[NFP] Eurekas and Inspirations for Shuffle Mode

[UWHabs]

Say you're trying to rush Horseback Riding (perhaps you're Mongolia or Scythia, or for whatever reason). You're fishing for it, you may even build a pasture and reveal it's behind something. You have a builder with two charges... you put a farm on some rice to reveal irrigation, but it turns out irrigation is not the tech that's blocking you. The tech blocking you is actually Wheel, and you use your final charge on some copper.

And it's not like everything is blind, you can still see the techs you can immediately discover. It looks like the first 3 techs (mining, Pottery, and AH) all turn into the only 3 techs you can research out the door, and then everything else gets shuffled within the eras after them.

It will definitely slow down the early game, since by the time you get that builder and pasture online, it's only then that you start to see if you end up chasing a wild path if you were gunning hard for a horseman rush, for example. The big steps early is trying to figure out where astrology (if chasing a religion) and writing (if you want a campus) fit. But otherwise, I do think it will lead to a little bit more playing the map, since you're going to be more limited in tech choices at any step along the way so with a lack of info will virtually always want to research either the cheapest tech or the one that gives you an immediate benefit, and it might lead you to chase more eurekas earlier just to get a hint of the tree.

Or you just play as Macedon and laugh at this feeble new game mode.

 

[lotrmith]

And it's not like everything is blind, you can still see the techs you can immediately discover. It looks like the first 3 techs (mining, Pottery, and AH) all turn into the only 3 techs you can research out the door, and then everything else gets shuffled within the eras after them.

It will definitely slow down the early game, since by the time you get that builder and pasture online, it's only then that you start to see if you end up chasing a wild path if you were gunning hard for a horseman rush, for example. The big steps early is trying to figure out where astrology (if chasing a religion) and writing (if you want a campus) fit. But otherwise, I do think it will lead to a little bit more playing the map, since you're going to be more limited in tech choices at any step along the way so with a lack of info will virtually always want to research either the cheapest tech or the one that gives you an immediate benefit, and it might lead you to chase more eurekas earlier just to get a hint of the tree.

Or you just play as Macedon and laugh at this feeble new game mode.

I mean, that was just one example. There are essentially limitless possibilities and a subset of them will have you guessing at boosts you don't need or needing boosts you can't practically get.

 

[tzu]

There are essentially limitless possibilities and a subset of them will have you guessing at boosts you don't need or needing boosts you can't practically get.

Yeah, but the comfortable certainty of tech trees we had since civ1 is an illusion - all we are so sure about what depends on what and which tech led to another is just us looking back on the one version of our happened history.
All the times none was ever able to plan ahead and predict future techs derived from the current - what is the usual style of playing Civ.

Or to bring it to an easier to handle individual level: the tragedy of life: “Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forward” as Søren Kierkegaard said.

.

 

[lotrmith]

Yeah, but the comfortable certainty of tech trees we had since civ1 is an illusion - all we are so sure about what depends on what and which tech led to another is just us looking back on the one version of our happened history.
All the times none was ever able to plan ahead and predict future techs derived from the current - what is the usual style of playing Civ.

Or to bring it to an easier to handle individual level: the tragedy of life: “Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forward” as Søren Kierkegaard said.

.

I'm only commenting on the system as it relates to gameplay. There's nothing wrong with an optional mode that randomizes the trees, but it is not without pitfalls.

 

[tzu]

And while your slinger is making his way to a barb unit, what are you doing?

Depends on the urgency of Archery (archer rush?!?) and the topology of the given tree (in the picture of post #4: Mining seems to give visibility directly to 2 techs and indirectly to 2 more techs, one of them exclusively; Pottery directly to 2 other techs but none indirectly, one leaf node, one already known; Animal husbandry directly to 1 other tech and indirectly to 1 more tech. So ceteris paribus I'd prefer Mining).

I like "playing the map" instead of deciding which Civ, victory type, secret society etc. untimely before starting map generation. Would even love the possibility to have a look at the surroundings before choosing which Civ shall play this map ...

 

[Pietato]

Depends on the urgency of Archery (archer rush?!?) and the topology of the given tree (in the picture of post #4: Mining seems to give visibility directly to 2 techs and indirectly to 2 more techs, one of them exclusively; Pottery directly to 2 other techs but none indirectly, one leaf node, one already known; Animal husbandry directly to 1 other tech and indirectly to 1 more tech. So ceteris paribus I'd prefer Mining).

I like "playing the map" instead of deciding which Civ, victory type, secret society etc. untimely before starting map generation. Would even love the possibility to have a look at the surroundings before choosing which Civ shall play this map ...

I also play the map, but I never choose random civ, and I will restart if I get a landlocked Dido, zero room Maya, etc. My games last ages, so I want to play the civ properly.

That said, I will use this mode, but I doubt I will beeline any eurekas unless they are CS quests. I will just spam as many as I can like usual.