RA: The biggest Bug never fixed!!!

Does making them more expensive actually resolve anything or is it more of a bandaid? I feel people will adapt to saving up even more money to use on research agreements. Unless they get to the point where they aren't useful in which case those who only use them to supplement your research if they have nothing better to do with their gold will be penalized as well.

I've suggested in the past (odds are, in this thread) to unbalance the cost requirements depending on the number of agreements active. Say one costs 250. A second would cost 300 (or 350, whatever works). A third would cost 350 or 450, etc. That would mean five research agreements would cost between 1750 and 2250 (just for the middle of the game, more towards the end). Right now they're 1250. The best part would be your partner would not pay the same amount. If they have the one, they'll pay 250 for it, not the 650 you might be paying.

Set GS to unlock 25% less tech for every previous era that is not complete. The era of the tech matters. So if you unlock a tech where all previous eras are complete, you will get the full 100%, but only 75% of a tech if you try and unlock it and it's in the next era (since the original era I just mentioned is not complete). Then require GS's to enter RA's with those same reductions, but for the era the civ is in at the start of the RA. You will get 2X what the GS would have given at the start of the RA upon completion. So you can move to the next era after you start an RA without penalty. And it also gives an incentive for filling in previous era techs. RA's this way makes sense in that the combined effort of both civ's GS's are really what you're getting.

Low tech civs won't have tons of GS laying around. But if they have one, they'll be able to jump ahead quickly. For advanced civs, they'll have to pick bulbing late game or using RA's. And they won't be able to just have money for RA's. Their civs actually have to be geared toward science. Also, you can lose the full potential of your GS if you use it in an RA and you haven't filled in the previous techs.

This would also make the terrain improvement more valuable. In fact, I'd let each of these allow one RA each, but with only 1X GS tech upon completion (1X would then have era reductions applied). Could also have a bonus for every science terrain improvement you have when bulbing or RA when using a separate GS... so as to remove any era reductions down to a min of 0%. These synergies make sense. A civ that has a history of science should be more geared toward scientific discoveries than a civ that only has a couple GS's later in the game brought about just because their pop is high.

For unlocking techs and RA's with GS, I'd also put in increasing penalties for techs found in the industrial, modern and future eras.

Finally, RA will change in Expansion. Can only sign RA with friendly AI.

idontknow2011 said:

Finally, RA will change in Expansion. Can only sign RA with friendly AI.

Click to expand...

Hmmm, that's ok, I guess. Honestly I'd rather that they increase the price in later eras, or make less-than-friendly AI less likely to accept a straight deal, especially if it sees you have a lot of gold.

Or change how many beakers you get in some way.

I guess with friendly he didn't mean 'neutral' or 'friendly' but civs you declared as a friend - which we all know will others make hate you.

I think that's right. You couldn't base it on just a friendly attitude, since that can change so easily. Requiring a DOF between the two parties makes more sense. I'm assuming it would only have to be in place when you sign it, not when it finishes. That could still lead to some broken RAs if you sign the DOF and RA at different times. The safest way would seem to be to sign DOF & RA on the same turn.