\"petition\" for MM to add starting techs
 

How many other players would like to see MM add the option for selecting starting tech levels like in SE3?

I think if a lot of people are interested there's a really good chance MM will add this feature; they're great about responding to requests. We just need to show them that there is a lot of interest in this feature.

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Assume you have a 1kg squirrel
E=mc^2
E=1kg(3x10^8m/s)^2=9x10^16J
which, if I'm not mistaken, is equivilent to roughly a 50 megaton nuclear bomb.
Fear the squirrel.

Re: \"petition\" for MM to add starting techs
 

Right now there already is a screen with all the tech areas listed so you can turn them on or off. This is a good start.

However I totally agree with you. Instead of there being a simple on/off bit, there should be two "spin control" number boxes. The first being the start level for technology and the second being the max level allowed for that techonology in the current game.

Both of these things can be done by manually editting data\TechArea.txt. However this is a royal pain in the @$$ to do for every game. (Assuming you don't always want the same starting or max techs).

[This message has been edited by Lastseer (edited 09 March 2001).]

Re: \"petition\" for MM to add starting techs
 

I'm with you!
The current options to select the starting tech levels, are not enough: currently only you can play games with low starting tech, or with all the tech.

Re: \"petition\" for MM to add starting techs
 

I believe what Spoo means, is that everybody gets to choose DIFFERENT starting techs, as in SE3.

So, My pirates would start with ship capture LEV 2 & shield depleters Lev 3, while somebody else starts with propulsion 6, and a third race goes for ship con. 4

How about letting races spend racial points to get starting techs. EG. spend 100 points in pre-research, and you get 10,000 research points worth of extra starting tech. (good for level two DUCs)

The other way to fix this is to allow the research to do multiple levels in one turn (ie. the starting 100k research could be put all into ship construction, resulting in SC lev 4 on turn 2)

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Flexible starting techs chosen upon race creation would be great!

VOTE YES!

Re: \"petition\" for MM to add starting techs
 

You can sort of do that now. Start with medium or low tech and change starting resources to 100,000. This gives you 100,000 bonus research points to spread out on the first turn. If you add God Emperor mod with destroyers and PD at start you can get quite a variety of starting techs.
It's not perfect but it does provide some alternate ways to start.

Re: \"petition\" for MM to add starting techs
 

Yeah, but as I said You would need to allow someone to research two levels on tech X in one turn.

Otherwise, you don't get much specialization. Everybody will do one ship con, one weapon tech, etc.

Re: \"petition\" for MM to add starting techs
 

I would rather see the ability to carry over unused research points. That way, you could still specialize and use all 100k points on ship construction, for example, but you could only research one level per turn. It would also remove some awkwardness in selecting a research topic for spillover, and it would allow you to save up some points for an emergency.

Re: \"petition\" for MM to add starting techs
 

If it was like SE3, where you could dump 100,000 points into one area, and then you'd get all those points put into the area.
The actual levels would only kick in one per turn, (as your scientists spread the knowledge to companies & parts factories, I figure).

The X percentage per area was the best.

Re: \"petition\" for MM to add starting techs
 

Yeah it would be nice to research the same tree multiple times in one turn. I think that is not modable though.

Re: \"petition\" for MM to add starting techs
 

A program to edit the SaveGame file would give players this ability plus so much more!

You could set up any beginning scenario that you wanted. For a game with multiple (human, real world) players, you'd need to get a "Galaxy Master" to do this.

Speaking of GMs, they could even set up cooperative scenarios that would allow two or more players to act as allies, with victory criteria limited only by the GMs' imaginations.

I'd rather press MM for that. The community could have an AWFUL lot of fun with it, and would be kept so busy that MM could then concentrate on improving the AI or putting in TCP/IP.

Re: \"petition\" for MM to add starting techs
 

I cast my vote for everyone choosing different starting techs at the beginning. I may be an extremist but I think even colonization tech should be optional.

Maybe we could operate on a point system, first tech level of each type being cheapest to buy at the games start, and higher levels costing more once you've bought the prerequisites.

Re: \"petition\" for MM to add starting techs
 

In my opinion, choosing your starting techs was one of the major strategic elements of SEIII, and as someone who played SEIII (as opposed to SEIV being first exposure to the series) I have always seen this as a glaring omission since the beginning of beta tests.

Yes there are ways to modify the data files to get a semi-similar effect, but it's just not the same, and as someone has already said, it's a pain in the @$$.

Plus I never did like the options of no tech, 10 turns of tech, and all tech... just seems to be a bit lopsided.

Re: \"petition\" for MM to add starting techs
 

There should be a way to assign techs with "racial traits". For example, why does a race with 'Organic Manipulation' need to research biology and then biological weapons like everyone else? They should get a head start in this field, it's inherent in the definition of the racial trait. Propulsion experts should get a few extra levels of engine technology with their +1 advantage, too. You could then have racial traits that exist specifically to give some technological head start, too. Like a "Ground Pounders" (B5 anyone? http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif )ability that gives a race troops and troop weapons on turn one.

Re: \"petition\" for MM to add starting techs
 

I think this is supposed to be a petition, could we get some votes in, and maybe start a seperate thread discussing what techs we'd like, etc . . . for sure the pirate and nomad trees! ::grins::

Re: \"petition\" for MM to add starting techs
 

I am absolutely in favor of the petition. I liked this element in SE III very much and don't understand why it was omitted in SE IV. It would also allow futher balance for the AI empires, e.g. you could give neutral empires an important starting tech level bonus.

Re: \"petition\" for MM to add starting techs
 

It seems to me that with the starting resources option (which includes research), all that is needed to implement starting tech is to have unused research points carry from one turn to the next.

Then it may take 4-5 turns to bump propulsions 4-5 levels at the game start, but you could research the same tech multiple times (once per turn) with the starting bonus. (Which is easy to edit in one of the data files).

[This message has been edited by Lastseer (edited 12 March 2001).]