Tech Charting

[Belizan]

It seems out of all the planning and design work modders get to work through, one commonality has to be charting out one's tech trees, dependencies and the like. I've been curious what solutions people have found to these? For instance, I seem to use paper 8).

I know Thamis et al used Visio, although I don't know what template they used. Not being a Visio head myself, I haven't found a way to make that work too well for me. UML.. *shiver*...

I thought about using cMap, but the documentation was so rife with touchy feeley pop human thought methodology it started making me feel uneasy 8).

What have other folks found effective?

 

[woodelf]

Graph paper, pencil (w/ eraser), coffee, and more paper.

 

[Belizan]

Yeah, but I can't email paper to other modders 8).

 

[woodelf]

Yeah, but I can't email paper to other modders 8).

Good point. Even Excel was a pain since I don't have it at home...

 

[The Great Apple]

There is this utility which seems to have an inbuild techbuilding functionality. I'm not sure if it's still supported, but as techs are one of the trickiest things to mod I'm hoping it'll get finished.

I used excel when I did the 40k one.

Good point. Even Excel was a pain since I don't have it at home...

www.openoffice.org - a free open source office clone. Compatable with all MS file types.

 

[woodelf]

Thanks TGA.

 

[Agent 009]

When I made Throughout the Ages I made a completely redesigned tech tree with 125 total techs. I planned everything on paper and then made the tech tree with PSP7 and posted it in Excel so that I could see what the co-ordinates were as well as plan out what each one would give.

I think it is best to first start with paper and then after you feel you have something that is worthwhile, make it into a simple TGA or BMP file with a paint program of some sort.

 

[Belizan]

Not an approach that affords much collaboration, however :/