree with the idea of helping out factions catch up in tech. Fighting backward factions is a bore. In is logical that researching something already prevalent in the world should take less time than for the original inventor.
[quote quoting="post"] One way is to give advantages to the first player to reach the new technology. That's an incentive to research. The first person who got gunpowder will always have better guns than everyone else, but it's a lot easier for other people to make guns once there are working examples out there to be copied. [*******quote] (could not put 2 quotes in same post?)
I suppose granting the first person better guns could make sense if you consider that while all other factions are copying the gun, the first faction is improving on his gun design............ But granting first research bonus could ruin game balance. That would be especially apparent for the first faction to research the last tech in the game: he'd be gaining a permanent advantage.
I'm sure any major game balance issues will be properly adjusted during beta testing. And since the game will be singleplayer focused any minor game balance issues will be accepted allowing new players an advantage as well as veteran players a more worthy AI opponent.
What if someone having the tech meant you could easily research a somewhat inferior copy to keep up but that you could also research up by spending the full cost (or maybe a little more) to be even with them?
well, I would say "basic metal weapons" and "magical metal Weapons" -> as I would think Mithril and Starmetal would be considered magical metal, and much later technologies in their own right, making at least mithil to be a milestone in its own right.
But yes of course, not every technology. I think there should be a separate tech path for those that wish to ally with neutral beasts, or at least those beasts which share similar alignment. And of course the ability to Kill beast A and raise its young for the glorious cause of Sovereign B
And why not adding some "tags" to each tech : those tags would be the name of terrain elements (hills, mountains, dungeons - you research faster quest tech , water, etc.) or the name of resources (like elemental shards, mines and so forth)
For instance you would have "mining tech" with the tags (mountains X 2, hills, dungeons). For every mountains you have in your borders you get 2 free research points, for every hills 1 RP and for every dungeons 1 RP.
Well i like the idea.
But i think it should be noted that back in acient times when advanced communications technology did not exist, technology was not so easily transfered. Only civlizations that came into contact with other civilizations (and usually trhough warfare) was technology often transferred.
I also like the idea of getting research points if you conquer a city of a civilization that posseses technology that you don't have.
Not necessarily true.
Except that little tiny point, I like the rest. (so now instead of trading techs we would trade tech reseach points?)
well, it could be a civ-specific trait like S.P.E.C.I.A.L, for instance, "Dedicated Craftsmen" were when buiding a unit from a certain type, you always get the bonus as if you had researched the technology first, as well as a +1 mastercraftsman bonus on the strongest equipment slot (or consistently weapon AND armor). However unit training times would be slightly longer. (10-25% slower buid times)
^- a fairly expensive civ-trait. Certainly more expensive than Reptilian Homage
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