A bunch of minor things.

[Erii]

Every now & then when playing, I note a typo here & there, or something that could be worded a bit better. Nothing major, nothing really impacting gameplay even. I'm don't know coding to fix them myself, nor would it make it into the main RoM mod if I did, but I was wondering if it'd be worth Zappara's time to fix these little errors if I were to compile them into this thread. (Case in point, the Buddhism religious wonder does not show up in the civilopedia under religions - Buddhism.)

(edit) Any of these clean-up notes I make in this thread will be for RoM 2.8 (or any minor version upgrades before 2.9) I am playing single-player in a home game with some of Afforess's modmods installed, but will do my best to distinguish between anything he added and the base RoM mod. I also play a multiplayer hotseat game at a friend's house, currently RoM 2.8 with no modmods. These games are what I will base my observations on. If I later determine some other information is relevant to this thread, such as computer specs, I will add it at that time.

Any questions, comments, and feedback are welcome. I would appreciate any errors I make to be pointed out, so that I may correct them.

 

[Dancing Hoskuld]

Every bit helps improve the quality of RoM. The stated aim of the next release, RoM 2.9, is to fix all these small problems. By all means list them. If you have the knowledge then providing the fixes is even better. Zappara can merge them into RoM 2.9 or a modmoder can put them in a mod mod which Zappara could then merge into RoM 2.9.

 

[zappara]

Case in point, the Buddhism religious wonder does not show up in the civilopedia under religions - Buddhism.

Don't know why it doesn't show it - I couldn't figure out it and yes, I noticed it right after I had improved that sevopedia page... it's one of those things that are "known small bug, doesn't impact gameplay, fix later"

 

[Erii]

Just started up my game after about a week of being sick, went through the tech tree for a couple eras and noted a few unnecessary things.

Currency - This tech does not need to have Writing as a direct prerequisite, that's covered from needing Mathematics. It could have Metal Casting as a direct prereq, and Mathematics as the 'also requires...'.

Flintlock - Remove Divine Right from the 'also requires...', as it is necessary to have Divine Right to research Leadership.

Nationalism - Remove Divine Right, same as in Flintlock.

Representative Democracy - Remove Philosophy, as it is required to research Social Contract.

Fascist (Civic) - Although I have not gotten this far in my current game, in previous versions of RoM, this civic appears to give free military support, approximately the same amount as Vassalage. This benefit is not listed with the civic, and so I'm guessing it's a bug. I'll test it out when I get there in my current game.


In conclusion for today, I have a question about the tech tree and units. As an example, let's pick the Warlord Captain. This unit is enabled by the Guilds tech. It also requires you to know Smithing. Is it necessary to note on Smithing that it enables Warlord Captain? Although I have not looked at all the units, it appears that many, if not all, of the units with multiple tech prereqs are listed like this. If this is not necessary, it may help slim down the game a bit. As far as usefulness goes, it's just as easy to look at the unit when researching the tech to see the other required technologies. (At least that's my opinion.)

 

[NBAfan]

As Afforess has pointed out, The wheel is not needed to be reaserched.

 

[Dancing Hoskuld]

As Afforess has pointed out, The wheel is not needed to be reaserched.

Which probably explains why the AI does not research it they just ask me for it. However, how else do you get resources connected before Monarchy?

 

[szemek77]

It depends on the resource you want. If it is stone, marble, copper ot obsidian, you have a problem, since the first two are useful for early wonders, and other two you just need for military. Otherwise barbs would eat you as a piece of cake. Those four need to be connected, for sure. That is why I usually try to get wheel anyway.

Other thing is that cart paths are very poor as a fast traveling connection (in case you need to move your troops), but they are cheap connection to resources. road costs 2 each, plus of course they give you some bonus (i.e. 1 for a mine).

So, one should at least think about getting the wheel. I usually build roads to connect my cities, and cart paths for resources connection.

 

[NBAfan]

I always reaserch the Wheel, it is just not a prerequisite for anything.

 

[Afforess]

I always reaserch the Wheel, it is just not a prerequisite for anything.

My point was that one could reach the Future Tech without ever touching the wheel. Surely Motorized Transportation should require that you know how to make wheels for cars/trains/planes?

 

[generalstaff]

My point was that one could reach the Future Tech without ever touching the wheel. Surely Motorized Transportation should require that you know how to make wheels for cars/trains/planes?

Not to mention machinery, I forget offhand whether machinery can be researched without the wheel or if you can end up with Jets, Tanks, and Robots without machinery due to it being an or req down the tech tree.

 

[Erii]

If anyone playing RoM without any modmods can contradict me here, please do so.

I tried checking the picture of the tech tree that Zappara attached to the RoM thread to double check this, but it's a bit outdated. Not that I blame him, it's the first time I've looked there instead of just inside RoM.

Anyways, it looks like The Wheel is required for Siege Warfare, which in turn makes it necessary for Machinery, Guilds, and Banking. In the column of techs with Anatomy, you cannot get past there without The Wheel, thereby making it very necessary to learn, albeit possibly a bit late. Perhaps Monarchy should also have a prereq of The Wheel, just so you can't skip a road?

 

[Grunthex]

My point was that one could reach the Future Tech without ever touching the wheel. Surely Motorized Transportation should require that you know how to make wheels for cars/trains/planes?

Perfectly reasonable -- Civ is an alternate development where it's always snow-covered, and all motorized/mechanized transportation is a derivation of the skidoo!

Anyways, it looks like The Wheel is required for Siege Warfare, which in turn makes it necessary for Machinery, Guilds, and Banking. In the column of techs with Anatomy, you cannot get past there without The Wheel, thereby making it very necessary to learn, albeit possibly a bit late. Perhaps Monarchy should also have a prereq of The Wheel, just so you can't skip a road?

Can you tie improvements to two techs, like many units are? Improved roads could all require the wheel and their enabling tech. Not that I think this a real problem, other than seeming quirky. It's not like the AI or most of us are ending up in the Industrial Age with no wheels, are we?

 

[winthrowe]

Perfectly reasonable -- Civ is an alternate development where it's always snow-covered, and all motorized/mechanized transportation is a derivation of the skidoo!

well, there are many wheel derived objects in a skidoo.. I can't imagine developing sophisticated tech with no gears, pulleys, camshafts, etc.

 

[Dancing Hoskuld]

Civs existed (on Earth) that did not have the wheel (not suitable for their terrain) but did have gears.

 

[os79]

Talking about The Wheel tech...

Why is Chariotry a req of Horseback Riding? Mongols never bothered with chariots but went for horseback riding .

 

[winthrowe]

Civs existed (on Earth) that did not have the wheel (not suitable for their terrain) but did have gears.

I may not be a historian, but I find it impossible to believe that any civ that has gears didn't "tech wheel". the wheeled carts for example might not have been in common use, but I would lay money that any craftsman of those gear using civs would build wheels if they were dropped in appropriate circumstances.

 

[Dancing Hoskuld]

I may not be a historian, but I find it impossible to believe that any civ that has gears didn't "tech wheel". the wheeled carts for example might not have been in common use, but I would lay money that any craftsman of those gear using civs would build wheels if they were dropped in appropriate circumstances.

Yea well people in medieval times would have used computers if they had them too

The gears were used in their calendar machine. But then the Greeks had steam engines but did not use them for other than scientific proofs or religion. The Romans used water wheels for milling grain where there were too few slaves, as pumps in their mines and a few adventurous types were using them to turn marble. Just because a civ has one thing that looks like another doesn't mean that the need arises for them to use it in the other way. Just look at the Anakthera(sp) object from ancient Greece lots of gears did epicycles for showing phases and positions of moon and planets and there must have been many. But I ramble...

 

[winthrowe]

Yea well people in medieval times would have used computers if they had them too

but not build them.

my point is that if you take anyone who could have designed that timepiece or grain mill, and put them somewhere where the land is hard and smooth, asked them to build something to get from point a to point b carrying load, they would design a wheeled vehicle of some kind, even if they live in the mountains where that's not practical everyday. Perhaps my bias as the son of an engineer, but it is impossible to understand a gear and not a wheel, because that is what a gear essentially is.