Longer Ages!

[ComradeDavo]

I would like to see ages last longer. So basically more turns and more techs and more time needed to research.

Why?

- 1. Because sometimes games become merly a race to reach the modern age first. Nothing wrong with trying to reseach tech really fast, but I think being able to research some techs as quickly as 4 turns is a bit too much. Perhaps a limit of 8 mimum turns would be best, and maybe even 16 turns for those techs which really change the game landscape (i'm thinking techs that give resources such as oil/coal maybe, or techs that lead to the next era). Basically I just want to see the tech race slowed down, so you can focus on other aspects of the game equally as much.

- 2. Also, what with the tech race slowed down, it would give civs some serious time to fight wars! Like, now you might be a little worried about building those 30 chariots and archers along with catapults in support because your worried that your fall behind in the tech race (you could be building libarys and marketplaces instead or whatever you big fool!) and also they will soon become obsolete and your have aload of units which need expensively upgrading on your hands! But if the tech race was slowed down, then you could afford to do this and go off and have yourself a little war without those worries! At current, you can get away with doing this maybe once or twice but no sooner have you finished builing those swordsmen your opponents have suddenly got pikemen and your efforst have gone to waste.

Anyone else feel this way?

 

[sanderdolphin]

I would also like to see a split of civilisations during the game when you least expect it. Test your armies time.

For example, the civilisation England decide to sail across to America. Those in America then decide to revolt and go it alone. The selected cities are then 'revolting', won't contribute to your economy, and needs you to battle them like any other civilisation.

 

[SewerStarFish]

I wouldn't mind the idea of more turns and techs but I really don't enjoy waiting 40+ turns for a tech either [b-o-r-i-n-g]. Maybe more dead-enders with cool units/buildings.

 

[ShADoW^HawK]

Yes. I say to simply put more techs in there, but I don't know about making some of the techs longer. Of course, I don't think 4 years per tech is right before even halfway through the industrial ages, even though I like doing it and getting Modern Armor while my enemies are just barely reaching cavalry.

But, for this situation, you might as well just make a scenario.

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

I think that having a more 'organic' research system would be much better for creating longer ages. For instance, lets say that 1/2 of the ancient age techs are 'Prerequisite' techs for entry to the middle ages. Well, under the current system, you have a problem of players and the AI beelining through the essential techs JUST so they can get to the middle ages!
Instead, if you make research more....blind, then you have very little control over what techs you will get. There would be some controls in it-like how much of your scientific resources you want to dedicate to a broad tech area (like cultural/philosophical;military/naval;industrial/commercial;scientific etc). Also, your 'culture' and access to prior tech advances would influence things. The point is that, as the research is mostly blind, you don't know how soon you'll get all the techs you need to progress to the next age! It might go quick (if you're VERY lucky), or it might go quite slowly. The actual rate of research, remains fundamentally unchanged!

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

 

[primeminister99]

Eww I don't want to have a minimum research time of 16 turns. If you want that you can put that into a scenario in the scenario editor.

I think that there should just be a few more techs and eras this would add depth to the game in the way your describing. Maybe there could be a dark age sandwiched between the ancient age and middle ages. Also I think a post modern age where techs like genetic engineering become useful and things like advanced tele-comms and lasers become tangible in the game. Think of it as the future, but only about 20 to 50 years into the future, not the Star Trek type future that some have proposed.

 

[Archer 007]

Maybe more dead-enders with cool units/buildings.

That could do it.

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

Dark Ages have been proposed in other threads, and might serve to slow tech advancement and productivity for one, or all, civs at a crucial point in history. I've even suggested that a dark age should involve some loss of technology-though nothing to crippling, and only under the rarest of circumstances!

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

 

[hauchdeslebens]

Setting minimum times for research are worth a thought, but it should still allow scientific blooming. If you are stuck too long it ain't too much fun either. Having more time seems smart tough, because the time needed too build an improvement is unrealistically long. Or worse when in war, the time it takes to move armies and conquer cities is not realistic. In modern times a battleship has no problem to sail around the world in one year. Of course, it is not too easy to include it, but more turns seem to be a tempting solution to me.
Any thoughts?

 

[rcoutme]

The problem with setting minimum times longer is that you get stuck with them in ages when they no longer fit. The 20th century saw a serious boom in technology and the 8 year minimum currently in Civ3 is actually historically too long!

When I am playing, what I find to be the 'quick' age is the Middle Ages. Part of the reason for this may be that I play (usually) on huge or large maps. The extra cities produce too much wealth and rush me through the science. Even when I increase the cost for those techs, I run into the problem that the MA don't have many city improvements so my cities run out of things to build (other than armies, of course).

I have still not resolved this dilemma. Is the MA on std size maps similarly constrained? I know that the AA is constrained by civs trying to grab as much land as possible (even on std maps). Also, getting more wars might slow things down, but the AI civs would need to be attacking each other more often as well, or the entire thing would blow up in our faces!

I am all for getting the MA and IA to parallel 'real' time, but I am uncertain how to go about this.

 

[ComradeDavo]

Concerning mimimum/maximum tech lengths......

(Firstly, note that this would go hand in hand with increasing the amount of turns in the game. You can do this manually already with conquests.)

To make it clear, I think that the game changing techs should have a long time needed to get them. Like, whilst normally you might have a 6 turn mimimum, for a tech that would take you to the next age this would be doubled to 12, to represent the dramtic change that it brings.

Also, I think it would be good to have different mimimum lengths per game. Like, whilst in teh ancient age it could be a 5 tech mimimum, it could go up to a 6/7 tech mimimum for the middle ages, to counter the rush that rcoutme describes.

 

[Pirate]

I have posted a suggestion similar to this in the "4 distinct ages" thread: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=85700

Basically I proposed that techs alone should not trigger the next age. You should also have to reach a certain political, social, or cultural milestone (having 90% of your cities connected, a certain level of culture, establishing a capital city, whatever) before you can progress, even if you have all the techs. What do you think?

 

[ComradeDavo]

Yeh I like your ideas in your thread Pirate