An Idea for Techs!

[moopoo]

Ok. This is the that i am most proud of so far:

right. This is an idea that would increase diversity between civs, encourage tech and resource trading, and force a change in what i find to be a sometimes limiting idea of unique units and buildings. It could also create a new use for leader traits.

ok. Just say you're researching a tech. you're researching archery. except it isn't called archery, it's called, say, "projectile weapons". you finish researching it, and it unlocks archers. But the next time you play, it unlocks Slingers. The time after that, Javelin throwers.

I'm not sure what to call this, but it's the idea that you can research a technology, without being sure of what the product of that research will be.

That's the idea at it's most basic. But say you get archers, good for defending cities, but Asoka get javelins, good against axemen. You could trade archery between each other, and learn how to build the other unit.

In the same way, Bronze working could give you spearmen, or Axemen, or broad swordsmen. but if you want longswordsman from Iron working, you'd need to trade for it if you didn't research it first up.

Traits could influence how what type of whatever you get.

In addition. You research animal husbandry and reveal horses, say. Julius researches it, and finds a nice bunch of Camels in his little desert. seeee?
You could trade the techs, or just trade the resource. actually thats a bad example for resource trading, but you could imagine the same with luxuries or something.

A penny for your thoughts?

 

[moopoo]

*cries* A quarter for your thoughts? hell, i'll throw you a buck for a response

 

[Chuggi]

I dunno, sounds unnecessarily complicated and a lot of work... sorry to be negative.

 

[mrhoeivo]

Hmm, but what if you were given only mounted units, and an enemy was given only units that are good against mounted units. You would be decimated. Not to mention that this would require the introduction of hundreds of new units. What about techs that don't reveal anything and don't strictly let you build a new unit?

 

[moopoo]

Lol clearly not a well thought out idea.

@ Chugginator: Fair enough Although, looking at mods and the amount of work to be put into them, this would be fairly lightweight compared to others

@ Mrhoeivo: I'm not sure you've understood what i mean. If you were to research a military tech, it would unlock a certain type of unit. If you wanted a mounted unit, you would research that tech (and may unlock horseman, or camelmen, or steppe riders, or whatever). If you wanted a foot soldier unit, you would research the tech, and might unlock a swordsman, axemen, whatever. It wouldn't be as random as i think you think it would be (LOL)

It wouldn't require "hundreds" of new units. just enough to make a variety at most of the military techs, and pretty much all of them would be available already, either through the mods included in the games or on civfanatics itself (I challenge you to find a historical unit that hasn't been made here). Again, there have been plenty of mods that have included more units than this one would.

And finally, not every tech would reveal a unit (just as not every tech reveals a unit now). what doth thou meanest?

 

[black baron]

@ Mrhoeivo & moopoo: really you only need, at most, 18 units because most games only allow up to 18 civ.s
you could also make it so that you can choose which type of unit or recourse you get allowing for a unique game if you will it.

 

[moopoo]

True, i think. if i understand you correctly. I meant for the scope of this idea to be larger than just units though. In that it could include buildings, types of resources, etcetera.

 

[black baron]

in terms of making it the units and others that would be the easy part the randomization part wold be the hard part, right?

 

[Grishnash]

I like your idea. That way the wonder race can die down a bit, like this,
China get Masonry and is allowed to build the Great Wall but when Egypt gets it they can build the Pyramids or Rome gets it and builds... What? The.... darn.. couldn't pull out a wonder name
But what happends when you get a tech that gives you your UU or UB?
Do you get your UU/UB no matter what? Like, Mali, if they get archery do they get their UU or is there a chance for slingers?

And I have an idea for techs. Mistakes!
When you are researching something, like Masonry, you have a chance of making a mistake. I.e, your researching M but half way through or something... it turns out your men made a mistake and you get points towards Bronze Working and maybe lose points towards Masonry. It only works with some techs, like you can't get farming while researching archery. What do you think?

Anyways, I think you have a good idea.

 

[black baron]

China get Masonry and is allowed to build the Great Wall but when Egypt gets it they can build the Pyramids or Rome gets it and builds... What? The.... darn.. couldn't pull out a wonder name

the great Colosseum?

could always make it so that they have a uu of all 3 or more types
as for buildings and wonders i don't know if he intend on making any 1/2 unique

 

[moopoo]

Actually I thought this would Kinda obsolete unique buildings and units. Instead, any civ has a chance of developing, say, the Samurai instead of the Maceman, or the redcoat instead of the rifleman. I've never really liked how Civ has prescribed your strategy from the beginning.

perhaps your chance of developing one of these better units increases when in a golden age, or a time of high productivity/commerce/research/expansion. Or maybe, when you research rifling and get a rifleman, you can research an add-on bit to get the redcoat. same for buildings.

@ Grishnash: I hadn't thought of wonders. but yeah that's exactly the kind of thing i mean. Except the civ may not receive what they historically got. It would allow civs to develop dynamically, and force strategy to be more about the hand you're given, rather than the cards you've planned to get from the beginning.

 

[black baron]

the add on tech seems like a better idea because then the player won't have a mixed up hand thats hard to play with unless they want it that way have a strategy

 

[moopoo]

mmmmmm. 'swhat i was leaning towards. I guess the next step is getting this set up. If i were to set up the techs and units and building and wonders and anything else you guys suggest, whats the chance someone will step in and set up the python (I don't think you would need/use C++ for this) for me? Would anyone with some python ability like to do this if i get the rest of it set up? please?

btw, Keep the ideas coming

 

[black baron]

I HAD ANOTHER IDEA!!!!
what if when you researched a religion like say polytheism you get to go on to an add on of the Greek polytheism the Roman polytheism the Egyptian polytheism Hinduism or others (for the first 3 I'd/you'd have to do research for the founder's name for it)

 

[moopoo]

You mean as a way to get those specific religions, or so everyone can have a general polytheistic religion? either way, sounds good

 

[black baron]

i guess a way to pick a specific polytheism

 

[Gaius Octavius]

I had an idea from my experience with other games: why not let people trade beakers (progress) toward a specific tech? You could gain "blueprints" which add progress to your goal but which do not grant you the tech outright. In other words, they would speed up your research time.

This is more realistic, especially in relation to spying, than the current all-or-nothing system.

 

[moopoo]

I very much agree. That can't be done with XML though. which means i can't do it

You're a modder Gaius!!! got any spare time?

The above is said in jest, of course. but if you or anyone would be willing to write-out any python or C++ stuff for this (or any of my other stuff, for that matter), that would be AWESOME.

 

[black baron]

i tried messing w/ python and i got constricted


i can no longer use civics and there might be something else that doesn't work

 

[Gaius Octavius]

i tried messing w/ python and i got constricted


i can no longer use civics and there might be something else that doesn't work

Chances are you messed up the indentation. It's easy to do if you're editing it in Notepad. I recommend you download Python itself since it has a debugger that checks for obvious errors.