New Information -- Finally! (June 3, 2007)

New techs and new units sound awesome! I hope that SDI needs laser as prerequisite now, it should appear later in the game to prolong the usefulness of ICBMs as effective deterrents/first strikes.
 
I couldn't agree more. No sudden spread of new techs to all my opponents, but rather based on the diplomatic situation of whoever researched it.. This and the effect of Christo Redentor are to me the best things revealed in that interview. :D

This might be the end of seeing Mansa passing out techs like candy. I might not have to wipe him off the face of the planet anymore.
 
Hmm, I was thinking "If there's gonna be an ACTUAL space race, shouldn't the timeline be extended to 2100?", but then I remembered how you could construct a toothless ship and send it off then, rather the building EVERYTHING so that the game will end before the ship is even launched.

Also, what do people think about extending the timeline to 2100 and adding in the postmodern units, (as advertised on the main box?). Civ blasphemy ("ooohh nooo Civ is about history! let's not go EE!") or nice idea?
 
I couldn't agree more. No sudden spread of new techs to all my opponents, but rather based on the diplomatic situation of whoever researched it.. This and the effect of Christo Redentor are to me the best things revealed in that interview. :D
I'm not really keen on this as a binary (yes/no) option. I would have preferred a more subtle approach with more choices (yes/restricted/no) with restricted meaning something like:
  1. Any civ that discovers a tech through research can use the tech immediately.
  2. Any civ that trades for a tech still has to perform additional research to achieve practical use of that tech. (i.e. build units/buildings, utilize effects such as civics, use as prereq for another tech)
  3. If you trade for a tech from a civ that did not discover the tech and has not yet achieved practical use of the tech then your additional research to achieve practical use will take longer.
  4. Any research you have already performed towards a tech that you then trade for should discount the practical use research in some way.
Perhaps something as simple as...when you trade for a tech from someone who is actually using the tech (such as an original researcher) you get 90% of the beakers towards it, but when you trade with anyone else you only get 80% of the beakers.

This would give actual researchers a significant benefit and limit the effectiveness of trading for a tech and then trading it on without having to cut it out of the game entirely.

It might even allow if done right the trading of partial research, which would allow you to give a partially researched tech to a vassal and then direct them to finish it while you move on to something more important.
 
Also, what do people think about extending the timeline to 2100 and adding in the postmodern units, (as advertised on the main box?). Civ blasphemy ("ooohh nooo Civ is about history! let's not go EE!") or nice idea?

Blasphemy.
Techs that will likely be researched by 2050 (fusion, quantum computers...) are as much as I am willing to accept. SDI and Space Elevator ar already right at the limit.
A new Tank generation after modern amrour would be OK, maybe even Orbital Bombers but no silly mechs.
 
Along with the addition of being able to use the espionage slider to see what technology a civ is researching, I can see a new tactic emerging from activating the option so that only the founder civ can share a technology: gifting a technology to civs just about to research it. The civ still spends most of the time researching the technology but loses the ability to share it.
 
Along with the addition of being able to use the espionage slider to see what technology a civ is researching, I can see a new tactic emerging from activating the option so that only the founder civ can share a technology: gifting a technology to civs just about to research it. The civ still spends most of the time researching the technology but loses the ability to share it.
But then you are subsidizing the research of every other civ by 1 turn per tech... would you come out ahead?
 
Nikis-Knight:
But then you are subsidizing the research of every other civ by 1 turn per tech... would you come out ahead?

Yes - you would be dramatically curtailing the research of all that civs trading partners.
 
Sounds nice. I even pre-ordered this before seeing this interview!

And some little OT to spice this thread:
mjs0 said:
Scenarios: Not much new, but much kudos to fan participation.

I have wondered what kudos means. Tell me! In Finnish it's a biological tissue, what is it in Internet?
 
I have wondered what kudos means. Tell me! In Finnish it's a biological tissue, what is it in Internet?

Good definition here Kudos

Basically, kudos is fame and renown resulting from an act or achievement; it is thus by logical extension often used as a praising remark.
 
A new Tank generation after modern amrour would be OK, maybe even Orbital Bombers but no silly mechs.

I have sad news for you: it's 'only' 2007, and already the US military is drawing plans of deploying robots within the decade...
 
I couldn't agree more. No sudden spread of new techs to all my opponents, but rather based on the diplomatic situation of whoever researched it.

It's a very interesting addition, and it might end the need to distribute the techs I researched to *everybody* because if I don't, everyone else still gets the tech in question without me getting something in return.

However, I wonder what a player can do if he did trade for a tech, and then *does* want to goive it to someone else. Can he research the tech again? Not likely. Can he *never* trade this tech because he didn't research it by himself? This would be strange ... it would mean that I couldn't trade "The Wheel" away in 2000 AD because I traded for it several thousand years ago ...

I think this is a very interesting feature, but it will require further refinement. Not sure whether this has already taken place.
 
... it would mean that I couldn't trade "The Wheel" away in 2000 AD because I traded for it several thousand years ago ...

By 2000 AD "the Wheel" would take a fraction of a turn to research. I can't imagine any civ needing more then a single reasonable city's lab output to research it themself. ;)
 
By 2000 AD "the Wheel" would take a fraction of a turn to research. I can't imagine any civ needing more then a single city's lab output to research it themself. ;)

Yeah. Also, a civ that doesn't have the wheel in 2000 AD is rather unlikely to have survived that long. I used an exaggerated example (my fault ;) ). But do you see the problem that occurs when trading for a tech would automatically lock it so that you could never trade it to someone else, ever?

Edit: Think about it this way: You've traded for tech A many turns ago. Since then, you've researched some more techs, and tech A isn't really something new to your culture any more. Let's say there's a civ in your neighbourhood that you want to improve relations with, and they are a bit backwards and could use that tech. Now, if the game prevents you from trading a tech that's known to your civilization since a couple of generations, and also doesn't give you any way to *make* it "tradeable" for you, wouldn't that feel rather limiting and artificial?
 
Yeah. Also, a civ that doesn't have the wheel in 2000 AD is rather unlikely to have survived that long. I used an exaggerated example (my fault ;) ). But do you see the problem that occurs when trading for a tech would automatically lock it so that you could never trade it to someone else, ever?

That is why it is an optional feature. Along with random personalities.
 
I see the problem, that's for sure. You can't "gift" a certain tech you received by tech trade earlier that another civ might desperately need to survive an onslaught by yet another civ.
 
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