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- Mar 17, 2007
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A few weeks ago, I was playing around in the editor and stumbled upon a new editing option - having prerequisite techs be in previous eras. Normally, this is forbidden by Firaxis's editor telling you that you can't have prerequisites in a previous era. But surely the AI would be smart enough to handle it, right?
Actually, it can. My experiment basically went like this:
- Make all techs not be required to finish the era.
- Add some prerequisites between first-in-era techs with last-in-era techs from the previous era - for example, Polytheism is now a prerequisite for Monotheism, and both Feudalism and Engineering require Construction. Currency is not required for the Middle Ages.
- Load up a game in Debug Mode and see whether (a) I could skip ahead easily, and (b) if the AI would.
Everything went as hoped - I could research Monotheism early, and the AIs went for Feudalism early. The Civilopedia also cooperated, helpfully displaying the cross-era prerequisites.
Of course, there is a catch - if you make nothing in any era required, you'll start off in the "Modern Ages" at 4000 BC while you research The Wheel. This can be ameliorated by having a few required techs from each era.
The above illustrates what I'll call the "fluid tech tree" approach. It lessens the concept of eras and allows a more complex prerequisite structure. In other words, it's an in-between from Civ3 to Civ4's tech trees - you get the "Plastics [Modern Era] requires Combustion [Industrial Era], but you can research Genetics [Modern Era] without Combustion since you don't need Combustion for Genetics" aspect of Civ4. The "Rocketry requires artillery or flight" aspect of Civ4 still isn't there, hence the in-between.
The closest I've seen to this so far is dividing up the tech tree by technology type, for example, Land, Naval, Air, and Economy as the "eras". That approach, while possible within Firaxis's editor, does lose all sense of eras, and also disallows prerequisites between types of tech, thus allowing air power behemoths in this example.
Another alternative to the "fluid tech tree" approach is a "sparse cross-era prerequisites" approach, where, for example, you might make Education require Literature in the base Civ3 game, or Nationalism require the Printing Press. This would still preserve eras, but could allow somewhat more complete prerequisite chains.
Both Steph's editor and Firaxis's editor appear to preserve cross-era prerequisites while saving, although the former doesn't display the tech name. So, while my editor is currently the only one that allows this type of tech structure, it appears to be safe to add them in my editor and then continue using other editors.
In the attached .zip, you'll find both a .biq set up to allow cross-era prerequisites, and a save game illustrating both the human and the AI jumping ahead to Medieval techs early, and in accordance with the cross-era prerequisites.
Actually, it can. My experiment basically went like this:
- Make all techs not be required to finish the era.
- Add some prerequisites between first-in-era techs with last-in-era techs from the previous era - for example, Polytheism is now a prerequisite for Monotheism, and both Feudalism and Engineering require Construction. Currency is not required for the Middle Ages.
- Load up a game in Debug Mode and see whether (a) I could skip ahead easily, and (b) if the AI would.
Everything went as hoped - I could research Monotheism early, and the AIs went for Feudalism early. The Civilopedia also cooperated, helpfully displaying the cross-era prerequisites.
Of course, there is a catch - if you make nothing in any era required, you'll start off in the "Modern Ages" at 4000 BC while you research The Wheel. This can be ameliorated by having a few required techs from each era.
The above illustrates what I'll call the "fluid tech tree" approach. It lessens the concept of eras and allows a more complex prerequisite structure. In other words, it's an in-between from Civ3 to Civ4's tech trees - you get the "Plastics [Modern Era] requires Combustion [Industrial Era], but you can research Genetics [Modern Era] without Combustion since you don't need Combustion for Genetics" aspect of Civ4. The "Rocketry requires artillery or flight" aspect of Civ4 still isn't there, hence the in-between.
The closest I've seen to this so far is dividing up the tech tree by technology type, for example, Land, Naval, Air, and Economy as the "eras". That approach, while possible within Firaxis's editor, does lose all sense of eras, and also disallows prerequisites between types of tech, thus allowing air power behemoths in this example.
Another alternative to the "fluid tech tree" approach is a "sparse cross-era prerequisites" approach, where, for example, you might make Education require Literature in the base Civ3 game, or Nationalism require the Printing Press. This would still preserve eras, but could allow somewhat more complete prerequisite chains.
Both Steph's editor and Firaxis's editor appear to preserve cross-era prerequisites while saving, although the former doesn't display the tech name. So, while my editor is currently the only one that allows this type of tech structure, it appears to be safe to add them in my editor and then continue using other editors.
In the attached .zip, you'll find both a .biq set up to allow cross-era prerequisites, and a save game illustrating both the human and the AI jumping ahead to Medieval techs early, and in accordance with the cross-era prerequisites.
. I haven't thought about this option before. I can't really think of any in-game pitfalls. Tech-trading and Great Library-aquired techs has always been across eras, unless my biological RAM is malfunctioning.....
