BtS techtree write-up

[GeoModder]

6th tier:

Plasma Mechanics (OR arrow from High Energy Chemistry and Applied Astronomy)
Lunar Corporations (OR arrow from Power Economics of course)
Artificial Biosphere (requires Retroviral Engineering, OR arrow from Lunar Industry)
Cislunar Doctrine (OR arrow from Low-G Tactics, perhaps should require High Energy Chemistry, perhaps only an OR arrow. Do an OR arrow for the moment)
Cybernetics (OR arrow from Bionics, requires Optical Neural Networks)
Metaphysical Cosmology (OR arrow from Applied Astronomy)

I think this should end the colonization era.

 

[woodelf]

Did Fusion dead-end on purpose Geo? If so I can start sliding some techs back up the screen.

 

[woodelf]

I've them printed out. Nice work. I'm going to turn 5 and 6 into 5, 6, and 7 after some careful planning.

 

[GeoModder]

About the 5th tier....

7 techs is too much IMO as they stop lining up with their branches. I don't really want to scroll down the F6 screen like FfH2 does.

Me neither. And I know from looking at the vanilla techtree that 8 techs can be put on a single screen, so seven should be okay.
What do you mean by stop lining up with their branches? The way I planned it there would be a number of core techs a player HAS to research before he crosses the next era. And it conveniently avoids a player rushing through the techtree at record speed.

Once I get these into XML we'll need to balance them a bit better. I'm trying to adjust cost, add in Flavor, advisors, ect. But I'm sure they won't be perfect.

Yeah, I recon techcost in general will be quite high because I hope to convince you guys to use a month/turn system. But population should be kept low as well then, save for the introduction of some sort of cloning population system.
I think, if both systems (month/turn and low population increase) are used, research will rely heavily on the proper construction of high-beaker facilities/improvements.

 

[GeoModder]

Did Fusion dead-end on purpose Geo? If so I can start sliding some techs back up the screen.

Fusion will be required for Microfusion. This comes in the 7th tier I think.
But Plasma Mechanics should be the OR link so I don't suppose a requirement is necessary.

Starting on the 7th tier now, but this will be the last since I wind up blank after this.

 

[woodelf]

Once I get 5 and 6 into matt's editor I'll post the XMl file here. It stinks that we can't really look at it yet since we'll have a gazillion errors.

 

[woodelf]

What do you mean by stop lining up with their branches? The way I planned it there would be a number of core techs a player HAS to research before he crosses the next era. And it conveniently avoids a player rushing through the techtree at record speed.

I mean that if an "or" or "and" tech is at the top of the screen I'd like the other "or" and "and" tech to be at the top as well. When the prereqs are far apart in the screen the entire screen looks like hell eventually.

I don't want beelining, just order.

 

[GeoModder]

7th tier (or 8th if you stretch things) - start of the Exploration Era.

Actually, I only have three/four left, and it seems Fusion as a requirement for microfusion will work as I didn't use it as a requirement for HEC

Translunar Exploration (obviously an OR arrow from Cislunar Doctrine)
Microfusion (requires Fusion, OR arrow from Plasma Mechanics)
Quantum Entanglement (OR arrow from Meta Cosmology and Plasma Mech)

I still have a tech named Radiation Shielding on my list, but Plasma Mechanics covers this already for what I had in mind (a shielded arcology). Especially since Lunar Industry moved up a tier.

There are obviously some things we can expand upon if a proper tech idea can be found, like on the Lunar Corp line (TransNationals or MetaCorps or something). Cybernetics can be the start of Artificial Intelligence (ah, you can include this one too!!). As on the Quantum stuff, I have to do a bit more research to see if wormhole stuff is already included in Quantum research or if it can be considered a separate field of research.

As on my remarks for a month/turn, perhaps it would be better a season/turn if we ever want a player to reach the nearest stars with his robot starprobes.

Okay, this is were I put a blank, except if we do a simple copy of the SMAC techtree at its highends.

 

[GeoModder]

I mean that if an "or" or "and" tech is at the top of the screen I'd like the other "or" and "and" tech to be at the top as well. When the prereqs are far apart in the screen the entire screen looks like hell eventually.

I don't want beelining, just order.

Good thinking there, mate.

I think we have a good start for the more conventional stuff. I also hope we can avoid cluttering the tech tree with small-fry tech like Air-Recycling or Mech-Construction or whatever as those more involve exact procedures instead of general advances.

 

[woodelf]

So long as you don't mind me changing stuff around we'll have order.

 

[GeoModder]

I'll wait with my verdict until I've seen your chances.

Now, dishes -and cooking time. Enjoy your tinkering.

 

[woodelf]

I didn't end up tinkering much since I really need to see how it lays out in the F6 screen, but we can't do that right away.

Here are the first 2 eras in XML form. I did modify iasset and the stuff mentioned above, but booleans about techtrading, centering map, ect are left untouched.

At least with the TECH_XXXXXX tags complete we can start on civics, units, buildings, ect. I'll need to redo the leaders and civ XML now as well.

This XML is not commited to the SVN since I'm at work. If someone wants to then go right ahead.

 

[woodelf]

And I have to come up with a Text file eventually. I was hoping the editor would create a text file for all of the TXT_KEYs, but it didn't. Even if it said "need text" for the tags it would be helpful to have that XML file generated.