Prefered Techs 50 BC

[grant2004]

This poll is an experiment to see how well a poll can determine the preferred tech path of the citizenry. I don't believe this should be binding because the interpretation of the results is potentially confusing. At the very least this will give some idea as to which techs should be researched in the upcoming turnchat.

Please follow these rules while voting in this poll, hopefully they will make interpretation of the results clearer.

Vote for only 6 technologies
If you select an advanced technology also select the prerequisites for it

Thank you for you're cooperation, I hope this turns out well.

Which 6 technologies should we research?
Polytheism (2)
Monotheism (3)
Compass (7)
Monarchy (5)
Mathematics (4)
Machinery (12)
Currency (8)
Construction (7)
Calendar (7)
Literature (4)
Optics (12)
Feudalism (14)
Engineering (20)
Drama (5)
Guilds (20)
Theology (10)
Philosophy (13)
Music (12)
Banking (14)
Paper (10)
Divine Right (24)
Education (36)
Printing Press (32)
Nationalism (36)

Sorry for the length of the list, but it wouldn't be impossible to get that deep into the tech list

 

[DaveShack]

hmm, no game available to check...

for those techs with pre-reqs, it would be nice if at least the immediate pre-reqs were listed here.

 

[dutchfire]

It would probably be better to vote between 3 or 4 tech paths, instead of this

 

[donsig]

Wow, if 6 techs get a majority does that mean we don't research any of the others?

 

[grant2004]

The idea was that the most popular techs would be constructed into a research chain, that may not be possible, but I wanted to see if this type of poll could turn out useful results.

Here's an updated list with prerequisites

Tech: Prerequisite
Polytheism (2) None
Monotheism (3) Polytheism
Compass (7) None
Monarchy (5) None
Mathematics (4) None
Machinery (12) None
Currency (8) Mathematics
Construction (7) Mathematics
Calendar (7) Mathematics
Literature (4) Polytheism
Optics (12) Machinery Compass
Feudalism (14) Monarchy
Engineering (20) Construction Machinery
Drama (5) None
Guilds (20) Machinery
Theology (10) Monotheism
Philosophy (13) None
Music (12) Literature or Drama and Mathematics
Banking (14) Currency and Guilds
Paper (10) None
Divine Right (24) Monarchy and Theology
Education (36) Paper
Printing Press (32) Paper and Machinery
Nationalism (36) Divine Right or Philosophy.

 

[donsig]

Does it look like it will generate useful results? Seems to me the choice is complicated and the poll may not reflect what citizens want.

 

[grant2004]

I'm not sure how useful it will be, it is complicated and I can't be sure that useful results will come out of it, this was more an experiment than anything else. If it fails, then this was of selecting tech paths is ruled out for the future, if it succeeds we've got an easy way of selecting tech paths in the future.

 

[ravensfire]

Voted for everything with >= 10 turns in protest.

I don't want to see massive lists of techs with a pick 'X' poll. I want to see longer term plans, tech paths, etc. Let the citizen determine the goal, and the leader how to get there.

-- Ravensfire

 

[grant2004]

You know, a person decides to try something out, and people just want to jump on it with criticism and protest votes, we've tried the discussions on longer term plans, but very few people get involved in them, we've tried getting a science officer but we stagnate the discussion on the NAME of the darn office!

I stated at the start of this that the result of this poll should be non binding and that this was an experiment about a way to do things for the future. It was dependant on people being willing to try something out and follow simple guidelines. Your protest would have been just as effective without attempting to disturb the results of this test.

 

[Hyronymus]

Point taken, Grant. Let's get it on with the science office(r) then and not expect long term scientific planning for this upcoming turnchat.

 

[ravensfire]

Possibly. But that's the nature of the beast. People will experiment and try new things, and others will comment.

Deal with mine as you will, but you'll certainly not change my views or my tactics by responding as you did.

-- Ravensfire

 

[grant2004]

Others will comment, and that's one thing, but you've done entirely another.

There have been a number of things that have made people angry in this demogame, trying to name geographical features without a none of the above option, a DP missing a few instructions, but this is the one that really gets me, knowingly disrupting a legitimate poll.

You're tactics, as you call them, were unnecessary, and they will certainly not change my views the way Donsig's polite questioning and criticism or Hyronymus' wise suggestions will.

 

[donsig]

grant2004, there is a long history of dissention over demogame polls and some of us still get rattled over some poll issues. Innovation is good but I'm not so sure polls are the place for that. I'm still curious as to whether the poll results here give any indication of where our research should go. Tech paths in are more complicated than in Civ III. Has there been any discussion about long term research? (sorry, I only check out the poll thread nowadays.)

 

[grant2004]

There have been attempts at longer term research plans however we've found it difficult to gather the same interest that other topics show

Also I see it being difficult in the future, we haven't had a situation yet, but is seems that differences between completing plans will be tough to iron out if there are two decent plans up for discussion. Differences of opinion on this topic often come down to specific order of a few techs, and that is a difficult topic to poll in itself.

 

[DaveShack]

This method, surprisingly, is generating a statistically significant result. The people seem to be leaning towards Math->Currency or Math->Construction for the immediate path. It matches the preference for a peaceful buildup, with Math giving full production from forest chops, and Currency giving marketplaces.

It happens I'm currently suffering from Buried-at-Work-itis and not available to drive it this week from the Chieftain position.

We want a longer path, but ironically the greater diversity available in Civ4 makes it harder to get one. It is more important to work with long paths, but the huge number of possible paths fragments public opinion because there are as many different opinions as there are paths.

 

[Joe Harker]

I think it has been helpful grant2004 and I see both yours and ravensfires points and have to say that the results so far have shown that people are looking towards, as daveshack said mathamatics, construction and/or currency, so overall it was an experiment that had some sucess in my view

 

[ordinaryguy]

The purpose of a DG is to play a game of Civ4 isn't it? And everyone has different playing styles and ideas. But we can learn from one another, much as I've learnt a lot from this DG.

So if people want to experiment with a new idea, that's fine with me. Maybe this issue could be solved by discussing which victory condition we would like to achieve in this game. Based on that, we could generate a long term plan (what ravensfire wants) and also a short term plan (more what grant2004 is leaning towards).

As such, I shall be starting a new discussion thread on victory conditions, hopefully to clear things up.

 

[grant2004]

I'm as surprised as any of you that this worked, I assumed we'd get a roughly even distribution around the techs we can research right away, and then a small percentage for everything after that. I agree that a long term plan is the ideal situation, but if a long term plan isn't formulated before a turnchat, this method could be used as a back up, as of yet there are no science instructions, and no active science discussions for the next turnchat, so this is all I have to base my moves off of. Looks like I should be able to get at least a little bit done.

 

[donsig]

Some very good discussion here. Since has many paths and this tends to split public opinion it is a great example of the type of decision that needs to be made that we have always been so poor at making in democracy games. I think there is more to it than just having citizens pick an overall goal and then turn the officials loose to get there. There needs to be one or two intermediate levels and these must be formulated by both citizens and officials.

I think the next step should be to discuss the paths leading beyond math and to see if there is agreement on following one.

 

[fed1943]

The three more voted are math, currency and construction.

Math is requested for the other two; currency is more peace path;construction
war path. Both currency and construction are the strongest (close to achieve)
in their path.

So, an unsurprising result.

<Best regards,