ArcaneSeraph
Warlord
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2007
- Messages
- 261
Very much disagree with ArcaneSeraph's frowning at research agreements. Diplomacy was always a very large part of your science production in Civ - just in former games there wasn't 'research agreements', but outright 'tech trades' (which, in fact, was even more 'extreme' than Civ5's RA may seem in how much benefit they provided). One easily 'cheated' through just as much of the tech tree using diplomacy in Civ4 as one does not in Civ5 - and I wouldn't want it any other way since it makes sense from both a gameplay and a realism standpoint. Real life United States didn't have to invent gunpower because the Chinese had already done that. It only makes sense that a large percentage of 'science' comes from abroad, in Civ represented as 'diplomacy'.
Research Agreements are, contrary to popular belief, one of the single best things about Civ5 compared to predecessors, one of the major steps forward. While their execution is poor (it really isn't that bad, it's just that the idiotic AI amplifies the issue manyfold), the truth is they remove the annoyance from previous games where one would constantly have to check diplomacy screens to find out if new opportunities for tech trades had arisen. Now, in Civ5, we comfortably just sign RA's and and don't have to bother with that boredom. I'm thankful for that.
I agree with you that tech trading was awful... it had a few good points to it (which I will get to in a moment) but in general the chain reaction feeding frenzy of tech trading was not a great game mechanic IMO. However RAs are not good... they just aren't as bad.
Tech trades, for how awful they were, at least didn't let you get tech that nobody had. Or trade with some backwards nation to get some very advanced tech. RAs on the other hand... well we know the answer to that, don't we

Still... does it make sense that I should be able to 'agree to research' with someone and have the results be something they don't know and aren't even lose to researching? Meh...
So yeah... better than tech trading but not good.
It is easy to bash and not to prop up. With that in mind what would I suggest as being better? A combo system of tech trading and RAs. In order to form a research agreement, you must go to a civilization that has a tech and pay them to send you scientists to help you learn that tech yourself faster. It avoids the feeding frenzy of old tech trading. Doesn't allow you to use RAs to jump to future techs no one even has. It allows AIs (and you, if that's the case) that are behind to catch up. It's a nice option IMO.