OK, I noticed this a few days ago, mostly by accident. It came about from trying to decide whether to go with Meditation (for Buddhism) or Polytheism (for Hinduism) at the start of the game. I usually guess to go Poly, since the compy usually goes there first, but I decided to be noncommittal, and that's where I discovered the Noncommittal Research bug.
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Load up a new (or saved) game
2. Build a city.
3. Choose a tech from the list that tells you to choose a tech
4. Click on the bar at the top that has the current tech name & (# of turns remaining)
5. Finish everything else with your turn, leaving the tech research thing as not researching anything (i.e., leave it so that the current available tech icons are showing)
6. End turn
7. Choose a tech from the list that tells you to choose a tech...notice that all the techs are 1 turn shorter than last time, meaning that your research hasn't gone to a single tech, but has been stored over until the next turn.
8. Repeat steps 4-6
9. End turn
10. See 7. Same thing occurs; all techs are 1 turn shorter, and as long as you end the turn without committing to a tech, your research will be available for any of them.
11. To research a tech, just wait until there's 1 turn left to finish it, and choose that tech before ending your turn.
12. Voila! You just got a tech...any tech...without worrying about if it was the right one 10-15 turns ago.
Basically, this bug allows you to accumulate all of your research to no particular tech in general. Once a few turns pass, you have a bunch of Research saved up from a few turns that you can put into any tech (especially ones that will be done that turn). In this way, you can avoid guessing as to which religion tech to go for. All you have to do is wait until there's one turn left for a specific tech, and if it's what you want to get at the time, go ahead and leave it as being researched; otherwise, you can go for another tech that you would have gone for otherwise.
What I would suspect that the program should do is request a Tech be selected before the end of the turn. If this was done, the Research from the current turn would HAVE to be applied to a particular tech, which is the way the game was supposed to be designed, to the best of my knowledge. Then, if the tech you were researching becomes less desirous after a few turns, you have to switch to another tech and start from scratch. This IS the way the game works, if you don't use this exploit. With the exploit, you don't have to start from scratch.
I will try to get a couple screens posted, though I don't know how much it will help; you have to try it yourself to see the effects.
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Load up a new (or saved) game
2. Build a city.
3. Choose a tech from the list that tells you to choose a tech
4. Click on the bar at the top that has the current tech name & (# of turns remaining)
5. Finish everything else with your turn, leaving the tech research thing as not researching anything (i.e., leave it so that the current available tech icons are showing)
6. End turn
7. Choose a tech from the list that tells you to choose a tech...notice that all the techs are 1 turn shorter than last time, meaning that your research hasn't gone to a single tech, but has been stored over until the next turn.
8. Repeat steps 4-6
9. End turn
10. See 7. Same thing occurs; all techs are 1 turn shorter, and as long as you end the turn without committing to a tech, your research will be available for any of them.
11. To research a tech, just wait until there's 1 turn left to finish it, and choose that tech before ending your turn.
12. Voila! You just got a tech...any tech...without worrying about if it was the right one 10-15 turns ago.
Basically, this bug allows you to accumulate all of your research to no particular tech in general. Once a few turns pass, you have a bunch of Research saved up from a few turns that you can put into any tech (especially ones that will be done that turn). In this way, you can avoid guessing as to which religion tech to go for. All you have to do is wait until there's one turn left for a specific tech, and if it's what you want to get at the time, go ahead and leave it as being researched; otherwise, you can go for another tech that you would have gone for otherwise.
What I would suspect that the program should do is request a Tech be selected before the end of the turn. If this was done, the Research from the current turn would HAVE to be applied to a particular tech, which is the way the game was supposed to be designed, to the best of my knowledge. Then, if the tech you were researching becomes less desirous after a few turns, you have to switch to another tech and start from scratch. This IS the way the game works, if you don't use this exploit. With the exploit, you don't have to start from scratch.
I will try to get a couple screens posted, though I don't know how much it will help; you have to try it yourself to see the effects.
