C2C - Galactic Era

[rightfuture]

Interesting look at human galactic expansion

http://www.solstation.com/habitable.htm

Drake equation and Fermi Paradox -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox
drake equation should be a project or a technology.

Kardashev scale is really interesting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale

The Kardashev scale is a method of measuring an advanced civilization's level of technological advancement.
The scale has three designated categories called Type I, II, and III. These are based on the amount of usable energy a civilization has at its disposal, and the degree of space colonization. In general terms, a Type I civilization has achieved mastery of the resources of its home planet, Type II of its solar system, and Type III of its galaxy.
In 1964, Kardashev defined three levels of civilizations, based on the order of magnitude of the amount power available to them:
Type I: a civilization with a power output of about 4×1012 W, i.e. a "technological level close to the level presently [1964] attained on earth".[3] This type was apparently later redefined[by whom?][when?] to signify a civilization able to harness all of the power available on its planet, approximately 1016 to 1017 W.[4] Earth specifically has an available power of 1.74×1017 W (dominated by the incoming solar radiation).
Type II: a civilization that is able to harness all of the power available from its home star, approximately 4×1026 W.[3] The Sun outputs approximately 3.86×1026 W.
Type III: a civilization that is able to harness all of the power available from a whole galaxy, approximately 4×1037 W.[3] The actual value of this figure is extremely variable, since galaxies vary widely in size; the stated figure is the approximate power output of the Milky Way.

here are a couple of conversations in gaming on the subject
http://gurps.wikia.com/wiki/Tech_Level
http://anorel.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=fanfics&thread=1436&page=1
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=21899&sort=5
http://forums.spacebattles.com/showthread.php?t=131116
worth a read. recommend looking at least the gurps one. Could alter the planning for eras?


TL

Era

Timespan

Signature technologies

0
Stone Age
Prehistory and later
Counting; oral tradition.

1
Bronze Age
3500 B.C.+
Arithmetic; writing.

2
Iron Age
1200 B.C.+
Geometry; scrolls.

3
Medieval
600 A.D.+
Algebra; books.

4
Age of Sail
1450+
Calculus; movable type.

5
Industrial Revolution
1730+
Mechanical calculators; telegraph.

6
Mechanized Age
1880+
Electrical calculators; telephone and radio;

7
Nuclear Age
1940+
Mainframe computers; television.

8
Digital Age
1980+
Personal computers; global networks.

9
Microtech Age
2025+?
Artificial intelligence; real-time virtuality.

10
Robotic Age
2075+
Nanotechnology or other advances start to blur distinctions between technologies...

11
Age of Exotic Matter

 

[Koshling]

Insert Singularity here ;-)

Writings of Vernor Vinge, or Ray Kurzweil are worth a look. Not really (usefully) modelable in a game though (unless turn's realtime reduces geometrically with turn number ;-))

 

[rightfuture]

I also like Diamond Age by Neal Stephnson - a neo-victorian era. neat technologies here.

can't forget The Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov , android, reemerging space culture, technologies and warfare unfolding. space strategy.

The Ender's Game epic series by Orson Scott Card - has some classic ideas, like the ansible- space communication. bugger warfare, amazing strategic development and idea exploring in space.

I also like the galaxy exploring of Arthur C. Clarke's Rama series and Greg Bear's Eon alternate timeline and universe series - fascinating.

Heap of good solid ideas here.

 

[rightfuture]

Singulairity could be like Immortality, a single technology/project that changes everything. Order of magnitude better technology, knowledge. Just a step forward. Like difference between writing and literature. It could happen at any time in the future era, could be a game changer, does not have to lead to anything else.

 

[Koshling]

I also like Diamond Age by Neal Stephnson - a neo-victorian era.

Shame it wasn't as good as Snow Crash though ;-) (but yeh, it was an interesting read)

 

[rightfuture]

I agree.
Loved the just add water to nanites building of islands, and the facinating book / tablet pc with an artifical intelligence built in. Great customizable training tool. Maybe an inspiration for some future/transhumanist era tech?
Also some interesting takes on cultural groups in the future. Maybe they could be factions/ civs that could spawn in future eras?

Snow Crash had good usable cyberspace stuff, and an interesting evolution of the great pacific garbage patch.
William Gibson - Neuromancer, etc. has all sorts of good ideas for cyberpunk tech.

 

[Koshling]

Loved the just add water to nanites building of islands, and the facinating book / tablet pc with an artifical intelligence built in. Great customizable training tool.
Also some interesting takes on cultural groups in the future. Maybe they could be factions/ civs that could spawn in future eras?

I want a Deliverator unit!

 

[rightfuture]

I will have to make some time to list some of these ideas for units and technologies. Some of this would be very fun to explore!!! Even better to model and play around with!!

I also should go through some old video games,
Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura - has some interesting steampunk lore
not to mention bioshock
Alternate history has a bit to offer. Civ basically is an adventure into What if!
I'm sure there is some good alternate history fiction and science fiction that could have some cool lifted technology. Who says that some technology could be researched early and have an impact. Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's court, or Leo Frankowski's Cross Time Engineer series.
What if they built the Babbage engine and had computers in the early 19th Century!
What if we discovered gunpowder early in the classic era?
Part of the appeal of civilization. What IF!

the Fallout roleplaying series also has some near future and apocalyptic units and technologies. that could be interesting to incorporate.
The NecroCristi mod had some similiar stuff in it! - http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=237238

the Deliverator, lol
I'm sure somewhere there is a graphic that could be used for it! Could pull it out of some fan artwork.

I'm all about keeping it plausible, but interesting, and allowing for some mixing of ideas. It would also be nice to see some Star trek and Star Wars inspirations, technologies and units, but not necessarily get overcome with it.

I like the idea of Doc Brown from Back to the Future being a great scientist. It is a fun idea that is not to campy and would keep some air of realism.

All ideas worth exploring a little, I say.

 

[Hydromancerx]

Having Space Marine as a singular, superior upgrade seems a bit odd: a marine is a specific form of military unit used for a specific purpose. Generally, a marine would be more adept in certain forms of combat than regular infantry (much like special forces), but they would never make up the mainstay of a realistic military force, be it one which wars with muskets, rifles or lasers. A Space Marine would thus tend to suggest either a detachment of infantry aboard a large spaceship used for initiating and combating boarding actions or an elite force of shock troops used for rapid and decisive assaults from the air against key strategic targets on enemy worlds (think the Stormtroopers from Star Wars). Or, most likely, a combination of both.

Thus, instead of Modern Marines upgrading to Dropships (which are air units incapable of capturing cities), I would suggest they upgrade to Space Marines. Dropships would be the vehicles which carried them, not the occupying force themselves. It would also be excellent if boarding actions (perhaps a greatly increased chance of capturing an enemy unit that can be countered by other ships themselves possessing marine detachments) could be simulated in Civ's combat model. And, of course, they should start with City Raider IV.

The same issue applies to police units, who wouldn't even be part of the military in most societies (incidentally, how about making Police an upgrade from City Guard? Maybe even adding an Early Police unit to represent things like the Victorian Bobbies which can serve as a garrison unit in the Industrial age). Also, what is 4D Infantry? Surely fighting in an alternate dimension is simply a different form of terrain, much like the Snowtroopers in Star Wars. If it's meant to be something akin to the Chrono Commando from Command and Conquer, I think that would make a clearer name (though obviously, Time Travel would have to be a prerequisite).

I'm also not entirely clear on what a "Ghost" is meant to be. The name seems to vaguely suggest a stealth commando unit akin to the Mutants in Command and Conquer, but for all I know it could be an urban combat force modeled after those creepy albino twins from the second Matrix movie. I suspect that in either case, Special Infantry would be better off upgrading to them.

1. Like i said this was very incomplete and a rough. I basically was running into creative block when it came to connecting the existing units to the later units.

2. I like you idea about the normal marines upgrading to space marines.

3. City Guards already upgrade into the Police Squad. I mentioned in another topic i would like to have a "Sheriff" put in between City Guard and Police Squad too.

4. 4D Infantry means that shot projectiles won't be able to toggle dimensional plane in which it exists to physically damage 3D objects. This means that they must use melee combat to even touch each other.

5. I am thinking we should have some sort of time altering units too that fit between the anti-matter and 4D Units, or even the other way around. Its hard to say.

6. Ghost ment more of the Starcraft version. But i want to keep things more in the plausible science fiction.

 

[Hydromancerx]

can you make the transhuman area visible. It can be done within the file gameoptions.(set no future area to 1)
Some interesting units are availeble within this area.
peace maker and plague weapons and other things.

What do you mean? It should be on by default and hidden so people cannot mess with it in game.

 

[strategyonly]

City Guards already upgrade into the Police Squad. I mentioned in another topic i would like to have a "Sheriff" put in between City Guard and Police Squad too.

................

 

[Hydromancerx]

Western Units:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=12076


http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=12082

LH:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=12082

These look great for my Sheriff and Outlaw units I wanted to have made. Since the police squad is non-mounted I will probably go with the non-mounted as the Sheriff and the Outlaw as the mounted unit.

I will send you the details for both via a PM. Thanks for finding these!

EDIT: Sent and here are the icon/buttons for them.

 

[ThoricFrame]

Found a little inconsistency while snooping around. Just that German description needs to be changed.

Assets\XML\Text\ATOM_CIV4GameText.xml

- <TEXT>
  <Tag>TXT_KEY_TECH_COLONY_ARCOLOGY_PEDIA</Tag> 
  <English>Colony Arcology is an arcology which holds an entire space colony within it.</English> 
  <French>Colony Arcology is an arcology which holds an entire space colony within it.</French> 
  <German>Planetary manufacturing is the production of manufactured goods on other planets.</German> 
  <Italian>Colony Arcology is an arcology which holds an entire space colony within it.</Italian> 
  <Spanish>Colony Arcology is an arcology which holds an entire space colony within it.</Spanish> 
  </TEXT>

 

[strategyonly]

Found a little inconsistency while snooping around. Just that German description needs to be changed.

Assets\XML\Text\ATOM_CIV4GameText.xml

- <TEXT>
  <Tag>TXT_KEY_TECH_COLONY_ARCOLOGY_PEDIA</Tag> 
  <English>Colony Arcology is an arcology which holds an entire space colony within it.</English> 
  <French>Colony Arcology is an arcology which holds an entire space colony within it.</French> 
  <German>Planetary manufacturing is the production of manufactured goods on other planets.</German> 
  <Italian>Colony Arcology is an arcology which holds an entire space colony within it.</Italian> 
  <Spanish>Colony Arcology is an arcology which holds an entire space colony within it.</Spanish> 
  </TEXT>

This is why its to important to get the text correct, it might be a miner thing, but if i was German i would say "Vos ish los?"

 

[Snofru1]

This is why its to important to get the text correct, it might be a miner thing, but if i was German i would say "Vos ish los?"

!

Apart from the fun: A german wouldn´t see this, as I mentioned elsewhere, as you can´t run C2C (at least on my system) in other languages than english. You get nearly a blank interface (concerning text) if you try.

 

[strategyonly]

!

Apart from the fun: A german wouldn´t see this, as I mentioned elsewhere, as you can´t run C2C (at least on my system) in other languages than english. You get nearly a blank interface (concerning text) if you try.

I know, there is currently two guys re-doing the TXT files, so hopefully in 6 months or so, everything will be ok for all languages.

 

[rightfuture]

One of the reasons that I like this MOD is that it stay pretty focused on plausibility/realism.
I'm all for the plausible exploration of science fiction in this Mod.

Fantasy has it's place in other mods; it's fun but can easily break the continuity of plausible reality and therefore decrease my/others enjoyment.

Civilization games are very much about the exploration of Alternate World scenarios which is a whole sub-genre of science fiction: Alternate History
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick - alternate World War II
Books by S.M. Stirling and Harry Turtledove.

my favorite in this genre is:
Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus by Orson Scott Card -
http://www.amazon.com/Pastwatch-Christopher-Orson-Scott-Card/dp/0812508645/
In one of the most powerful and thought-provoking novels of his remarkable career, Orson Scott Card interweaves a compelling portrait of Christopher Columbus with the story of a future scientist who believes she can alter human history from a tragedy of bloodshed and brutality to a world filled with hope and healing.

I like the attempt to create a toggle feature for Alternate History features.
Many of us like to either:
1. Play a realistic as possible unfolding of history.
2. Play an unbound remix of history that unfolds plausibly but doesn't prevent breakthroughs/ deviations of history: i.e. Europeans develop Gunpowder 1,000 years early.

I included Steampunk as a genre idea earlier to invoke ideas of alternate history (less fantastic / more plausible deviations) that could add to C2C options referencing #2 above.
A great example is the book:
The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling (near future, science fiction luminaries)
http://www.amazon.com/Difference-Engine-William-Gibson/dp/0440423627/
Charles Babbage perfects his Analytical Engine, and the computer age arrives a century ahead of its time.
Wouldn't it be interesting to play a world where computers are discovered early by a country.
Just pitching this idea to see how it is received by people.
-What do you think??

Time travel books that rewrite History are very interesting to me as well.
It would be neat to have a custom made scenarios feature - what if one technology was discovered out of place? What if computers / gunpowder was discovered early/late.
Seems easy to implement in worldbuilder, how about a toggle feature for an easy alternate history scenario?
How about a 1 technology out of place feature? or how about an unbound order for some techs - not every technology needs a precusor to be understood? Or how about a somewhat unbound tech tree option that allows for some techs to be discovered out of order?
I love exploring WHAT IF?? scenarios
- how about you?

 

[Hydromancerx]

Well we do have the ability to make buildings a prereq for techs. So in theory we could make special techs on the tree. Such as if you build Leonardo's Workshop and Archemedies Workshop then maybe you unlock "Cogpunk" tech which allows for Da Vinci-like machines.

 

[bill2505]

Well we do have the ability to make buildings a prereq for techs. So in theory we could make special techs on the tree. Such as if you build Leonardo's Workshop and Archemedies Workshop then maybe you unlock "Cogpunk" tech which allows for Da Vinci-like machines.

most of the da vinci machines designs had flaws so they could not be created plus what whoult be the reason to use something like this
http://www.google.gr/imgres?q=Da+Vi...t:429,r:13,s:0&tx=104&ty=122&biw=1280&bih=837 (this is not davinci work but he used to creat thing like that

 

[Dancing Hoskuld]

most of the da vinci machines designs had flaws so they could not be created plus what whoult be the reason to use something like this
http://www.google.gr/imgres?q=Da+Vi...t:429,r:13,s:0&tx=104&ty=122&biw=1280&bih=837 (this is not davinci work but he used to creat thing like that

As has been demonstrated the design diagrams have deliberate errors in them so that others could not steal his work. I think the UK army built his tank as per diagram, then changed one obvious thing and had a working model.