New rule, New solution (allocating UU)

[stormbind]

Introducing Talent.

Britain didn't rule the waves because it had more wood, or because it was called Britain. Great unit types, events, innovations, and victories are the result of individuals being in the right place at the right time.

If you can discover such individuals on the map, in the same way that you discover resources, then they could increase your chances of building a certain UU, wonders, or making discoveries.

I'm thinking of something along the lines of a special event...

"Lord, the people of New York have been inspired by a great hero called Horatio Nelson. We have discovered a new unit: Man-O-War."

or

"Sir, the people of Paris are celebrating the efforts of a great scientist called Isaac Newton. We have discoverd Gravity."

The game could pop these talented individuals up in chronological order, at random locations around the world. Perhaps getting a free tech is too much so instead of that, the scientists cut the cost of their tech by half or whatever makes it ballanced.

What do you think?

 

[Mgoering]

Not a bad idea.

Thinking about units, one can imagine that if you have a lot of a certain unit (example Infantry), they can discover a way to transform them into Marines. Based on the fact that they constantly train themselves during peace time. And you can discover and build Marines without havin' dicovered Amphibious War. Of course, you have to be quite close to discover it. For example, it can happen when you discoverd Mass Production and are researching Motorized Transportation. But if you didn't even discovered Combustion, it can't happen. After that, discovering Amphibious War will be shorter, depending on what else is involved in the tech. A unit counts as 1, a building as 2 and a wonder as 5. In this example, you have 1 on 1 and get the tech. If you discover Longbowmen out of Archers, you have 1 on 6 and spare 1 turn every 6 it takes.
I would say that you only can apply this concept to military department. Research in Civ3 is actually completely based on science and how much you generate. But military improvements can come from soldiers. They're not involved in any scientific lab, but they practice their weapons on the field. So, when you are in peace, the trainings will improve their abilities, but also make them find other ways to "kill". When you are in war, you can't really improve during it.

So this brings another concept. When you battle, the unit(s) you used for should record that they fought. You should be knowing how much battles your unit has fought, by just having a number anywhere (number of battles, units destroyed and number of turns it has been built or updated). These numbers determines their experience. And experience can bring them to discover a new weapon (new unit which tech isn't discovered). However, only the unit that discovered this way will be automatically upgraded and the cost of updating will be bigger, until you discover the appropriate tech.

And don't worry, you have to have a base for it. You cannot discover Horsemen with Archers. You can discover Knight with them. Cannon's experience can bring you to discover Artillery or Caravel can bring you to discover Galleon. So, to discover Mech Infantry, you have to discover the appropriate tech. This, just to say that new units are mainly discovered in military academies and not in education and research academies. Civ4 should be taken this in consideration.


Finally, like I said, doing it with science isn't a good idea. There are city improvements to speed up science and, of course, you science percentage.