New Scientific method

[Comrade Pedro]

I think in the next civ, the science could develop itself in another way. Instead of having to choose an expecific advance, people could choose the area they want to develop. Like that, people wouldn't choose a expecific advance, but choose what areas of knowlege they want to give more importance... Like war. A person that chooses to give 60% of importance to war and the rest to the other areas. Sooner a random war advance, of course matching the age of the game was.......
Please give your comments...

 

[Stid]

soooo you want there to be like 2 or 3 advances all related to the same topic? for example if you decided to go for rocketry, you could discover either Balistic Missiles, Jet Fighters or Missile gunboats? or have i missed the point?

 

[Comrade Pedro]

lolol, well thats somewhere like it
I mean, you have scientific development and you give how much importance you want to each area. You choose war to be the area of the most importance and then, it will appear technologies you dont even choose, its appears randomly.
I think thats the better method, because in history people dont choose to pick an advance just to get to an another that is really good and requires that first to reach....
Well, guess i dont know how to explain my ideas perfetly.....

 

[sir_schwick]

If you ever played SMAC, you'll understand. Preach on brother pedro.

 

[Comrade Pedro]

Science development would be like this:
people, from the begining choose their areas which they want to invent most hardly. Then, depending how much you invest on that area, that will give advances. Every area would have to be a percentage of invest, even if it would be a little thing. I think like this the game would become much more realistic

 

[Stid]

right thats clear now! i was a bit off i admit and i dont have a clue what SMAC is in relation to gaming so im sorry brother schwik. would you care to enlighten me?

 

[sir_schwick]

SMAC is Sid Mier's Alpha Centauri. After Civ 2, Sid and Brian decided to make a game about what happened to the Alpha Centauri spaceship onced it reached its destination. It was one of Firaxis's first games and tried out many new and interesting ideas for the 4X series. Some of the ideas worked well for mainstream audience and was incorporated into Civ 3. Many did not like some of the more innovative features, and game developers have ignored htem. Pick up a cheap copy sometime and check it out.

Pedro, this sounds a lot like the MOO 1 research model.

 

[Mewtarthio]

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. It used a model called Blind Research which worked exactly this way. The alien race known as the Progenitors in the expansion could direct their research since they were in a "Dark Age" and were regaining lost technology.

 

[Comrade Pedro]

Pedro, this sounds a lot like the MOO 1 research model.

Well, forgive me of my ignorance but can you explain what is the MOO 1 research model? Thanks a lot

 

[sir_schwick]

I guess I should have explianed the relevant part. Thank you Mewtarthio. Sorry if I seem to be spamming. I am trying to get to my 300th post for a custom avatar

 

[Comrade Pedro]

But wouldn't be a nice idea if none of the civs could take advantage and take the right advances for a faster rise to the end of the game?

 

[Colonel]

i lie this idea but what happens at the end of an age and havent choose to reserch any say military technolgy or some other

 

[sir_schwick]

Techs stilll have prequesite techs. If the field you choose really can't be reserached further without requesite, you will reseearch one of the requesites. SMAC actually did a really good job of this. Especially with making fields cross a lot.

 

[Comrade Pedro]

you talk about eras... I think that idea of having eras in civ is disapopriate.
And about the perequesite of techs, of course the techs have it, but you would choose which tech you wanted to have, just because that one is better than the other one...

 

[sir_schwick]

Just play SMAC and see blind Reaserach.. It worked out much better than it sounds.

 

[Oni]

Pedro, this sounds a lot like the MOO 1 research model.

They had it right

 

[sir_schwick]

of course the MOO1 tech tree was also different. I thought for a Civ game, SMACs Blind Research worked well.

ON a personal note, I liked both the MOO 1 and MOO 2 models.

 

[Oni]

ACtually I hated the blind research of SMAC, so once I realized I could turn it off I did.

 

[sir_schwick]

I love the fact you couldn't plan out your strategy turn-by-turn based on when you would get certain techs. Also gave devleopmetn more of a 'natural' feel. I in genearl just hated the 100 turn Archer rush strategies and such. History wasn't measured that precisely, development was random and happened.

 

[Oni]

I understand what your saying but I prefer strategy to randomness. The orginal Civilization (board game) was and still is one of the best games ever made due to the fact that there are no dice, where as your average board game bases everything off the role of a die.

Strategy is what makes games interesting. Look at MoO3 for example. Course that game sucks for many reasons but they killed the so famous tech research. You have no control over it. There in fact is no micromanagement what so ever. Loosing a defined research path is loosing a huge micromanagement feature that allows for alot of entertainment.

It may create diverse civs which are not necessarily 'historically' accurate.. But it is fun. If I wanted historically accurate I would read a history book. Its fun to make a civ which died out in the early BCs become extremely powerful even throughout the industrial age all because you went for those key acheivments you felt would help them survive.