Space race, Tech progress

[AgedOne]

As an old Civ4 (and previous) veteran, one of the biggest differences I notice is the disappearance of tech trading - and along with that any means of gauging how advanced your opponent is technologically.
I would like to play a space race victory (I haven't done one yet) and I guess I could completely work around the problem by playing an easy level where I know I will race far ahead of the AI on tech. But I don't want to. I'd rather play a challenging level where I might well be in a close tech race into the modern era.
And then I would have the problem again - I'm playing the tech race 'blind'.
I have no way of knowing which techs the other civs have reached. Or have I? Maybe I'm just being unobservant and missing the obvious?
If anyone knows, I'd love to hear about it.

 

[cripp7]

you know I have the same problems as you, with not being able to tell. Maybe a BUG version will come out that shows the techs!

 

[AgedOne]

Ohh. Don't get my hopes up!
Yes. Having got used to playing BTS with BUFFY recently, I now feel spoiled having all of that info at my fingertips.
Then Civ5, seems to hide (or not offer) any of it.
The worry is that BUG / BUFFY always presents you with information that you could have got from the game if you looked hard enough in all the dark corners, and presents it to you in a nice easy-to-read manner most of the time. We're talking about information that the game doesn't reveal to you at all in Civ 5, so I'm worried that it won't be possible.
Still - early days! Who knows what we may get?

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Open borders (or just go on a hill overlooking their territory), studying structures and unit compositions, then deduce based on tech tree.

 

[bobbyboy29]

To be fair, in real life wasn't this the point of the space race between America and Russia? Neither side new how close the other one was. In game however, you get a general idea from the "most literate people" pop up. I believe it tells you how many techs each Civ has. (If you're not ahead, look out!)

 

[AgedOne]

Open borders (or just go on a hill overlooking their territory), studying structures and unit compositions, then deduce based on tech tree.

Yes, I guess we can get quite a bit by just honing our detective skills.
I had thought of keeping notes of other civs advancing to various eras.
I expect there is much that can be done if you put a little effort and thought into it.

 

[quinalla]

You get the popups that tell you when civs enter different eras and yeah the victory tracking pop ups that tell you how many techs total everyone has, but not much beyond that and deducing from what you see of their cities/units/wonders. I think it is more realistic this way. Also, I assume in the victory tracking screen (not sure what the official name of this is), it will show some sort of progress once people actually start building space ship parts, at least how many each civ has? Not sure though.

 

[AgedOne]

...In game however, you get a general idea from the "most literate people" pop up. I believe it tells you how many techs each Civ has. (If you're not ahead, look out!)

Another good one to add to my 'detective pack'.
I can see that I'm going to have to go back to my old, forgotten ways of keeping a notebook document open while I'm playing, and jotting down all the evidence.

 

[AgedOne]

... Also, I assume in the victory tracking screen (not sure what the official name of this is), it will show some sort of progress once people actually start building space ship parts, at least how many each civ has? Not sure though.

I really hope so! Of course you may be shocked to find you're too far behind by the time someone completes a part.
I had a vague hope that the AI's first 'globe' on the science part of the victory tracking screen would slowly fill up in the same way that yours does as you learn more techs. Sadly, I think they remain forever empty.

 

[Kid R]

It's a shame the research agreements give you a random technology rather than the other civ's "best" technology. I wonder if the devs did that deliberately to conceal the info.

Another thing about tech trading in Civ 4 is it's a great tech leveller. If one civ gets too far ahead they can't trade, but the laggards always can trade. That makes it more likely several civs are still in contention at rocketry and can make a decent run at the spaceship.

In Civ 5 with all civs going it mainly alone techwise we may find it's quite rare for two to arrive at the space techs around the same time. Maybe it'll be best to treat space as a fallback route if it looks like we "could" get a domination but aren't in the mood for the troop micro