Missing Important Technologies

[Ouchgeddon]

Has this been a thread before? If not...

Sid Meier can't put in everything, but just that some world-changing techs aren't in Civ3, for example Refrigeration. I would think it quite a bit more important than say, the Laser. How are you going to store supplies for the long trip to Alpha Centauri?

Refrigeration as a tech advance could grant a 50% (or whatever % is balanced) reduction in the cost of keeping military units, as you no longer have to deliver fresh off the farm food to them.

Any other important human achievements that have not been included?

 

[Shaitan]

Universal Precautions. This is the fancy name for washing hands and wearing gloves when caring for sick persons, and changing the gloves and rewashing the hands when going to care for a different sick person. The use of masks for protection against airborne pathogens and fabric barriers against body exodus is also part of Universal Precautions. These very simple concepts decreased cross contamination deaths by several magnitudes when they were finally implemented. The results were equally dramatic for childbirth.

Another technology along the same lines is Sterilization. Before the use of sterile fields and implements became common every surgical procedure carried a huge chance of death due to infection.

 

[Ouchgeddon]

Hi man, you're replying as I'm sitting here!

 

[baseballtwin86]

A couple more advances that should have beeen included is mass communication --- includes television/ telephone. Could be a prerequisite for the internet. It could make one person in each city happy.

 

[Flopsy]

Originally posted by baseballtwin86
A couple more advances that should have beeen included is mass communication --- includes television/ telephone. Could be a prerequisite for the internet. It could make one person in each city happy.

And in turn a prerequisite for the Civ III Wonder - reduces production in a city by 90%, but makes nearly all citizens happy until you research patch 1.17 which turns all citizens unhappy.

 

[Lt. 'Killer' M.]

Originally posted by baseballtwin86
A couple more advances that should have beeen included is mass communication --- includes television/ telephone. Could be a prerequisite for the internet. It could make one person in each city happy.

It should also increase waste (NOT corruption) seriously

 

[Ironikinit]

Some of those are linked to idea in the game... universal precautions to medicine, for example.

Some techs (too many, according to some) are "speedbumps" already... that is, there's no real benefit to researching the tech other than to get to what's beyond it.

Not to raid on your ideas or anything, there's nothing wrong with brainstorming.

 

[Ribannah]

There has been much discussion about the tech tree, especially BEFORE the game was published.
I'd say that the 4 most important missing techs
that could have contributed to gameplay are:

ANCIENT - Canal Building
MIDDLE AGES - The Mill
INDUSTRIAL - Colonialism
MODERN - Social Security

 

[Park Ranger]

@ Ribannah - in my old civ2 game I inserted the tech COLONIALISM in between railroad and industrialization. To be historically accurate, though, perhaps a tech like "colonialism" should follow magnetism and precede industrialization.

Canal building is something I'd also really love to see implemented. Especially for those times when you have a chain of lakes leading up to the sea. No more chains of cities every 3 squares linking up small lakes so you can get boats across that little annoying isthmus between the two major oceans of your civ's world....

 

[Rustus Maximus]

In many ways the tech tree in CIV 2 was better and made more sense. As far as the canal thing goes, that capability Park Ranger spoke of was another way CIV 2 was more realistic. You could build a city on the shore of several inland lakes and if the terrain was laid out correctly you could build a series of "canal cities" ala the Great Lakes/St. Lawrence. I guess they took it out because the AI was too dumb to stop building ships on lakes where the ships wouldn't be able to reach open sea.

 

[candidgamera]

Would like to see an ability in the editor to change resources necessary for a task, namely railroad - game ignores the shift from needing coal and iron to needing oil and iron for diesel trains.
Civ3 works now like diesel is never invented.

If we could add tasks like units or improvements this could be done.

Doable now with editor.
Would like to see the flight related techs switched around some:
Advanced flight should take in paras and bombers.
Naval aviation should be a separate tech to build carriers.
Airmobility for heliocopters, transport aircraft.


Agree with comments related to communications: radio, telephone, television, internet - radio, telephone, internet should have more game impact on governing, corruption. Also on refrigeration - bring back the farm.

 

[etj4Eagle]

Originally posted by candidgamera
Would like to see an ability in the editor to change resources necessary for a task, namely railroad - game ignores the shift from needing coal and iron to needing oil and iron for diesel trains.
Civ3 works now like diesel is never invented.

Though at teh same time coal is still needed to produce those steel railroad ties. Coke blast furnaces are a very important step in the manufacturing of steel.

 

[LaRo]

Familial Planning: abortion, condoms... Stop the growth of all your cities.

Celine Dion: made one person happy and two unhappy

 

[candidgamera]

etj4eagle:

Good point. Being an engineer I should have thought of that.
Guess I think bread comes from the store too . . . doh.

to be realistic as well steel would be made in a mill a mill requiring
limestone, iron, and coal. A factory would require a mill.

 

[elfstorm]

You could argue the present tech tree is too bias towards modern techs (late 19c. & early 20c.). Though I guess that may depend on your tastes. (i.e. do you prefer the ancient units to the modern).

But you mention Colonialsim as a tech. I was wondering why you thought so? I would have said it was a system which emerged from specific technologies - Improved ship buliding techniques etc.

 

[Goodie Hut]

How about the Rosie O'Donnell theory of weight loss?

Increases the food consumption of each citizen by 1.

 

[Fr8monkey]

How about a building called the Internet Provider (prerequisite: computer) causes all citizens in city to stop all production.

 

[Ribannah]

Originally posted by Park Ranger
@ Ribannah - in my old civ2 game I inserted the tech COLONIALISM in between railroad and industrialization. To be historically accurate, though, perhaps a tech like "colonialism" should follow magnetism and precede industrialization.

I think you are absolutely right. In my extended tech tree, I have Colonialism springing from Magnetism and Banking, and leading to Industrialization (with Railroad) and Fundamentalism(!) (with Ethics).

Canal Building would allow the Great Wonder "Grand Canal" which almost made it into Civ3 anyway.

 

[Ouchgeddon]

The Internet can be a Great Wonder, reduces shields in the city that builds it (costs a lot to be a service provider for the whole nation), increases commerce in every one of your cities. ALL civs can now build ISPs as small wonders, to give a small commerce boost to their civs.

Good humour so far, but come on guys! You can do better can't you? Or do we need the Stand Up Comedy tech so we can build Whose Line Is It Anyway??? Free happiness for all, and other civs can subscribe...And the other leaders say wittier things, yeah!

I agree on thise "filler" techs that don't do anything. At least give ONE building option like Music Theory gives Bach's Cathedral. Doesn't have to be wonder, can be a unit or change something (like Economics changes your Wealth ratio).

Anything else? Domestication, Media, GM Technology, *ahem* Prostitution?

 

[Ribannah]

Originally posted by elfstorm
You could argue the present tech tree is too bias towards modern techs (late 19c. & early 20c.). Though I guess that may depend on your tastes. (i.e. do you prefer the ancient units to the modern).

I agree. I wouldn't mind starting the game with researching Fire and Stonecutting!
Also, research goes too fast during the last age, one has hardly time to build the new units or improvements or there's the next one already.

But you mention Colonialism as a tech. I was wondering why you thought so? I would have said it was a system which emerged from specific technologies - Improved ship buliding techniques etc.

All techs emerge from older techs. Colonialism falls into the same category as eg Nationalism. It is a major 'advance' in human attitude towards society, with in this case enormous implications for the economy, as it generated the capital necessary for the Industrial Revolution.