Techs Ordered By The Earliest State A Civilization Could Have Them

[Evie]

Alternatively, tech spread could take a form akin to Eureka in Civ VI, with the one tech still representing both the general technology and the applications, and the Eureka bonus representing that you just acquired the idea - but still need to figure out how to use it in practice.

Depends on the scale you want the tech tree to have, really.

 

[BuchiTaton]

An upgraded system of trade routes would help a lot for the spread of technologies, crops/livestock, ideologies/beliefs, immigrants and diseases. Of course also for trade goods, the militar supply lines and the capacity to control foreign lands. Some of these elements could be represented in different levels, for example maybe disease would not be the more "fun" thing to deal with so they can be limited as a downside of those trade routes. This is something I think would be essential, have pros and cons so you would get science production bonus from trader routes plus particular discounts for techs already researched by others, BUT in the down side these trade routes open the gates for the diffusion of new religions and political ideologies that could lead to instability and foreign influences.

For the crops and livestock varieties I am struggling to choose a system but the idea is in some aspects similar to CIV6's Archeology, BUT less micro demanding. What I mean is that it is not needed to have an unique unit to get them, neither thematic sets and instead of buildings dedicated to store them they are just city based or at most just be farm placed. The creation of varities (crops/livestock resourses) to place in new cities could be done by the research queue so this would be something new to do with this essential CIV's element, the created varieties would be available in a section of the science menu as a pool of the disponible ones to be placed as needed in any city you want.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

For the spread of crops, plant/animal resources, technologies, I've been toying with the idea of basing your ability to develop and use any of these 'new things' on Projects.

Something like this: a Trading Partner has Cattle which he trades to you. Having already researched Animal Husbandry, you can set one city to a Project of Breed Cattle. After X turns, depending on how many Resources are required, you have Cattle as a Domestic Resource, and on the proper terrain (grasslands for Cattle) you can build pastures anywhere in your territory and fill them with Cattle as part of the building process, and get all the bonuses from them.

Already have the Agriculture tech, and the same thing can be done for any Plant Resource.

The limitation to covering your entire territory with Bonus Resources is that each Project takes time to complete and every subsequent Project in that category takes a progressively higher amount of time and resources. And since each resource requires a specific type of terrain, and some of those terrain types will have minerals on them you cannot move, you will be hard pressed to develop Projects for every type of resource you require at all times and still have any Production left for anything else.

Something similar could be used for Tech developments. Get the basic Tech, either through Trade or Research, but require a Project to develop specific applications of that Tech.
For example, Wheel is a basic tech. T hat could come with Production bonuses because you can more easily transport Bulk Resources around, maybe an increase in city radius from wheeled carts and roads, etc. To get a spoked wheel Chariot (which IRL took about 1500 years from the basic solid wheel) requires a Project. Naval Architecture might be another basic tech, that allows you to build Triremes as a basic Melee naval unit. But an additional Project allows you to develop that into the Quinquereme, a powerful Ranged naval unit.

So far just thoughts, but the result, applied comprehensively, would be that even a Linear Tech Tree with as few Techs as Civ VI (which has appreciably fewer Techs than Civ III, IV or V or Humankind) when the Techs are combined with various Projects, would not necessarily develop in a Linear fashion for your specific Civ in a given game. In each game you might actually have to make decisions on what to Research or what Project to apply that are appropriate to you and your in-game situation and needs.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Trading techs (or gifting techs) is a key part of diplomacy in Civ3. In Civ4, it was possible to do and some even viewed it as a possible exploit of the AI at the time. Civ4 has an option to turn off "Tech Brokering."

All of Civ3, Civ4, and Civ5 allowed a player to steal a tech from another faction by espionage.

 

[Marla_Singer]

Trading techs (or gifting techs) is a key part of diplomacy in Civ3. In Civ4, it was possible to do and some even viewed it as a possible exploit of the AI at the time. Civ4 has an option to turn off "Tech Brokering."

All of Civ3, Civ4, and Civ5 allowed a player to steal a tech from another faction by espionage.

Indeed, I remember having watched a conference from Soren Johnson where he talked about that. Tech brokering is an essential mechanic in Civ4, particularly on higher difficulties.

Yet what I had in mind in talking about tech diffusion through trade is a different concept. That would be a less controlled system where you wouldn't be able to choose what technology you would get. Also it would be a symetrical system, meaning that as much as the player would know that in developing trade, he would have access to free techs developped by others, that would also mean that the techs he developped himself would be spread elsewhere. Therefore that could lead to intertesting pros and cons, as developed by @BuchiTaton. An isolated civilization would necessarily develop knowledge slower than a more open civilization, but a more open civilization would also reinforce its rivals in spreading its own knowledge.

These are all mechanics that would be believable and could lead to interesting decisions, improving both immersion and gameplay.