Feedback: Tech Tree
- Thread starter Xyth
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Simon_Jester
Prince
- Joined
- May 13, 2011
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NUCLEAR WEAPONS
When an atomic nucleus undergoes fission, it splits into two smaller nuclei and a spray of single subatomic particles, including neutrons and X-ray photons. Since the impact of a neutron can itself cause a fission reaction, if enough atoms which can undergo fission ("fissile" atoms) are concentrated in the same place, they will begin to spontaneously experience a higher and higher rate of fission. As the concentration increases past a threshold known as "critical mass," the rate of fission becomes so high that a large fraction of the fissile material will undergo fission at once, releasing extremely large amounts of energy, mostly in the form of X-rays.
The discovery of atomic fission in 1938 as a result of chemical assays of uranium samples came during the runup to the largest war in the history of the world. All the major powers of the age were mobilizing the full resources of science and industry to prevail in the coming conflict. Under the circumstances, when theoretical physicists determined that under some conditions fission could be used to make powerful weapons, the development of these weapons became inevitable.
Nuclear weapons rely mainly on fission as a source of massive, instantaneous energy release- fusion or "H-bombs" actually use the fusion stage as a secondary booster, to enhance the efficiency of the fission reaction more than anything else. A nuclear device contains enough fissile material (some uranium isotopes, or plutonium-239) to release trillions of joules of energy, or even quadrillions at the extreme upper limit. This energy, released as X-rays that are absorbed by the device's surroundings, creates a roughly spherical zone of superheated matter called a "nuclear fireball," which is roughly as hot as the interior of the sun. The intensity of light and heat from the fireball is enough to literally blind the unprotected eye- often permanently.
The effects propagate outward in the form of a "blast wave-" a zone of high pressure air pushed outward from the blast, which exerts pressures on the order of one atmosphere for a large area around the point where the device is initiated. This blast wave can be powerful enough to destroy reinforced buildings at a range of kilometers, and lightly constructed buildings at a range of many kilometers, depending on the yield of the device. Meanwhile, direct heating from the fireball creates a "thermal pulse" which can cause instant third-degree burns at long distances, and ignite flammable materials, often resulting in numerous and intense fires throughout the area targeted by the device. Close in, the heat is sufficient to fuse large ground areas into a field of glass, subsequently broken up and shattered by the blast.
As this devastation goes on, the fireball from a nuclear initiation in atmosphere will tend to rise, creating the characteristic "mushroom cloud" associated with nuclear weapons in the public imagination. The effects on the ground are large enough to lay waste to entire cities, render troop movements practically impossible, and kill hundreds of thousands if not millions of people, at a single blow.
Perhaps the most sinister, though far from the most lethal, effect of nuclear weapons is radioactive fallout- fission byproducts from the fissile material in the device, and other matter irradiated during the event. When nuclear weapons are set off high in the atmosphere, fallout is relatively mild, but an initiation close to ground level that sucks up material on the ground into the fireball itself to be irradiated can produce much greater levels of fallout.
Some of this fallout is often redeposited in the form of a deadly black rain near Ground Zero, which is very radioactive and highly lethal. The rest spreads out over a large area downwind of the target. The effects of multiple devises are particularly severe in this respect, as for reasons not yet well understood it is common for intense, lethally radioactive 'hot spots' to appear where the fallout patterns from multiple nuclear initiations interact. While most of the land contaminated by fallout is broadly habitable, hot spots may give lethal doses of radiation in a short time, guaranteeing a slow, painful death from radiation sickness.
All the effects of nuclear attacks are made far worse by the fact that the initiations destroy a great deal of infrastructure and first-response assets, making humanitarian relief extremely difficult. Bringing in supplies and caring for the thousands upon thousands of sick and wounded becomes nearly impossible. Long-term effects can be similarly devastating; a nuclear attack powerful enough to destroy a modern nation's ability to make war will predictably ruin its infrastructure and lead to famines and breakdowns of the civilian economy for years to come.
The creation of a nuclear arsenal is a huge industrial undertaking for even an advanced nation- the original Manhattan Project required 1/6 of all electricity produced in the United States during the war years, and a vast influx of money to build a network of secret industrial facilities to produce fissile material and develop bomb designs.
Production of fissiles takes high-end precision machinery which is available from only a handful of sources in the modern world- monitoring of these tools plays a major part in anti-proliferation efforts today. Designing the devices is also a major challenge, even more difficult if they cannot be tested (today, in underground chambers; in the 1940s and 1950s, often in the open air). A nuclear device which is designed improperly will 'fizzle:' it will undergo only partial fission before the energies released blow the device apart, with most of the fissile material being wasted entirely. This is a particularly common problem with the simplified designs created by various third world nations (see the Pakistani and North Korean nuclear programs for reference).
Once created, nuclear weapons can be delivered by missile, air-dropped bomb, or large caliber artillery shell; some nuclear devices have been built in the one-kiloton range which are small enough to be man-portable have been built, though they are awkward and very bulky. Most war plans featuring nuclear weapons rely on the "nuclear triad" of manned bombers (which are good at fighting their way through defenses, and cheap), ICBMs (which are impossible to stop without specialized anti-ballistic missile defenses, but expensive and impossible to call off after launch), and shorter-ranged submarine-launched ballistic missiles (which, like ICBMs, are very hard to stop, but which have the added advantage of being impossible to destroy in a preemptive strike unless the attacker knows exactly where to find the submarine with the missiles).
Since in a nuclear war the nation's leaders might be killed at any time, nuclear weapons are aimed according to pre-set war plans, with the devices being targeted in what is called a "laydown," with the intent of destroying a specific list of targets as efficiently and thoroughly as possible. Targets for a laydown might include the enemy's nuclear launch facilities, command and control centers, transport facilities vital to military mobilization such as ports, railroad marshalling yards, and highway interchanges, airports that could be used to launch bombers, factories which produce components for advanced weapons, and the offices of government agencies that could organize nuclear war or mobilize civil defense to limit the effects of the nuclear attack.
As a rule, cities are not targeted specifically with the intent of killing vast numbers of people, but since so many of the important targets are in or around cities, any nuclear war is sure to destroy many cities and kill tens of millions of people. Civil defense measures can reduce civilian casualties, but never even come close to eliminating them.
Fortunately for mankind, the terrifying power of nuclear weapons is sobering for any sane or intelligent person. Some claim that the rise of nuclear arsenals among the developed nations has actually reduced the odds of war breaking out, because it would be impossible to attack a nuclear-armed country and defeat it without taking terrible damage from nuclear counterattack. Balanced against this is the fear of accidental war- that weapons prepared to launch a counterattack might be fired by mistake, in response to a false alarm. There is also the risk that if nuclear weapons become common in too many nations, political instability might let them fall into the hands of groups irresponsible and deranged enough to try to use them.
Because of this, many countries have political movements devoted to nuclear disarmament, including well organized protest movements such as the one which has been permanently camped outside the residence of the President of the United States since 1982. These movements have had some success- the large nuclear powers have negotiated repeated reductions of their nuclear arsenals from the peak of the Cold War circa 1970. Certain types of weapons have been banned as 'too provocative,' creating the threat of a successful nuclear sneak attack and thus giving the enemy an incentive to strike first out of fear.
But many nuclear devices remain, and some countries continue to pursue expanded nuclear capabilities, for obvious reasons- it's the ultimate deterrent against ordinary invasion.
When an atomic nucleus undergoes fission, it splits into two smaller nuclei and a spray of single subatomic particles, including neutrons and X-ray photons. Since the impact of a neutron can itself cause a fission reaction, if enough atoms which can undergo fission ("fissile" atoms) are concentrated in the same place, they will begin to spontaneously experience a higher and higher rate of fission. As the concentration increases past a threshold known as "critical mass," the rate of fission becomes so high that a large fraction of the fissile material will undergo fission at once, releasing extremely large amounts of energy, mostly in the form of X-rays.
The discovery of atomic fission in 1938 as a result of chemical assays of uranium samples came during the runup to the largest war in the history of the world. All the major powers of the age were mobilizing the full resources of science and industry to prevail in the coming conflict. Under the circumstances, when theoretical physicists determined that under some conditions fission could be used to make powerful weapons, the development of these weapons became inevitable.
Nuclear weapons rely mainly on fission as a source of massive, instantaneous energy release- fusion or "H-bombs" actually use the fusion stage as a secondary booster, to enhance the efficiency of the fission reaction more than anything else. A nuclear device contains enough fissile material (some uranium isotopes, or plutonium-239) to release trillions of joules of energy, or even quadrillions at the extreme upper limit. This energy, released as X-rays that are absorbed by the device's surroundings, creates a roughly spherical zone of superheated matter called a "nuclear fireball," which is roughly as hot as the interior of the sun. The intensity of light and heat from the fireball is enough to literally blind the unprotected eye- often permanently.
The effects propagate outward in the form of a "blast wave-" a zone of high pressure air pushed outward from the blast, which exerts pressures on the order of one atmosphere for a large area around the point where the device is initiated. This blast wave can be powerful enough to destroy reinforced buildings at a range of kilometers, and lightly constructed buildings at a range of many kilometers, depending on the yield of the device. Meanwhile, direct heating from the fireball creates a "thermal pulse" which can cause instant third-degree burns at long distances, and ignite flammable materials, often resulting in numerous and intense fires throughout the area targeted by the device. Close in, the heat is sufficient to fuse large ground areas into a field of glass, subsequently broken up and shattered by the blast.
As this devastation goes on, the fireball from a nuclear initiation in atmosphere will tend to rise, creating the characteristic "mushroom cloud" associated with nuclear weapons in the public imagination. The effects on the ground are large enough to lay waste to entire cities, render troop movements practically impossible, and kill hundreds of thousands if not millions of people, at a single blow.
Perhaps the most sinister, though far from the most lethal, effect of nuclear weapons is radioactive fallout- fission byproducts from the fissile material in the device, and other matter irradiated during the event. When nuclear weapons are set off high in the atmosphere, fallout is relatively mild, but an initiation close to ground level that sucks up material on the ground into the fireball itself to be irradiated can produce much greater levels of fallout.
Some of this fallout is often redeposited in the form of a deadly black rain near Ground Zero, which is very radioactive and highly lethal. The rest spreads out over a large area downwind of the target. The effects of multiple devises are particularly severe in this respect, as for reasons not yet well understood it is common for intense, lethally radioactive 'hot spots' to appear where the fallout patterns from multiple nuclear initiations interact. While most of the land contaminated by fallout is broadly habitable, hot spots may give lethal doses of radiation in a short time, guaranteeing a slow, painful death from radiation sickness.
All the effects of nuclear attacks are made far worse by the fact that the initiations destroy a great deal of infrastructure and first-response assets, making humanitarian relief extremely difficult. Bringing in supplies and caring for the thousands upon thousands of sick and wounded becomes nearly impossible. Long-term effects can be similarly devastating; a nuclear attack powerful enough to destroy a modern nation's ability to make war will predictably ruin its infrastructure and lead to famines and breakdowns of the civilian economy for years to come.
The creation of a nuclear arsenal is a huge industrial undertaking for even an advanced nation- the original Manhattan Project required 1/6 of all electricity produced in the United States during the war years, and a vast influx of money to build a network of secret industrial facilities to produce fissile material and develop bomb designs.
Production of fissiles takes high-end precision machinery which is available from only a handful of sources in the modern world- monitoring of these tools plays a major part in anti-proliferation efforts today. Designing the devices is also a major challenge, even more difficult if they cannot be tested (today, in underground chambers; in the 1940s and 1950s, often in the open air). A nuclear device which is designed improperly will 'fizzle:' it will undergo only partial fission before the energies released blow the device apart, with most of the fissile material being wasted entirely. This is a particularly common problem with the simplified designs created by various third world nations (see the Pakistani and North Korean nuclear programs for reference).
Once created, nuclear weapons can be delivered by missile, air-dropped bomb, or large caliber artillery shell; some nuclear devices have been built in the one-kiloton range which are small enough to be man-portable have been built, though they are awkward and very bulky. Most war plans featuring nuclear weapons rely on the "nuclear triad" of manned bombers (which are good at fighting their way through defenses, and cheap), ICBMs (which are impossible to stop without specialized anti-ballistic missile defenses, but expensive and impossible to call off after launch), and shorter-ranged submarine-launched ballistic missiles (which, like ICBMs, are very hard to stop, but which have the added advantage of being impossible to destroy in a preemptive strike unless the attacker knows exactly where to find the submarine with the missiles).
Since in a nuclear war the nation's leaders might be killed at any time, nuclear weapons are aimed according to pre-set war plans, with the devices being targeted in what is called a "laydown," with the intent of destroying a specific list of targets as efficiently and thoroughly as possible. Targets for a laydown might include the enemy's nuclear launch facilities, command and control centers, transport facilities vital to military mobilization such as ports, railroad marshalling yards, and highway interchanges, airports that could be used to launch bombers, factories which produce components for advanced weapons, and the offices of government agencies that could organize nuclear war or mobilize civil defense to limit the effects of the nuclear attack.
As a rule, cities are not targeted specifically with the intent of killing vast numbers of people, but since so many of the important targets are in or around cities, any nuclear war is sure to destroy many cities and kill tens of millions of people. Civil defense measures can reduce civilian casualties, but never even come close to eliminating them.
Fortunately for mankind, the terrifying power of nuclear weapons is sobering for any sane or intelligent person. Some claim that the rise of nuclear arsenals among the developed nations has actually reduced the odds of war breaking out, because it would be impossible to attack a nuclear-armed country and defeat it without taking terrible damage from nuclear counterattack. Balanced against this is the fear of accidental war- that weapons prepared to launch a counterattack might be fired by mistake, in response to a false alarm. There is also the risk that if nuclear weapons become common in too many nations, political instability might let them fall into the hands of groups irresponsible and deranged enough to try to use them.
Because of this, many countries have political movements devoted to nuclear disarmament, including well organized protest movements such as the one which has been permanently camped outside the residence of the President of the United States since 1982. These movements have had some success- the large nuclear powers have negotiated repeated reductions of their nuclear arsenals from the peak of the Cold War circa 1970. Certain types of weapons have been banned as 'too provocative,' creating the threat of a successful nuclear sneak attack and thus giving the enemy an incentive to strike first out of fear.
But many nuclear devices remain, and some countries continue to pursue expanded nuclear capabilities, for obvious reasons- it's the ultimate deterrent against ordinary invasion.
Simon_Jester
Prince
- Joined
- May 13, 2011
- Messages
- 495
This may be too big- I'm aiming for "educational," as it were, since public awareness of the effects, nature, and use of nuclear weapons is... not great.
It has been a busy couple of weeks. I have more thoughts and responses to the Buildings and Terrain threads, but those must wait. In the meantime, here are some more quotes.
Divination
Current: Divine life is in touch with the whole universe on the analogy of the soul's contact with the body. -Muhammed Iqbal
Suggested: Battle not with monsters lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss the abyss gazes also into you. -Friedrich Nietzsche
I have finally found a Divination quote I am happy with. Who better than Nietzsche to capture the gravity, peril, and futility of gazing into the abyss?
He is a much better fit here than at Superconductors; I have another suggestion for that technology, as seen below.
Philosophy
Current: I have gained this by philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law. -Aristotle
Suggested: I think, therefore I am. -Rene Descartes
I have always felt that the Aristotle quote does not do philosophy justice; it seems to equate philosophy with conformity or, at worst, obedience.
By contrast, Descartes' simple statement places philosophy at the heart of human life. And I do not think it has grown stale from use.
Metal Casting
Current: And them that take the sword shall perish by the sword. -The Bible, Matthew
Suggested: The crucible is for silver and the furnace for gold, And each is tested by the praise accorded him. -The Bible, Proverbs
A quote that actually references metal casting: imagine that.
Machinery
Original: A god from the machine. -Menander
Current: We are becoming the servants in thought, as in action, of the machine we have created to serve us. -John Kenneth Galbraith
Suggested: Give me a lever long enough, and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world. -Archimedes
Automation
Current: Just because it's automatic doesn't mean it works. -Daniel J. Bernstein
Suggested: We are becoming the servants in thought, as in action, of the machine we have created to serve us. -John Kenneth Galbraith
After some thought, I decided the Galbraith quote was too modern for Machinery. I suggest you move it to Automation and install Archimedes in its place.
Metallurgy
Current: There never was a good knife made of bad steel. -Benjamin Franklin
Suggested: I wear the chains I forged in life. -Charles Dickens
Metallurgy was another hard find. The Dickens quotes works from a number of angles, though it's not as direct as my original suggestion:
The purest ore is produced from the hottest furnace; the brightest thunderbolt is elicited from the darkest storm. -Charles Caleb Colton
Pharmaceuticals
Current: The trouble with being a hypochondriac these days is that antibiotics have cured all the good diseases. -Caskie Stinnett
Suggested: You swallow two or three half-gramme tablets, and there you are. You can carry at least half your morality about in a bottle. -Aldous Huxley
The Pharmaceuticals quote has been under discussion a number of times now.
My latest suggestion comes from Brave New World; it is a description of the fictional wonder drug, soma.
Here are some other quotes from the same source:
Was and will make me ill, I take a gram and only am. -Aldous Huxley
The perfect drug. Euphoric, narcotic, pleasantly hallucinant. All the advantages of Christianity and alcohol; none of their defects. -Aldous Huxley
Half a gramme for a half-holiday, a gramme for a weekend, two grammes for a trip to the gorgeous East, three for a dark eternity on the moon. -Aldous Huxley
Anything catch your eye?
Superconductors
Current: What is happiness? The feeling that power is growing, that resistance is overcome. -Friedrich Nietzsche
Suggested: Is it a fact - or have I dreamt it - that, by means of electricity, the world of matter has become a great nerve, vibrating thousands of miles in a breathless point of time? -Nathaniel Hawthorne
A quote with the words "power" and "resistance" is not automatically relevant to Superconductors. Hawthorne is the better pick.
Particle Physics
Current: If anybody says he can think of quantum physics without getting giddy, that only shows he has not understood the first thing about them. -Niels Bohr
Suggested: By convention, sweet; by convention, bitter; by convention, colour; but, in reality, atoms and the void. -Democritus
I am particularly pleased with this quote. Democritus coined the term atom and modern science retained the word.
Particle physics does indeed discard convention and investigate "atoms and the void" in its quest for a Theory of Everything.
Divination
Current: Divine life is in touch with the whole universe on the analogy of the soul's contact with the body. -Muhammed Iqbal
Suggested: Battle not with monsters lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss the abyss gazes also into you. -Friedrich Nietzsche
I have finally found a Divination quote I am happy with. Who better than Nietzsche to capture the gravity, peril, and futility of gazing into the abyss?
He is a much better fit here than at Superconductors; I have another suggestion for that technology, as seen below.
Philosophy
Current: I have gained this by philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law. -Aristotle
Suggested: I think, therefore I am. -Rene Descartes
I have always felt that the Aristotle quote does not do philosophy justice; it seems to equate philosophy with conformity or, at worst, obedience.
By contrast, Descartes' simple statement places philosophy at the heart of human life. And I do not think it has grown stale from use.
Metal Casting
Current: And them that take the sword shall perish by the sword. -The Bible, Matthew
Suggested: The crucible is for silver and the furnace for gold, And each is tested by the praise accorded him. -The Bible, Proverbs
A quote that actually references metal casting: imagine that.
Machinery
Original: A god from the machine. -Menander
Current: We are becoming the servants in thought, as in action, of the machine we have created to serve us. -John Kenneth Galbraith
Suggested: Give me a lever long enough, and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world. -Archimedes
Automation
Current: Just because it's automatic doesn't mean it works. -Daniel J. Bernstein
Suggested: We are becoming the servants in thought, as in action, of the machine we have created to serve us. -John Kenneth Galbraith
After some thought, I decided the Galbraith quote was too modern for Machinery. I suggest you move it to Automation and install Archimedes in its place.
Metallurgy
Current: There never was a good knife made of bad steel. -Benjamin Franklin
Suggested: I wear the chains I forged in life. -Charles Dickens
Metallurgy was another hard find. The Dickens quotes works from a number of angles, though it's not as direct as my original suggestion:
The purest ore is produced from the hottest furnace; the brightest thunderbolt is elicited from the darkest storm. -Charles Caleb Colton
Pharmaceuticals
Current: The trouble with being a hypochondriac these days is that antibiotics have cured all the good diseases. -Caskie Stinnett
Suggested: You swallow two or three half-gramme tablets, and there you are. You can carry at least half your morality about in a bottle. -Aldous Huxley
The Pharmaceuticals quote has been under discussion a number of times now.
My latest suggestion comes from Brave New World; it is a description of the fictional wonder drug, soma.
Here are some other quotes from the same source:
Was and will make me ill, I take a gram and only am. -Aldous Huxley
The perfect drug. Euphoric, narcotic, pleasantly hallucinant. All the advantages of Christianity and alcohol; none of their defects. -Aldous Huxley
Half a gramme for a half-holiday, a gramme for a weekend, two grammes for a trip to the gorgeous East, three for a dark eternity on the moon. -Aldous Huxley
Anything catch your eye?
Superconductors
Current: What is happiness? The feeling that power is growing, that resistance is overcome. -Friedrich Nietzsche
Suggested: Is it a fact - or have I dreamt it - that, by means of electricity, the world of matter has become a great nerve, vibrating thousands of miles in a breathless point of time? -Nathaniel Hawthorne
A quote with the words "power" and "resistance" is not automatically relevant to Superconductors. Hawthorne is the better pick.
Particle Physics
Current: If anybody says he can think of quantum physics without getting giddy, that only shows he has not understood the first thing about them. -Niels Bohr
Suggested: By convention, sweet; by convention, bitter; by convention, colour; but, in reality, atoms and the void. -Democritus
I am particularly pleased with this quote. Democritus coined the term atom and modern science retained the word.
Particle physics does indeed discard convention and investigate "atoms and the void" in its quest for a Theory of Everything.
Long but good. We could possibly split it between the tech and unit entries but I'm happy to use it as is too.
Very busy month for me, haven't got as much done on 0.9.5 as I hoped. Getting there slowly but surely though.
Using Philosophy, Metal Casting, Machinery, Automation, Superconductors. Your original Metallurgy suggestion has won me over too. The Democritus quote might be better for Atomic Physics if that tech returns but I'll use it for Particle Physics in the meantime. I still prefer the Ian Anderson quote for Divination. As for Pharmaceuticals I think the 'perfect drug' one is probably the best of the bunch but still not suitable I'm afraid.
I've attached a diagram showing the changes I've made to the tech tree for 0.9.5. Entirely new stuff is in red but there've been quite a few shuffles and changes in the Ancient, Medieval and Renaissance eras that are not marked by colour. Other than finding a new home for Labour Unions I probably won't make many changes to the later tree until 0.9.6. A few notes:
• Crosslinks are marked on the diagram but there's probably a few more that need to be added still
• Grenadier, Sistine Chapel, Versailles and a few other odds and ends are not placed yet
• The Age of Sail is spaced out much better and starts earlier
• The Cog and Clipper will be in 0.9.5 if I can get the pre-Industrial naval units to scale more smoothly in strength
• The Mint, Telegraph, Refinery and Medical Lab are just vague concepts at this stage, they won't be in 0.9.5
• I still want to make changes to the bottom rows from Welfare and Refrigeration onwards
• The techs that got removed were Textiles, Fortification, Fealty, Free Artistry, Military Conduct, Formation, Military Science, Military Tradition
• I'll need quotes for Urban Planning, Logistics, Meteorology, and Machine Tools
KaneofEgypt
Chieftain
I noticed that finance allows a mint... what are you going to do with the Malinese UB?
I'd give them a new UB, most likely something to do with Jali/Griots, probably a Theatre or School replacement. The Mint is an idea I have for a new National Wonder, it probably won't be in 0.9.5 though.
Simon_Jester
Prince
- Joined
- May 13, 2011
- Messages
- 495
Quotes:
LOGISTICS
"Gentlemen, the officer who doesn't know his communications and supply as well as his tactics is totally useless."
- Gen. George S. Patton, US Army
METEOROLOGY
The trouble with weather forecasting is that it's right too often for us to ignore it and wrong too often for us to rely on it.
-Patrick Young
URBAN PLANNING...
Um, what era are you fitting it in? Might want to pick something era-appropriate.
LOGISTICS
"Gentlemen, the officer who doesn't know his communications and supply as well as his tactics is totally useless."
- Gen. George S. Patton, US Army
METEOROLOGY
The trouble with weather forecasting is that it's right too often for us to ignore it and wrong too often for us to rely on it.
-Patrick Young
URBAN PLANNING...
Um, what era are you fitting it in? Might want to pick something era-appropriate.
I have been tinkering with the new tech tree for the past few days.
On the whole, I much prefer it over the current version.
In particular, I like the four balanced starting technologies, the updated Medieval/Renaissance military branch, and the expanded Age of Sail.
I also think the new Archery, Leather Working, Plumbing, Civil Service, Urban Planning, Cartography, Finance, Logistics, and Meteorology technologies work very well.
However, some issues remain to be settled.
Quite a few units become obsolete a mere one or two technologies after they are unlocked. Trebuchets and Siege Towers are a prime example.
There is also evidence of "clumping": some technologies have too many bonuses while other equally important technologies have too few.
Furthermore, I am not sold on the new Machine Tools technology: the concept is already covered by Replaceable Parts, together with some combination of Machinery, Electronics, and Automation.
I hope to tackle these issues in my second draft.
I don't plan to alter the basic framework of the new tech much, except to remove Machine Tools and toss Fortification back in; and replace the redundant Welfare technology with Geology.
I do plan to redistribute some bonuses and find a place for those remaining odds and ends. Stay tuned.
On the whole, I much prefer it over the current version.
In particular, I like the four balanced starting technologies, the updated Medieval/Renaissance military branch, and the expanded Age of Sail.
I also think the new Archery, Leather Working, Plumbing, Civil Service, Urban Planning, Cartography, Finance, Logistics, and Meteorology technologies work very well.
However, some issues remain to be settled.
Quite a few units become obsolete a mere one or two technologies after they are unlocked. Trebuchets and Siege Towers are a prime example.
There is also evidence of "clumping": some technologies have too many bonuses while other equally important technologies have too few.
Furthermore, I am not sold on the new Machine Tools technology: the concept is already covered by Replaceable Parts, together with some combination of Machinery, Electronics, and Automation.
I hope to tackle these issues in my second draft.
I don't plan to alter the basic framework of the new tech much, except to remove Machine Tools and toss Fortification back in; and replace the redundant Welfare technology with Geology.
I do plan to redistribute some bonuses and find a place for those remaining odds and ends. Stay tuned.
Simon_Jester
Prince
- Joined
- May 13, 2011
- Messages
- 495
I'd argue that Machine Tools plays a reasonable role; it represents the transitional phase between the early Industrial Revolution (low-pressure steam and watermills) and the fully organized mass-production factories that characterized the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Advances in the human ability to make precise, reliable machinery have played a huge role in the evolution of most other fields of 'hard' technology, and have had a lot of secondary effects in terms of social technology. I don't think it's unreasonable that we see several techs devoted to advances in machine technology spread out across the tree, any more than it's unreasonable that we see several technologies devoted to advances in farming techniques
Advances in the human ability to make precise, reliable machinery have played a huge role in the evolution of most other fields of 'hard' technology, and have had a lot of secondary effects in terms of social technology. I don't think it's unreasonable that we see several techs devoted to advances in machine technology spread out across the tree, any more than it's unreasonable that we see several technologies devoted to advances in farming techniques
Early medieval. Thanks for those quotes.
In every case there is (or will be) a crosslink to space them out better. In the case of Gunpowder, I had not decided on a crosslink yet when I made the chart. The main contender is Civil Service; with this the Siege Tower and Trebuchet will require 28 techs and the Bombard will require 42 techs.
I've found "number of techs required to unlock" to be the most reliable way to spread units and such but it can be quite tricky to measure from a chart. Now that I have the changes in game it's much easier. What other units are you concerned about?
Yeah, there's still some 'declumping to do'.
My thinking was that Replaceable Parts represents the concept and initial small scale production in specifics areas, weaponry in particular. Machine Tools represents the the development of the concept and tools beyond their initial scope and into the wider economy. As Simon says, historically there's quite the time and technology gap between replaceable parts and full-blown powered assembly lines. Perhaps 'Mass Production' is a more suitable name?
Btw, Automation is not a tech I'm happy with. It was originally 'Automobiles' but got shuffled around trying to fit everything together and lost a lot of its meaning in the process. It will probably be redesigned or removed when I eventually get to reviewing that part of the tree.
Geology is a tech that I've never managed to fit in to my satisfaction, I'm interested to see what your ideas for it are. What would it unlock? I had it revealing Coal and Oil.
I never did end up splitting Cultivation into better specified agricultural techs, which is a shame.
ripple01
Emperor
Xyth,
I have been working on my own mod in a similar vein to yours off and on for about 4-5 years now. I have borrowed ideas, etc. from you and other modders and added in some of my own. I have posted a pretty much complete tech tree from my upcoming mod and wanted to point you to it in case you wanted to take any ideas from it. If you have any questions, let me know.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=10923122&postcount=418
I have been working on my own mod in a similar vein to yours off and on for about 4-5 years now. I have borrowed ideas, etc. from you and other modders and added in some of my own. I have posted a pretty much complete tech tree from my upcoming mod and wanted to point you to it in case you wanted to take any ideas from it. If you have any questions, let me know.
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=10923122&postcount=418
Well, I've attached a revised tech tree to this post.
My focus has been:
New technologies, bonuses, and crosslinks are marked in green.
Technologies
The following new crosslinks have been added:
Compass is now a "floating" technology with two crosslinks and no direct links: a prime Great Person lightbulb target.
Bonuses
Units
Wonders
Many Wonders have shifted positions. Far too many were clumped around Aesthetics and Architecture. Notably:
I have also made suggestions for seven new corporations, taken from the Feedback: Corporations thread.
Edit: I don't expect any of the new Wonders or Corporations to be added to 0.9.5. I included them in the same spirit as the Mint, Refinery, Telegraph, Medical Lab buildings/Wonders.
My focus has been:
- to redistribute bonuses more evenly across the tech tree, such that each technology is worthwhile on its own terms,
- in particular, to link World Wonders to the most appropriate technology and time period;
- to provide for a smoother progression of military units; and
- to present some ideas for new Wonders and Corporations.
New technologies, bonuses, and crosslinks are marked in green.
Technologies
- Cultivation has been renamed Horticulture. It is the proper name for the technology, just as Finance is for Banking.
- Civil Liberties has been renamed Liberalism, to match the other -isms in that branch. Liberalism is a philosophy that guarantees individual liberties; the liberties themselves are a consequence of liberal thought.
- Welfare has been replaced with Geology. It requires Sanitation and Scientific Method, and leads to Ecology and Steam Power.
- Fortification has been reintroduced. It requires Engineering, and leads to Architecture and Land Tenure. As a result, Architecture, Urban Planning, Gunpowder, and Firearms have shifted forward. Finance and Logistics have been moved to better positions: between Horticulture and Economics, and Siegecraft and Logistics, respectively. Machine Tools has been cut.
The following new crosslinks have been added:
- Iron Working --> Compass
- Engineering --> Civil Service
- Civil Service --> Patronage
- Education --> Gunpowder
- Siegecraft --> Physics
- Constitution --> Charter
- Liberalism --> Journalism
- Physics --> Rifling
Compass is now a "floating" technology with two crosslinks and no direct links: a prime Great Person lightbulb target.
Bonuses
- Each of the Age of Sail technologies - Compass, Optics, Cartography, Meteorology, and Charter - unlocks a unit and a second bonus.
- Redesigned Wells that allow irrigation on adjacent tiles move from Mining all the way to Geology. Tapping into natural aquifers to enable irrigation works in remote locations was not possible until the Renaissance.
- Accordingly, the "Farms spread Irrigation" is available earlier, at Horticulture, while +1 food on Farms is available later, at Biology.
- The bonus Great Artist moves to Architecture; the Great Scientist, to Scientific Method. Players must pick and choose which Great Person to pursue. It will be difficult to land both the Great Artist and the Great Prophet at Evangelism; or all three among the Great Scientist, the Great General at Gunpowder, and the Great Merchant at Economics.
- As a "dead end" technology with no direct links forward, Liberalism offers a free technology to the first player to complete that branch.
Units
- Horsemen are unlocked at Record Keeping. They still require Riding and either Bronze or Iron; but they are now contemporaneous with Horse Archers.
- Heavy Horsemen are unlocked at Guilds. On no account should they be available at Steel Working, long before Longbowmen and Pikemen.
- Even with crosslinks, the lifespan of Siege Towers and Trebuchets was too short for players that did not research Siegecraft at the earliest opportunity.
Thus, Siege Towers have been moved earlier, to Architecture, while Gunpowder has been shifted forward a column. - The Physics --> Rifling crosslink delays Rifles and Cavalry, leaving room for Musketmen and Cuirassiers at Firearms.
However, players that complete the bottom half of the tech tree first could conceivably skip the musket era and head directly for rifles. - The expanded Age of Sail crowds out Medieval Era ships unless they are available sufficiently early. The Galleass at Gunpowder does not fit the bill.
If the art permits, I suggest you replace it with the Dromon. Trireme --> Dromon --> Frigate --> Ironclad is a suitable progression.
Wonders
Many Wonders have shifted positions. Far too many were clumped around Aesthetics and Architecture. Notably:
- The Temple of Artemis requires Priesthood. The Spiral Minaret requires Theology. The Sistine Chapel requires Patronage.
- The Temple of Kukulkan requires Law. Much like the Aztec UB, it was a site for sacrifice for the undesirables in society.
- Shwedagon Paya requires Philosophy. It was built before most of the classical Greek wonders, during the lifetime of the Buddha.
- The Hagia Sophia requires Civil Service. It was retooled and reinvented by several dynasties across the ages.
- Angkor Wat requires Constitution. It was not only a temple complex but a capital city and administrative centre.
- Versailles requires Finance. It was made possible by modern finance: Louis XIV dedicated eight percent of French tax revenue to its upkeep.
- The Eiffel Tower requires Journalism. It was built for the World Fair, popularized by journalism in an age before radio.
- Cristo Redentor moves to the Modern Era. It was built in 1933, after all.
I have also made suggestions for seven new corporations, taken from the Feedback: Corporations thread.
Edit: I don't expect any of the new Wonders or Corporations to be added to 0.9.5. I included them in the same spirit as the Mint, Refinery, Telegraph, Medical Lab buildings/Wonders.
Simon_Jester
Prince
- Joined
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- 495
I disagree. Machine tools as a field were one of the big changes of the mid-19th century: a 'machine tool' is something distinct from ordinary hand tools in that it is a complex, precise mechanical construct which is designed to perform very specific, equally precise operations on a part.
You build them and install them in factories and machine shops to do a LOT of work; they're heavy capital goods, not like the hand tools of an artisan. The rise of the machine tool was one of the things that accelerated the spread of the factory model, because the machine tools were too large and expensive for one man to afford and maintain- they're easier for large enterprises to operate, and that gives large enterprises a powerful economy of scale.
But... well. In itself, "mass production" is a loosely defined term. Varying levels of "mass production" become possible depending on how you organize your factory and what it is you make. It's a LOT easier to mass produce spoons (no moving parts, only a few operations required to make one, which can be easily done using simple tools and relatively unskilledo perators) than it is to mass produce cars (zillions of moving parts, each of which requires several very precise tool operations, many of which require expensive machine tools or specialized hand tools used only for making cars, and which require either robots or trained auto workers to use).
This is why factories were engaged in "mass production" of spoons in the early to mid-19th century, while no one figured out how to "mass produce" automobiles until Henry Ford, roughly a century later.
Thus, "mass production" is a vaguely defined concept; it's just a slightly fancier way to say "make a lot of them," and how you go about doing it depends entirely on what "them" is.
Whereas "machine tools" represent a specific innovation that emerged at a distinct period in history. Nations which had access to machine tools gained a powerful, tangible advantage over nations which did not.
Incidentally, the same can be said of "assembly line-" you will notice a huge shift in the economies of nations which start putting together large factories with modern-style assembly lines, and it's a specific concept.
I prefer techs to be tied to specific advances which we can identify with a particular time and place. We know that Iron Working is (for instance) associated with the time frame ~1000-1200 BC in Mesopotamia, that it gave nations that had it (like the Hittites) a tangible advantage over nations that didn't have the secret. We know that the advent of radar is associated with the time frame ~1935-1945 in the developed world, that it gave nations which were good with it (like the US and Britain) a tangible advantage over nations that weren't so good with it (like Germany and Japan). And so on.
So I think "Machine Tools" is the better name.
The idea of a mid-20th century "automation" tech is sound, in my opinion, something to reflect advances in electromechanical control that made things like radar, gunnery computers, and early general purpose computing machines possible.
When does it show up? I would hate to see steam-powered units not be useful because I need to research an entirely separate technology to unlock coal, unless that tech was much further up the tree so that anyone can be assumed to have researched it long since.
Even if you hadn't, you've got a number of techs whose impact on history revolves around advances in food production and storage. My point is that advances in manufacturing and tool-making are equally important, and so deserve an equally diversified spread of techs to represent advances through the ages.
One thing that has been bugging me about the tree is that while most eras have 3 columns each, the Classical and Medieval eras share 5 columns between them. So I'm experimenting with inserting another 7 techs to even this out. Let me know if there are any Medieval (or nearby) techs that you think should be added or returned.
Currently, I intend to return Fortification and add Geology as Azoth has suggested (but keep Machine Tools). Paper may make a come back and I'd like to add another agricultural technology.
Nice to see some of HR's ideas being used elsewhere! I haven't had a thorough examination yet but it looks like a pretty sensible techtree.
Horticulture is a bit narrower in definition than what I was originally going for. Cultivation was really a catch-all tech representing all the agricultural advances of the middles ages; crop rotation, better ploughs, etc. However, since I'm adding a new column I'd really like to split Cultivation into two more specific techs. Suggestions welcome.
I avoided Liberalism specifically because it's a philosophy and thus more suited to civics than a tech in my opinion. Civil Liberties is more neutral and suggests the changes themselves rather then a movement behind them. A few of those other -isms could possibly benefit from similar changes.
While I want to see Geology in the tree I don't think that's the place for it. With the new column there's a bit more scope for experimentation, I'll see what I can come up with. I think I will rename Welfare to Sociology for now. That section needs tweaking but
I like how you've placed Fortification, though with a new column being added I'll keep Machine Tools as well. Putting Logistics between Siegecraft and Gunpowder works well too.
Those all make good sense. I'll add them, though some may be made unnecessary depending how the new techs change the connections.
I disagree with cutting Calendar ---> Oratory. With a calendar a civ develops festivals and similar; drama, storytelling and speechmaking are often integral aspects of such events.
Compass can't have 2 crosslinks leading to it. Crosslinks are done via the BTS optional tech mechanic (I switched the functionality of the arrows and corner icons) so it would require Iron Working OR Navigation, not both. Being able to research Compass without having Iron Working is a definite oversight though, I'll see what I can do.
No time to comment on the rest yet, hopefully tomorrow. Btw I haven't forgotten about your building changes proposal, I'm just taking a break from working on buildings for a bit.
EDIT: Made some good progress this morning. So far the new/returning techs are Fortification, Ethics, Stirrups, Crop Rotation, Paper and Geology.
Currently, I intend to return Fortification and add Geology as Azoth has suggested (but keep Machine Tools). Paper may make a come back and I'd like to add another agricultural technology.
Nice to see some of HR's ideas being used elsewhere! I haven't had a thorough examination yet but it looks like a pretty sensible techtree.
Horticulture is a bit narrower in definition than what I was originally going for. Cultivation was really a catch-all tech representing all the agricultural advances of the middles ages; crop rotation, better ploughs, etc. However, since I'm adding a new column I'd really like to split Cultivation into two more specific techs. Suggestions welcome.
I avoided Liberalism specifically because it's a philosophy and thus more suited to civics than a tech in my opinion. Civil Liberties is more neutral and suggests the changes themselves rather then a movement behind them. A few of those other -isms could possibly benefit from similar changes.
While I want to see Geology in the tree I don't think that's the place for it. With the new column there's a bit more scope for experimentation, I'll see what I can come up with. I think I will rename Welfare to Sociology for now. That section needs tweaking but
I like how you've placed Fortification, though with a new column being added I'll keep Machine Tools as well. Putting Logistics between Siegecraft and Gunpowder works well too.
Those all make good sense. I'll add them, though some may be made unnecessary depending how the new techs change the connections.
I disagree with cutting Calendar ---> Oratory. With a calendar a civ develops festivals and similar; drama, storytelling and speechmaking are often integral aspects of such events.
Compass can't have 2 crosslinks leading to it. Crosslinks are done via the BTS optional tech mechanic (I switched the functionality of the arrows and corner icons) so it would require Iron Working OR Navigation, not both. Being able to research Compass without having Iron Working is a definite oversight though, I'll see what I can do.
No time to comment on the rest yet, hopefully tomorrow. Btw I haven't forgotten about your building changes proposal, I'm just taking a break from working on buildings for a bit.
EDIT: Made some good progress this morning. So far the new/returning techs are Fortification, Ethics, Stirrups, Crop Rotation, Paper and Geology.
Presenting my third draft of the HR tech tree:
Now extending all the way to the Future Era!
Changes in the names or positions of existing bonuses and technologies are marked in blue.
Entirely new technologies and bonuses are marked in green.
New or changed crosslinks are left unmarked.
The Industrial and Modern Eras are also largely unmarked, for the sake of clarity.
A full list of the new crosslinks and unit requirements is included with the tech tree.
Technologies
Bonuses
Now extending all the way to the Future Era!
Changes in the names or positions of existing bonuses and technologies are marked in blue.
Entirely new technologies and bonuses are marked in green.
New or changed crosslinks are left unmarked.
The Industrial and Modern Eras are also largely unmarked, for the sake of clarity.
A full list of the new crosslinks and unit requirements is included with the tech tree.
Technologies
- Each of the six major eras - Ancient, Classical, Medieval, Renaissance, Industrial, and Modern - has three full columns of technologies.
The four starting technologies fall under Prehistory and the nine final technologies belong to the Future Era. - Seven new technologies are introduced. Fortification is reintroduced to the Classical Era; Carpentry, Clockwork, Heraldry, and Acoustics are added to the Medieval Era; Geology os added to the Renaissance Era; and Fertilizer, to the Industrial Era.
- At the same time, seven existing technologies are cut: Military Tradition, Entrenchment, Total War, Nuclear Weapons, Nuclear Power, Nutrition, and Sustainability.
- Astronomy moves forward to the Classical Era and Divination shifts back to the Ancient Era. Astronomy no longer leads to Divination and Mathematics; it requires them, as it should.
- Welfare is recast as Sociology, and Particle Physics as Atomic Theory. Astrophysics is replaced with Cybernetics. The terribly unimaginative Future Tech is renamed Singularity.
- Civil Liberties and Civil Rights are renamed Liberalism and Egalitarianism. I stand by this name change. Civil liberties and civil rights sound like the civics a civilization adopts when it is persuaded by the force of social advances such as liberalism and egalitarianism. As it happens, civil liberties and civil rights are represented among the civics as Jurisdiction and Equal Rights. Meanwhile, Liberalism and Egalitarianism join the ranks of other -isms such as Feminism. After all, it would be odd to rename that last "Women's Suffrage."
Bonuses
- The first-to-research bonuses were reshuffled. Players must chose between the Great Artist at Acoustics and the Great Prophet at Evangelism. (Aesthetics is really too soon for the artist.) Players must later chose between a Great General at Gunpowder, Great Merchant at Economics, and free technology at Scientific Method. Finally, they have a choice between the Great Spy at Journalism, the Great Engineer at Assembly Line, and the Great Scientist at Atomic Theory. Assuming a competitive tech race, no single civilization can claim them all.
- Some Wonders were reshuffled. Notre Dame is unlocked at Acoustics and Angkor Wat at Urban Planning. The National Theatre is now available before the National Museum, as it should; their positions in the tree have been swapped. Finally, the Seasonal Palace requires Sanitation; its requisite Courthouses are available two columns earlier, at Constitution.
- Some units were reshuffled. Heavy Footmen, Longbowmen, and Siege Towers are now available in the late Classical Era.
Crossbowmen, Pikemen, Heavy Horsement, and Trebuchet are unlocked a column later, in the Medieval Era. - The Age of Sail was left untouched from the second draft. Once again, I suggest the Dromon instead of the Galleass as the medieval upgrade to the Trireme. Gunpowder is too late for a medieval ship.
- Some civics were reshuffled: Conscription to Employment, Caste System to Philosophy, Aristocracy to Land Tenure, Vassalage to Heraldry, and Industrialism to Railroad. A better fit, overall.
- The Espionage slider is unlocked at Politics: there is no reason for the AI to waste commerce on the espionage slider before it can build Spies! Build Espionage moves forward to Guilds and Build Research, even further, to Scientific Method. Meanwhile, Universities take a step back, to Humanism. They were already present by the time of the Scientific Method.
- The Well moves to Hydraulics; the Levee, an earthen embankment, to Geology. Spread irrigation moves a couple columns forward to Urban Planning. Finally, Cultivation is split between Horticulture and Fertilizer. The one unlocks Grocers and bonus Plantation commerce; the other, Supermarkets and bonus farm food. Horticulture is too early for +1 food on Farms anyway.
- Certain improvements have been reshuffled so that they are available before their corresponding civic: Workshops move to Aesthetics, and Nature Preserves to Biology. That way, a few are already built in time for Professionalism at Artisanry and Environmentalism at Biology.
- I propose a new unit, the Colonist, unlocked at Urban Planning. An upgrade on the Settler, the Colonist would cost roughly twice as much and found cities with a higher starting population and some free buildings, just like a Settler in a Renaissance Era start. I hope this is possible to code.
- As before, some ideas for new wonders and corporations are also included.
davidtylr
Chieftain
I think settlers in the later game should come with buildings too.
Symmetrical
full columns, well. A little skew tech tree doesn't need to be bad necessarily, too.I'd wish for a few more AND (in HR not arrows but small in the corner? Am I understand this right?) prereqs, that help pace the technological advancements and availability of buildings. Theaters two columns earlier than the Statue of Zeus seems to me too distant. Or, it would be easily possible, that the Statue of Zeus or the Mausoleum finishes in an early medieval surrounding with longbowmen and heavy footmen standing in that city. This becomes less likely if you add a couple more of prereqs. A convincing atmosphere of an "age" you are "in" without too many disturbing anachronisms, is also a nice trait of a game.
Heraldry is a good medieval addition.
Hm. There are also right wing sociologists that have nothing got to do with any welfare ideas.
You may be right with the -ism reasoning, but Civil Liberties are an idea shared by political agents who sharply reject the agenda of political liberalism. Likewise, Civil Rights can no doubt be on the political agenda of anti-egalitarianists. European liberalism, for instance, can be very elitist and anti-egalitarian while clinging to civil rights as one of their traditional political objectives.
Like.
I'm pretty sure it's possible, and I think it's a good idea.
Symmetrical
I agree that symmetry is not strictly necessary but, as you can see, Xyth specifically requests it.
In some cases, there are in fact good gameplay reasons for rejecting symmetry.
For instance, I would suggest that Riding, which falls within an Ancient Era column, be reclassified as a Classical technology.
This solves a serious problem with Classical Era starts: since all players, including the barbarians, begin the game with all Ancient technologies, Barbarian Horse Archers can appear immediately. Players have no adequate defense against these units for at least the first 25 turns of the game, before they connect their strategic resources; and entire civilizations are often eliminated as a result.
In HR, arrows are "AND" prerequisties while corner icons are "OR" prerequisites.
That means that only one corner icon per technology is required; any more would be optional.
I have added many corner icon crosslinks to the tech tree; the total now stands at 35.
Let me know if there are any logical connections I have overlooked. As to specifics:
Theatres: Xyth decided long ago that the Theatre would be an Ancient Era building. When you consider not only classical Greek theatre but also ancient Egyptian, Indian, and Chinese theatre, the decision makes sense. The performing arts are very old indeed; older, in most cases, than literature. At the same time, the classical Greek Wonders are surprisingly young: most were built between 400-200 BC, which corresponds nicely with the second column of the Classical Era.
Longbowmen: Longbowman in the Classical Era are indeed anachronistic. Unfortunately, I was constrained by gameplay concerns: Heavy Footmen have always been available in the Classical Era, and players must be given the tools to defend against them. That said, there has been some talk of switching the roles of the Longbowman and Crossbowman as part of general update of Skirmisher units. Crossbows were in use across Europe and Asia by 300 BC, so their presence in the Classical Era will be much less jarring.
Compass: I found a solution to this oversight. Compass now requires Clockwork and Navigation. Clockwork, in turn, requires Machinery, which requires Iron Working.
Thanks. I was planning to add Chivalry to the Medieval Era, then decided that Heraldry was both more distinct and universal.
Absolutely. That's why I decided to move the Social Welfare civic to Labour Unions.
Sociology, the study of human social activity and institutions, is now a strictly neutral technology.
It unlocks Intelligence Agencies and Cristo Redentor, neither of which are especially political in nature.
Ah, but Liberalism as a technology refers to the classical liberalism of the Renaissance and Industrial Eras and not modern political or social liberalism. Classical liberalism was committed to individual liberty, limited government, due process, and the rule of law. (Note that Liberalism unlocks the Jurisdiction civic.) That's hardly controversial. Of course, classical liberalism was elitist in character: it granted many rights to wealthy men, and few to women, slaves, and the poor. However, liberalism was so successful a philosophy that all major modern political movements are 'liberal' in the classical sense. Modern liberalism seeks to combine classical liberalism with a commitment to social justice. This is best represented by the term Egalitarianism. As it happens, I suspect that Xyth refers to "Civil Rights" in the American sense: as the end of segregation and racial laws. The Martin Luther King, Jr. quote suggests as much. This can be confusing, hence the suggested name change. Egalitarianism is committed to equal treatment for all people; not surprisingly, it unlocks the Equal Rights civic. Modern political movements of all stripes might be elite-driven but they are almost always egalitarian to the extent that they assume the equal moral worth of all people: men, women, rich, and poor.
Good thinking. I have reinstated that link.
And a final comment: I felt that Fishing was easily the least desirable of the starting technologies. The others unlock useful early buildings or improvements; Fishing, not so much.
So I have moved the Work Boat to Fishing. Players must still research Sailing to enable Fishing Boats; but civilizations with Fishing can start building the necessary Work Boats on T0.
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