Science Enhanced

Is there any mod that makes science more realistic?

In real life, we don't discover new technologies by wanting them to exist... which is basically what the Science Tree is.

I'm thinking of things like, accumulating science points would allow you to unlock technologies in domains on which you've been focusing. Say you have a coastal city, exploiting water resources (fish, whales, pearls) and venturing into the unknown with a basic trireme. Naval exploration and extensive fishing force you to improve your techniques, allowing you to unlock the Lighthouse, embarking, galleass, etc., provided you have the required science count.

Science count could work either as a threshold which you need to attain, or like gold which you must expend to unlock the technology.

Here's another scenario. You send out warriors to eliminate a barbarian encampment. The barbarian holding it is a spearman, guess what, that contributes to your discovery of spears. This encites you to train a sizeable army of spearmen and send them to war. The enemy's archers fall to your hands, and you reverse-engineer (using Science points) those bows and arrows. You can now rain death and destruction upon the enemy's cities, and capture them.

Upon capturing the city, you come across a system of Aqueducts. Unfortunately, the colosseum was destroyed during the battle so you're not any closer to inventing it, altough occupation of the other civilization's population allows you to observe their mercantile behaviour, and with some efforts (science points!) you manage to build your own markets.

Your newly built markets of course allow you to open a trade route with a neighboring civilization. Doing so paves to way to diplomacy, and will soon lead you to building an embassy in their capital, provided you have the science points to develop that technology! Enhanced relations (sharing embassies and maintaining trade routes) allow the civilizations to exchange technologies.

Now the specifications of how that would happen are diverse, do you simply sell a technology for another? Does maintaing a trade route and embassies eliminate the conditions for discovering a tech the other Civ has already discovered? Or does it reduce the required science count to obtain it? Oh the possibilities!

So they happen to know about colosseums, eventually allowing you to build your very first tourism building! (In this simulation, we've found a new use for early-game tourism, ofc!) Your colosseum attracts denizens from nearby civilizations with whom you were not trading nor waging war, but as they visit your towns, they bring with them their own cultural quirks and exotic products. This again, could reduce the science count, or eliminate the conditions, that's something up for balancing.

Speaking of balancing, considering how benefitting war would be to technological progress, peace could also have more positive effects on trade routes and tourism (things that are certainly hindered by war in real life), to even things out.



TL;DR:
-Killing advanced units helps discover their weapons
-Capturing cities helps discovering some buildings (others are destroyed)
-Your own local activities (fishing, mining, farming) help enhancing those activities through upgrades
-Trade routes and tourism help discovering technologies from other civilizations
-Techs to be unlocked by attaining conditions and expending science points OR attaining science threshold

Phrases in italics/bold are explanative / up to debate.

I realize this would not be easily feasable, if at all, and that I started this thread as a question but it is 4 AM and I had to blurt out this idea before going to sleep and forgetting about it.

What do you guys think about it?

 

The more I think about it, the more I prefer the idea of having to expend science points. Trade routes, diplomacy, tourism, and war would also not instantly remove conditions for unlocking a technology, but do so gradually based on the intensity of the factor (i.e.:multiple trade routes, important tourism, excellent relations, killing several advanced units and capturing more cities) and your own degree of completion towards those conditions.

 

This sounds quite similar to the "eureka moments" in Civ6, but I guess you're aiming at making it more complex and realistic, not only one thing you need to do to boost a tech.

Generally a good idea, although my biggest concern is the AI - I don't think it will be able to grasp the new mechanics and use them effectively, so either it will be at a disadvantage, or you will have to make it cheat even more than it does now

 

Well I don't know how the AI chooses Techs, but I guess it would work according to basically the same rules, herein, "what does he need?", and "how obtainable is it?"