why is it so hard to come up with realistic future technologies that may not be present today? u think that with over 2000 years of a linear growing movement of technology, one could predict some of the future technologies besides, over doing it and making the quantum leap to star wars or star trek.]

Is it really possible to achieve maximum evolution of technology. where anymore technology wouldn't be nessesary?

I have tried many times to precieve future technologies besides warp speed space ships, and teleporters, and come up empty. maybe this is a good way to practise buddism, but is not a good way to come up with something other then Future Technology 1, Future Technolgy 2 etc...

The game should go to the next level without unrealistic, hokey space/scifi theme.

I think to come up good ideas it would take alot of consideration and creativity...because one cant simple know whos knocking before he can hear it.(snoop dogg)

Do you have ideas that are crazy enough to actually work?if so please post.

Unfortunately, technology is not linear.

As well, even though we can come up with future technologies, we cannot come with immediate future technologies. We always seem to think that we're so close to the end. This isn't the first time. Not even the second or third time. How can we be sure?

People were trying to build robots in the classical age. Needless to say that they failed. They conceived of teleportation, sailing the heavens, perpetual motion, and dozens of other ideals at the "end of science"... at the end of the 19th century, the comissioner of the US Patent Office claimed that practically everything that could be invented had been invented, and we'd soon reach the end of science.

For lack of better words, this is "scientism". The belief that human's mastery of science will become so powerful so as to render all problems moot.

Even the idea that genetic engineering will let someone undertake a great project called "Longevity" that will essentially double population growth seems a little too sci-fi for my liking.

Be that as it may, you'll find dozens of people who want robots with lasers that come out of their eyes, talking tanks, flying cars, mechanical dogs, the ability to travel to anywhere in space, and the ability to teleport across huge distances, infinite energy sources, and a machine that will produce anything you want the second that you can think of it.

My worry isn't that the developers will implement those ideas -- nah, I have much more confidence in them than that. My worry is they'll get so sick and tired of hearing the future ideas they'll be 100% convinced that the fans don't know what's good for them and stop paying attention to any suggestion longer than two lines.

i was thinking more of the lines of a utopian age
http://datacore.sciflicks.com/the_fifth_element/images/the_fifth_element_large_12.jpg
....
http://wso.williams.edu/~rfoxwell/starwars/art/AlderaArt.jpg
....
http://www.digitaldreams.net/Art_galleries/Free%20images/Free%20pictures/lift_off.jpg
notice not one trace of smog....technology has not stopped, it just hasnt been improved.

There should be ways to throw the earths civilizations back to the stone age too.
All these utopian views are nice but I'm not that optimistic, so if they expand civ to a speculated future, a dystopian future should be involved too.

Possible Techs:
()s mean suggestions for building or unit that becomes available


Safe Neuclear Power (safe neuclear power plants)
Nanotechnology (increases production)
Basic Starships (increases travel, allows building of space station)
Fuel Cells (decreases pollution)
Basic Artificial Intelligence (increases science prod)
Advanced GPS (distance of sight doubled)
Moderate AI
ADV AI (robot fighter dude)
Microwave Weapons [seriously]
Laser Weapons
Basic Holograms [we already have holograms]
Moving Holograms
Advanced Holograms [allows cloaking]
Cloning
The Peace Formulas (allows construction of UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE)
Basic Genetic Manipulation
Moderate Genetic Manipulation
Advanced Genetic Manipulation (+? attack)
Basic Terraforming (allows workers to improve deserts to plains)
ADV Terraforming (allows workers to improve plains to grassland)
Atom Pattern Traking (disaster damage halved)
Attom Pattern Manipulating (ability to make hurricane, mass tornadoes, ect on enemy territory)
Mind Reading (less corruption)
Genetic Creation
Underwater Phisics
Underwater Structures
NOTE: we already are discovering some of these

The problem is that even if you can come up with realistic techs that don't show an almost religious zeal in science... (just because it's being worked on doesn't mean it'll achieve huge results anytime soon. Tell that to the robot-machinists in ancient Greece.)

... new technologies probably don't add much to the game.

Heck, the next technology after "the laser" could be "the blazer" and it wouldn't even matter. You'd still be enabling one of the following things:

- a building/wonder that makes everybody really happy/productive/rich: I call it "the great blazer"
- a unit that has 4 more attack, 4 more defence, or both: I call it "blazerman"
- a government more powerful than democracy: I call it "blazarchy"

NONE of those things you actually need. By that point, you already have enough wonders to make happiness, growth and profit into non issues. You already have a government with so many advantages. And the units are just more of the same.

Changing "the blazer" to "nanotechnology" or "artificial intelligence" or "string theory" or "space-time fabric" changes absolutely nothing.

If anything, a dystopian future might actually make the game interesting again. Force everyone take major setbacks and then rebuild in a new depressing world. Except this would essentially make the last era of the game more important than any of the previous eras, so you could basically play for 18 hours without trying, then watch the playing field get artificially evened out.

Dystopian future? -> Proper Nuclear Holocast

Just create a system by which a major nuke war can effectively "bomb you back to the stone age".

Dystopian future? -> Proper Nuclear Holocast

Just create a system by which a major nuke war can effectively "bomb you back to the stone age".

The civs need to be more dependant of eachother, and the cities within them too. As it is now, it's pretty easy to recover.

What if there were techs that would randomly give +1 attack or defense to a specific unit.

Possible Techs:
....
Advanced GPS (distance of sight doubled)
Moderate AI
ADV AI (robot fighter dude)
Microwave Weapons [seriously]
Laser Weapons
Basic Holograms [we already have holograms]
Moving Holograms
Advanced Holograms [allows cloaking]
Cloning
The Peace Formulas (allows construction of UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE)
Basic Genetic Manipulation
Moderate Genetic Manipulation
Advanced Genetic Manipulation (+? attack)
Basic Terraforming (allows workers to improve deserts to plains)
ADV Terraforming (allows workers to improve plains to grassland)
....

this is probaly the best seriously considered list that i have ever seen composed for futuristic technologies...
thanks scarry for enlightening us all, maybe eventually we all could throw in our own ideas instead of avoiding the enivitable transcension of civilization.

just because there could be a probable future era, it dosent mean everyone has to play it. im sure that many will finish there game in the middle ages and some the industrial.

-cyborb infantry(1/2 1/2)
-robotic infantry(full)
-mech warriors for tanks
-transporters for cyborb infantry that are hoover crafts
-air bases that hoover in the air (sky master)
-space fighters (ones that can attack anything on the globe in one turn..not actually fighting in space, but equipped with space technology...)
-massive harp guns (super long range artillery)
-awesome futuristic defence improvements.(best offence needs the best defence)
-lake creating bombs.(drop one of these bombs on a continent, and create a new bay...amost like planet busters)

like i said, it doesnt have to have a corn appeal to it, nor does it have to happen right away after genetics, there should be good considerable amounts of time for the uses of modern warfare, before any of these futuristic weapons take place. maybe 60-80 turns at least, after space ship is launched...
i do sympathize with dh epic, with ignoring this futuristic era all together. my fear is that the future will appear corny, and hardcore players like dh and myself will be reluctant to play.
but if anything ignore the troops and units, give us some futuristic looking buildings and defence improvements.

Well, the Future Era is something which I loooooove~ the idea of, but I fully appreciate and agree with the fears that it will simply be units with bigger numbers and useless buildings because your people already live in a Paradigm society.

Now, in Civ3, the problem as I see it is that once all the city squares are worked, people are immediately placed on various other duties (Taxes, entertainment, etc.). In itself, a fair solution, the problem is that it is impossible for these people to be unhappy. Which is, ya know, less good.

What I would suggest is, instead of simply assigning people to work a certain tile/segment of land, you designate the area of land to be worked on, the type of work to be done on it (Mining, farming, chicken molesting.), and then designate the numbers of people. Now, here comes the part that interests me: let's say you have 120,000 people living in St. Louis. You put 20,000 on mining, 70,000 on farming, and then... what? Let's be honest here, the government tends not to be too involved in such things in a non-facist state. So, they would go into all the services and so forth which keep a community running. Perhaps depending on the government, it is handled differently (You tell your Numbers what to do, but people in a Democracy do as they please.). So, that is my idea for solving the problem of large cities being flawless Elysian utopias - which leads us back towards the ideas of civil wars, unrest, and so forth.

Of course, the problem there would be the sheer complexity could make people die from the required micromanagement. =( Plus, it seems like it would be hard to implement, but it would make sense and would allow for far more in the way of city development - but just how much do we want to bleed Sim City, great as it is, into Civilization? (I do this a lot. Think out a plan and then find flaws in it myself. xD I just like throwing things out there.)

So, really, the problem is the purpose of the potential Future Era. If it won't benefit our already near-perfect cities, then what? If we're just in a numbers game for units, then what? Neither of those options are too appealing or interesting. So, my idea would be to implement things which do actually change how the game is played. For example, let's envision a state of highl advanced robotics and nanoengineering. What do all the people do? Cultural things, or jobs too complex for machines. So, what if we can create civs where the majority of the people are working on cultural projects? Then we've closed ourselves off again - we've replaced building Tanks with building Temples. No, the answer is to create more options for victory in this late stage of the game, not to limit them. I suppose the best we can hope for is that advanced technologies allow for a far more insidious style of warfare. A single nanite might be able to Steal Plans, whilst secret agents could infiltrate cities and. Cloning could allow foreign diplomats, even leaders, to be replaced (Would you risk the upheaval of their declaration of their annexation by you? But what fun it would be to have China tell the world that Rome is trying to annex them, when actually it's little old Persia playing them like a fine violin?). So, I think that this would level the playing field somewhat in the hypothetical Future Era - which means small civs are not necessarily done for. Of course, the problem is limiting the power. Defences are a reasonable thing to desire, but that again just leads to a technoarms race of some sort or another.

Hmm. I shall think on this more and see what I can come up with. They require more thought than I originally realised.

Most important future tech is mechs with lasers and cyborgs. If they made future tech be worth something i will be futious if they don't include stuff like that. Hmmm.. it will also be nice if Seti can make contact with an alien Civ in the future.

Yes, and we all know mechs are realistic battlefield technology :rolleyes:

Most important future tech is mechs with lasers and cyborgs. If they made future tech be worth something i will be futious if they don't include stuff like that. Hmmm.. it will also be nice if Seti can make contact with an alien Civ in the future.

Very good use of sarcasm. If our forums used a mod point system I would award you +2. Same to you rhialto.

I would if anything, love to see cities and buildings revamped to a architechtual future era. it can be done safely enough so it doesnt seem like a childrens themepark.

Just checking in, but to keep my thoughts short I think a future game would actually be lots of fun. But it should be totally seperate from the main game.

There was a future mod for Civ 2, if I remember correctly, and it was this post-apocalyptic battle between mutant races. It was actually a pretty fun scenario, but was best played totally unto itself rather than something you flow naturally into. Moreover, they ought to focus on the main game first, and leave something like that for an expansion.

I dont think that a mechanical future is one that is utopian or technologically advanced. Remember that Mathematics and others form of new thought are what promotes new technology and thats why it is so difficult to know what future technology would be.

For primative man, the manipulation of fire was a big leap in advancement, but Pottery is actually the biggest leap in advancement ever acheived. Other reflections show common things of today that show a pattern that changed the world perception. The architecture of the Arc is a huge acheivement. Maybe if we examine the past we can guess on what would be real goals of future acheivement since rediscovery of inventions is the history of all civs. Such as the Aquaduct or Philosophical thought. Ancient Thera of the Minoans had flushing toilets, Ancient Shang Kingdom in China had a model airplane. Computers and lasers are sometimes a concentration that may be diverting our attention from what the reality and greater ideas there may be in our future. The inventor that invented touch screen monitors serviced blueprints for spinning turbines that turn ocean water into storm clouds. I just bring green tech into the picture because looking at the photos above does not make me yearn to live to see the future. Those dont look like perfect cities to me. To much concrete and big city influence.

I dont have any ideas for differing techs, but I dont think the future faces one direction. Remember what the US Patent office said after printing was invented, that they thought everything had been invented. Computers was one new direction, Radio Waves was a new direction which lasers made obsolete, but what if other discovers make computers and lasers obsolete. We may not be the thinkers to look and say, there are other possibilities, but trust, it is very possible. Thatd also mean no more internet, God forbid we have to go outside and talk to our neighbors instead of writing in virtual forums.

Personally I would like to think the next big age of discovery is in space. It will be expensive, it will not benefit many for a long time, but neither did all those wooden ships back in the original Age of Discovery. The cost and sense or wonder is very comparable. ALso, space will probably be like the open seas in the age of sail.

The Earth is the cradle of the mind, but one cannot stay in the
cradle forever.

-- Konstantin Tsiolkovsky,
The Father of Rocketry, Datalinks

I detest futuristic games. If anything, I'd like to see civ4 shortened a bit to avoid the whole modern ages (discussed in another thread). But of course this is a personal matter, so I don't mind if there is an option to play into the future - just make it optional / addon.

BTW; does anyone know how I can remove that stupid cyborg laser unit from the DyP mod? It really has nothing do do in there...

I detest futuristic games.

would u still detest the future era if the only thing futuristic where the city building graphics?