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Go-Go
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Richmond, VA
Aug 1999
time: 05:14
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After reading many of the posts on how research should be conducted in CivIII, I have a better appreciation for how many ways you can approach this problem but still I would like to see more flexibility with less confusion. The number of factors that can effect research can get tedious quickly if many of the ideas were realized. I don't need absolute reality to enjoy the game but I would like the chance to create long term strategies and see how they play out. More importantly, I would like there to be many different ways to support those stratagies.
I would like to see something a bit different from the tech tree. Many posts have suggested researching multiple techs at a time and I love that idea since it creates greater possibilities in the game but it doesn't solve the crux of the problem with tech trees; the one for one relation between a tech and a building or unit.
The reason you research a tech is to get something useful for your civilization. At some point it will boil down to research this and get this and while this keeps the game simple it also eliminates some variables that could make the game more enjoyable.
Instead lets have, lets say, 4 tech bars each representing research in different fields. You can progress up the research bar and research multiple tech, one for each bar. No big deal so far but idea is that buildings, units and bridges to new techs only are gained when you hit the right combination of the four techs. For instance:
You start out with (1,1,1,1) the lowest techs in each of the bars. This gives you your basic warrior. If you choose to concentrate research in the first bar you would get(2,1,1,1) which lets say gives you swordsmen but if you research in the third bar(1,1,2,1) you get nothing or maybe spearmen. Each unit or building has its own combination that gives you the benefit. To get certain units would require you to give up getting others since in the above example, it is no longer possible to achieve a combo of (2,1,1,1). You could only research and get (2,1,2,1) that gives you something else. Essential buildings and units can have multiple combos but some will come earlier in the progression then others. That will create an economy of research since it will cost more time to get to a higher combo causing a player to lag behind in research when he doesn't research efficiently.
This method may open whole knew ways to play. Done properly, it will allow some players to only have access to knights while others, have only horse archers like the mongols. After a number of plays, a player will know what combo gets what but in a game with maybe 30+ techs in each bar, their can be thousands of combinations; it would take more then a few games to figure which is the cheapest route and certain circumstances will require you to give up getting them then or altogether so you can get to something else faster.
Those combinations that do not create any unit or building can secretly give you bonuses or minuses in research or happiness. Others maybe produce unexpected revolts or increase the rate of veteran production. Who knows since there will literally be thousands of combinations. I believe that at just 10 techs in each of the 4 bars, you can have 10,000 combos of numbers using the multiplication rule.
So thats my Idea, what do you think.
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18-08-1999 00:31
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