Dhoomstriker
Girlie Builder
- Joined
- Aug 12, 2006
- Messages
- 13,474
Well, I discussed the same topic in our competitive Succession Game of the Month game, where my team placed second out of eleven teams. While I was the newb on the team, no one called me out as spewing b.s. on the subject. The problem is that the thread is massive (almost 2500 messages), but I suppose that some clever thread-based searches could bring up some info on the subject. I'm off to bed, now, though, so I'll just leave you with a link to the thread, if you have the inclination to check it out for yourself.
SGOTM 13
EDIT: Another, probably more palatable thought than searching through 2500 messages, is to look for a thread that talks about tech research. I seem to recall one being called "technology research explained" or something along those lines. The gist is that you can get up to a theoretical cost savings on a tech of up to 30% for each other player in the game that knows the tech. The AIs get the same bonus.
This fact is combined with the fact that AI research is based on them throwing together several values, including:
- A weighting of a tech based on their tech flavours (i.e. Military and Culture or Science and Gold... each AI has either a "major" and a "minor" flavour or else just one "major" flavour)
- The currest cost of the tech (which is where the above point about other players knowing the tech comes into play)
- Other factors, such as a Worker tech for relevant Resources
- Unique Units or Unique Buildings being unlocked by a particular tech
- A random number value
- Possibly other factors
An AI can research up to three techs "deep" in the tech tree, but they can't, for example, just click on Future Tech 1... as far as they "know," if a tech would take more than 4 steps in the tech tree, they "do not know about it" and thus do not consider it in their above calculation... kind of like a chess AI that only looks as many as 3 moves ahead.
EDIT to the EDIT: It should be easy enough for you to confirm that a player can get a bonus to research on a tech if other players know it. Simply start a high-level game (say, Immortal) where the AIs begin with techs like Hunting and Archery. Spend 1 turn researching 1 of those techs. Next, open the World Builder and put a Lion of yours next to each AI, so that you meet every AI (then delete the Lions so that you can stay at a 100% Science Rate). Perform research for 1 turn on the same tech and notice that you should get more Flasks... maybe 1 or 2 more, depending upon how many AIs are in your game... simply because you have met other players that know the same tech already.
SGOTM 13
EDIT: Another, probably more palatable thought than searching through 2500 messages, is to look for a thread that talks about tech research. I seem to recall one being called "technology research explained" or something along those lines. The gist is that you can get up to a theoretical cost savings on a tech of up to 30% for each other player in the game that knows the tech. The AIs get the same bonus.
This fact is combined with the fact that AI research is based on them throwing together several values, including:
- A weighting of a tech based on their tech flavours (i.e. Military and Culture or Science and Gold... each AI has either a "major" and a "minor" flavour or else just one "major" flavour)
- The currest cost of the tech (which is where the above point about other players knowing the tech comes into play)
- Other factors, such as a Worker tech for relevant Resources
- Unique Units or Unique Buildings being unlocked by a particular tech
- A random number value
- Possibly other factors
An AI can research up to three techs "deep" in the tech tree, but they can't, for example, just click on Future Tech 1... as far as they "know," if a tech would take more than 4 steps in the tech tree, they "do not know about it" and thus do not consider it in their above calculation... kind of like a chess AI that only looks as many as 3 moves ahead.
EDIT to the EDIT: It should be easy enough for you to confirm that a player can get a bonus to research on a tech if other players know it. Simply start a high-level game (say, Immortal) where the AIs begin with techs like Hunting and Archery. Spend 1 turn researching 1 of those techs. Next, open the World Builder and put a Lion of yours next to each AI, so that you meet every AI (then delete the Lions so that you can stay at a 100% Science Rate). Perform research for 1 turn on the same tech and notice that you should get more Flasks... maybe 1 or 2 more, depending upon how many AIs are in your game... simply because you have met other players that know the same tech already.
