Walter Hawkwood
RI Curator
I'm no XML coder myself, but, if that's feasible without SDK, I'd like to give some modder an idea to use: neighbor tech bonus. In short, being a neighbor to a non-hostile high-tech civ should boost your tech output too. How could it work: if you have open borders, and your neighbor knows a tech, you get a bonus researching it (probably scaled by actual relations).
At least that's what usually tends to happen IRL. I think that would improve game realism as well as actual gameplay by promoting somewhat more gradual tech spread through the globe (like RL "Europe" area in XV-XIX centuries, where a thing invented by one soon became known to everybody and their grandmother). Another (though bulkier) solution would be providing these boni if you have a trade route to that civ's city. Maybe even giving a military tech research bonus if you have defeated a unit given by that tech in battle (studying enemy tactics and captured equipment).
At least that's what usually tends to happen IRL. I think that would improve game realism as well as actual gameplay by promoting somewhat more gradual tech spread through the globe (like RL "Europe" area in XV-XIX centuries, where a thing invented by one soon became known to everybody and their grandmother). Another (though bulkier) solution would be providing these boni if you have a trade route to that civ's city. Maybe even giving a military tech research bonus if you have defeated a unit given by that tech in battle (studying enemy tactics and captured equipment).
