davidlallen
Deity
We have gone through three stages of evolution on the tech tree, and I think we are getting a little stuck. The 1.0 tech tree was a "repaint" of vanilla, substituting wikipedia names for different vanilla techs without making much underlying change. In 1.1 through 1.4 we have tweaked the tech tree, moving one or two things around based on playtest feedback. In 1.4.1 and 1.4.3 and keldath's latest tree from yesterday, we have done several more substantial "refoldings", moving things around a lot.
But fundamentally we are not getting a "good" tech tree out of this. We are just removing some of the least logical things at each revision.
I think we need to *design* a new tech tree from scratch. This is a big project, and it cannot be conveniently done by a distributed team. Somebody needs to do it, write a proposal, and incorporate feedback. Once that is done it can be implemented in the xml.
The purpose of a tech tree, fundamentally, is to space out all the interesting items so you don't get them all at the beginning. The things that go into the tech tree are buildings, wonders, units, improvements and civics; some promotions. These things already have some "progressions"; for example, a small unit comes first, then a medium size one, then a large one. But there are many such progressions that need to be all interleaved.
I think the first step is to assume for the moment, we will freeze the buildings and units, and use the civics from Ahriman's adjacent thread. If *everything* is still being changed, then *nothing* can move along safely. Then we need to list out all the existing progressions, and decide approximately what tech tier (x position on the tech chooser screen) is appropriate. Then cluster some items which are related and at about the same position, into techs. Then create lines of techs.
I have never done a tech tree from scratch. Anybody else?
Perhaps we can consolidate what we have into a 1.5 release and fix some of the known bugs in this, without worrying about the tech tree. Then at least people can play 1.5 with some reasonable success. In parallel, we can design and tweak a new tech tree.
I will go back to the "incremental patch discussion" thread to discuss what we should fix for 1.5. Let's start discussing about a new tech tree here.
But fundamentally we are not getting a "good" tech tree out of this. We are just removing some of the least logical things at each revision.
I think we need to *design* a new tech tree from scratch. This is a big project, and it cannot be conveniently done by a distributed team. Somebody needs to do it, write a proposal, and incorporate feedback. Once that is done it can be implemented in the xml.
The purpose of a tech tree, fundamentally, is to space out all the interesting items so you don't get them all at the beginning. The things that go into the tech tree are buildings, wonders, units, improvements and civics; some promotions. These things already have some "progressions"; for example, a small unit comes first, then a medium size one, then a large one. But there are many such progressions that need to be all interleaved.
I think the first step is to assume for the moment, we will freeze the buildings and units, and use the civics from Ahriman's adjacent thread. If *everything* is still being changed, then *nothing* can move along safely. Then we need to list out all the existing progressions, and decide approximately what tech tier (x position on the tech chooser screen) is appropriate. Then cluster some items which are related and at about the same position, into techs. Then create lines of techs.
I have never done a tech tree from scratch. Anybody else?
Perhaps we can consolidate what we have into a 1.5 release and fix some of the known bugs in this, without worrying about the tech tree. Then at least people can play 1.5 with some reasonable success. In parallel, we can design and tweak a new tech tree.
I will go back to the "incremental patch discussion" thread to discuss what we should fix for 1.5. Let's start discussing about a new tech tree here.