The Prespecified Research Path Challenge

krc

krc

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So, I occasionally get these strange (dumb?) ideas about unusual ways to play the game. Here's the latest (which I have not yet tried):

At the very beginning of the game, as soon as you settle your first city and have to open the research track panel for the first time, you must completely specify the research track you will follow for the entire game. You can click as many "way-points" as you want, but you have to decide on the entire research path. (The last thing you click has to be "future tech".) And you are not allowed to change your mind later to adapt to changing circumstances; you are stuck with what you picked originally.

What path (i.e., which way-points) do you choose?

How does the choice of research path depend on the civilization you are playing?

How does it depend on the choice of map?

Would your choices differ is you were playing on"random" or "shuffle" maps? In this case, would you delay settling your first city to explore a little more of the map before having to make your research choices?
 
Surely that takes away the fun of civ which is reacting to different situations and adapting your meta-strategy.
 
Well, the idea is that it would change the fun. One of the tools in your arsenal would be taken away. So you would have to be more creative about using the other tools -- diplomacy, gold, units, social policies, to compensate.

One of the other things I have tried is the "no beelines" rule, where you have to research all techs in one era before you start the next era. Those games can be fun precisely because you have to change your usual play style and get out of a rut.
 
i thought it would be interesting to just settle and open the screen and only click Future Tech and play out the automated order to get there. i still havent tried it.
 
I suppose I could give this a go. My tech path is almost always the same depending on my desire of either turtle or warmonger before turn 0 so having to choose my tech path from turn 0 would not make much difference in my games since the tech path usually is the same order. The major differences for me is if I am gong to tech Education first or Machinery first and try to steal Education.
 
This sounds like an interesting idea. Can we choose any civ? There are some civs where I should be able to win before the Modern era, making this way easier for me LOL. (I'm looking at you, Spain)
 
Hammer Rabbi said:
i thought it would be interesting to just settle and open the screen and only click Future Tech and play out the automated order to get there. i still haven't tried it.
Click to expand...

I've thought about the same thing, but made the more general suggestion here that at least gives you one change to think about what strategy you want to follow.

consentient said:
This sounds like an interesting idea. Can we choose any civ? There are some civs where I should be able to win before the Modern era, making this way easier for me LOL. (I'm looking at you, Spain)
Click to expand...

You can chose any civ. But you should explain why you chose that one and how it affected your research path choice.

Of course, one possibility is to plan on domination with someone who has an early UU that helps. Zulu with a beeline to Civil Service and then click Future Tech. Or Arabia with a beeline to Chivalry. Assyria. Mongolia. Or even Denmark with a beeline to Metal Casting and then click Future Tech.

If anybody tries the general version of the challenge, we might think about a harder version later where you have to win a prespecified victory condition (science or culture both sound interesting.)

And the even harder version where you have to use a random map with a random civ (but you would of course know who it was before you opened the research track).
 
I think your second idea is better. It might not be very hard either but researching all the techs in your era before you can advance to the next era will make it more difficult but I am guessing it will just bring the turn times up a bit. Of course if your playing someone like the Huns I guess you will have the game finished very fast anyway.
 
I'd go for someone with UUs that can finish the game, like Spain or Arabia, and use full Honor to train units then upgrade them into those UUs.

How would we demonstrate that we completed the challenge though?
 
Yeah, a Zulu/Mongol game would make this work the best I suppose. Though if I were to try it, I wouldn't really push my luck on Deity :D
 
If someone helps me work out why my Mac crashes when I try to make a screen recording, I'll happily make an LP for this challenge... :)
 
yeah but which one, do you use waypoints, or just click Future Tech and start rolling
 
I would use Waypoints for sure.

Lux Techs > Philosophy > Civil Service > Education > Construction > Machinery > Chivalry > Gunpowder > Chemistry > Dynamite > Industrialisation > Navigation

If I haven't won by then I've not done it right.
 
LOL I actually had a post saved and was about to make a challenge like this but you got it first.

Here's a formulation:
I've seen a lot of people being able to win consistently on the high difficulty levels and pull out some very impressive win times on deity, so I was wondering if anyone wants to try something a bit more strange. Here's the challenge:

Civ: any
Map: any
Size/speed: standard
difficulty: immortal/deity
VC: all
other options default

Handicap: from the turn you settle, queue up the tech tree all the way to future tech and if possible please post a screenshot. You aren't allowed to change tech orders throughout the game.

Seeing as science timing is critical in the game, this handicap lowers the effectiveness of your research, spy steals, and it forces the player to plan things with clear goals in mind.
Click to expand...
 
Ok I get it. So I'll post a video of starting the game and opening the tree, before I moved the warrior and/or settler, and then continue from there.

But you guys will just have to take my word for it that beyond that I followed the path, because after 10-20 minutes Quicktime keeps crashing on me. A few minutes explaining my tech path should be OK.
 
consentient said:
Ok I get it. So I'll post a video of starting the game and opening the tree, before I moved the warrior and/or settler, and then continue from there.

But you guys will just have to take my word for it that beyond that I followed the path, because after 10-20 minutes Quicktime keeps crashing on me. A few minutes explaining my tech path should be OK.
Click to expand...

that's basically the idea. I don't think this is a huge challenge if you've mastered the turtle style or the archer-CB-XB-dynamite style. a minor detail is that the game doesn't let you specify research until you've settled your capital.
 
Actually, you can specify before you settle. Check out my Choice of Paths video here, and you can see me choose before settling.

I'm far from mastering anything, but I'm probably the least turtle-savvy forum member of CFC, that I can promise you.
 
consentient said:
Actually, you can specify before you settle. Check out my Choice of Paths video here, and you can see me choose before settling.

I'm far from mastering anything, but I'm probably the least turtle-savvy forum member of CFC, that I can promise you.
Click to expand...

Nice work mate. Had you down as a gringo, too - nice accent.
 
This is great. I set up a game as babs to soak up some of the mistakes I will have made in picking techs by teching faster). I went Pangea to open the war possibilities. I picked:

Writing

Bronze working

Philo

Optics

Engineering

Education

Civil service

Scientific method

Dynamite

Internet

Radar

Future tech.

So far I am ten turns in and whooping booty. :)

I think this is a great challenge. Thanks for posting. I will update with results.
 
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