"Research Agreement"

a research pact would decrease research, it would always give a boost, even if a not very big one for one of the people involved.
 
Correct - originally they said it was a 15% boost to research for the duration of the agreement. The problem is that, as the agreement ages, the penalty for breaking it decreases, since you are earning the bonus beakers each turn. The latest reports indicate the random tech, which makes sense if the goal is to incentivize diplomacy. Delaying the reward until the end is the best way to do it.

Basing the reward on the beakers produced by the other civ means that either side could game the other by minimizing their output for the duration of pact (so they could say . . . concentrate on producing units with which to invade their unsuspecting ally)

Well, if that would happen to me, I would just cancel the agreement...

What "latest reports"? I would like to read them/listen to them.
 
Honestly, if I could remember which preview/video/screenshot/2k_Greg post it was, I would gladly post the link. Unfortunately, I have read or seen pretty much every single one of them at this point, and I have no idea where that particular tidbit was revealed - only that my immediate reaction was "Duh, that makes more sense."

And, hey I am by no means saying that this is absolute truth or that it won't change again by the time we actually get the game in our grubby little hands :) Though, I would certainly prefer the random tech. . .
 
Honestly, if I could remember which preview/video/screenshot/2k_Greg post it was, I would gladly post the link. Unfortunately, I have read or seen pretty much every single one of them at this point, and I have no idea where that particular tidbit was revealed - only that my immediate reaction was "Duh, that makes more sense."

And, hey I am by no means saying that this is absolute truth or that it won't change again by the time we actually get the game in our grubby little hands :) Though, I would certainly prefer the random tech. . .

Receiving a random tech doesn't make any sense to me... where's the strategy in receiving a random tech? I'm waiting for confirmation on this subject, and I hope this is nothing more then a rumor...
 
Maybe players should get the worst tech they can get? This would give incentive for players not to neglect too old techs, or not benefit from the pacts at all (if they really can't be bothered 'cause of a beeline).

Or it could give the best tech, akin to how player choice would usually go with Oracle and Liberalism.
 
Receiving a random tech doesn't make any sense to me... where's the strategy in receiving a random tech?

That's not a part of research strategy. That's part of diplomatic strategy. Tech is just a bonus here.
 
Exactly; faster tech progress is the reward for having friends. It replaces tech trading, but is always available regardless of any tech disparity. If you want a rationale for it, look at it this way: one of the benefits of joint research is that you now have access to another perspective, which leads to alternative solutions. Technological progress (on a societal scale) rarely follows a pre-set direction: if it did, we would all be driving electric cars.
 
That's not a part of research strategy. That's part of diplomatic strategy. Tech is just a bonus here.

No, diplomatic strategy is just a part of this question, because if you enter a research agreement you expect to obtain two kinds of rewards: a positive effect on your external relations with the other civ (although it may possibly imply a worsening of other relations) and tangible and controlled results on research - you must know what you're aiming at!

I've read many articles about the gameplay of CIV V, but still haven't found any reference to this "random tech" thing. In this site, for example, it's said that "In a Research Agreement, you agree to invest a lump sum of gold with another civilization, and will receive bonus science over 20 turns."

I'm still waiting for a source with a different version about this...
 
Random tech does seem kinda wierd, since you could easily have a situation where you were going up one line of techs where your next tech is say 1000 beakers but the random one you get is on another line maybe worth only 500 beakers. Yes it is "free" but is it really that helpful, considering maybe your AI partner got a random tech worth 700 beakers just cause he was going up a different line.

No, diplomatic strategy is just a part of this question, because if you enter a research agreement you expect to obtain two kinds of rewards: a positive effect on your external relations with the other civ (although it may possibly imply a worsening of other relations) and tangible and controlled results on research - you must know what you're aiming at!

I've read many articles about the gameplay of CIV V, but still haven't found any reference to this "random tech" thing. In this site, for example, it's said that "In a Research Agreement, you agree to invest a lump sum of gold with another civilization, and will receive bonus science over 20 turns."

I'm still waiting for a source with a different version about this...

If it is a bonus over turns (per turn), you can easily scale it and back load the benefits so that it becomes beneficial not to break, ie first 10 turns you get 5% science bonus per turn, next 5 turns you get 10% science bonus, then the last 5 turns you get 25% science bonus. This makes its it more worth it to stick through the entire agreement rather than breaking it.
 
Well Possibilities include
1. a Free Tech
2. Bonus Research per turn that is added to your normal research
3. Bonus Research per turn that is added to a separate tech
4. a Lump Sum of research (ie 1000 research points*) added to your normal research
5. a Lump Sum of Research added to Techs separate from your Normal research

1, 4, and 5 would all reward sticking it out

4 and 5 would be good in preventing Micromanaging it too much (amount of research doesn't depend on which tech/techs you get)

The Techs that it would go into should be ones that you can research and
1. cheapest techs the other side has
2. cheapest techs the other side can research
3. cheapest remaining techs

*The amount of research and the gold cost could be determined by the era that you are in when you start the Agreement (if your partner is in an earlier era then it would be based on their era)
 
Maybe players should get the worst tech they can get? This would give incentive for players not to neglect too old techs, or not benefit from the pacts at all (if they really can't be bothered 'cause of a beeline).

It's pretty much already incentivised that way, since if you do a beeline and a research agreement, you're setting yourself up to get The Wheel at turn 150. It would just be a stronger incentive the way you described.
 
It's pretty much already incentivised that way, since if you do a beeline and a research agreement, you're setting yourself up to get The Wheel at turn 150. It would just be a stronger incentive the way you described.

Well, more incentive in that way is always better, as much as "incentivised" is always a funny word no matter how long it's been sticking around :D
 
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