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How do I scale tech cost?

NapoleonBlownApart

Chieftain
Joined
Jul 19, 2007
Messages
48
I have been working on a scenario to which I have added a lot of techs. I keep running into the problem that by the time I am only about 25% of the way through the tech tree, I have hit the minimum research time of 4 or 5 turns per tech with only 50% research. Since there are so many factors that contribute to teching speed like map size, number of cities under your control and presence of research boosting city improvements, how do I figure out the proper tech cost for each technology? Thanks to anyone who can lend some advice.
 
This is not an area I've done a lot of work in, so keep that in mind when reading.

If your scenario has a set number of starting cities per Civ, that might explain such accelerated tech rate? But you mention map size, so I'm guessing everyone starts with 0 cities. Or perhaps you have special buildings that also increase research?

So you have the 'cost' field in the Civilisation Advance rules page with extremely rough tech cost averages of 40 for Ancient 80 for Medieval, 120 for Industrial and 250 for modern. So something along those lines might be appropriate?

Or more simply, if you are getting a tech every 4 or 5 turns per tech with 50% research then I'd suggest as a minimum you need to at least double the tech cost so that this becomes 4 or 5 turns per tech with 100% research in a government type with a trade bonus and not excessive corruption.

In terms of map size variations, this should be catered for with the default rules setting under the 'World Sizes' category, which has a 'tech rate' field. This figure should increase as map size increases except in certain circumstances (e.g. I intend the human and AI to have broadly the same size of empire on every map size from small to huge+ (206x206) as I keep the ratio of land tiles to number of Civs roughly the same across all map sizes and have settings to make mass conquest very difficult. So my tech rate is slightly increased from Small to Standard and then the same for Standard and above).

I think the first thing you have to do before anything else is establish if your teching issue is across multiple map sizes or just in relation to one map size. If it is the latter it is more likely to be an issue with the 'tech rate' field. If not, then it is probably a case of going into all your new techs and at least doubling their cost.

Hope the above helps.
 
Thanks for the reply! Yeah this is a scenario with every player starting with 0 cities and the teaching speed does not become apparent until all the ancient techs are researched.

I'll have to try your suggestion of getting them to be 4-5 turns at 100% science. My goal was for teching to be around 10-15 turns per tech with 50% science in a moderately sized empire for the duration of the game. I just recently started testing on a different map size and I think it has made figuring out the cost much easier. I very much appreciate the recommendation!
 
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