Ideas....

Nitram Draw · #1 May 31st, 2001, 05:56 PM

I think the MOO2 system provided more variety even if there were less total techs to choose from. You had to make an irrevocable choice. After that, trade was they only way to get additional techs.
I've played many games where I have basically run out of techs to research, even to the point of researching "useless" techs fully. It doesn't take much once you have 100-200k of research.
More techs would be nice but I think restricted techs would also be great. Maybe in SE5 as mentioned before....

Baron Munchausen · #2 May 31st, 2001, 06:06 PM

The arbitrary restrictions in MOO and especially MOO II were really annoying. Why would you be unable to research a certain level of combat sensors just because you researched a particular weapon? I much prefer the idea of a discount for related tech areas. Add an extra field to all technologies named something like "Field:" or "General Category:" and have some sort of compensation to your tech costs according to how much research you have already spent on techs in this same field. You would naturally tend to go for things that were related and easier to research. This would lead to "evolved" racial traits as well as inherent ones at game start.

DMM: I suggested just that sort of 'specific research types' idea a long time ago. It would make much more sense to have to build a particular sort of laboratory for a particular sort of research. Then techs could require various amounts of general sciences much like components require various amounts of resources. I suspect that this is too much change to be included in SE IV, though. Maybe SE V.

[This message has been edited by Baron Munchausen (edited 31 May 2001).]

Nitram Draw · #3 May 31st, 2001, 06:10 PM

That's a good idea. I also like the suggestion of branching research trees for items, like higher ranged, more accurate or more damaging weapons.
Anything that gives the game more variety is good in my opinion.
The MOO research basically made for a greater variety of ships later in the game where as in SE4 you can pretty much guess what you will face late in the game, there aren't many surprises. I don't mean it's not challanging just somewhat predictable.

capnq · #4 May 31st, 2001, 06:16 PM

It seems to me that the current racial tech system is more for play balance than realism. I prefer the suggestion of discounts for related tech, too.

------------------
Cap'n Q

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the
human mind to correlate all of its contents. We live on a placid
island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was
not meant that we should go far. -- HP Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"

[This message has been edited by capnq (edited 31 May 2001).]

dmm · #5 May 31st, 2001, 06:27 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Nitram Draw:
I've played many games where I have basically run out of techs to research...

You need to raise the research cost to "high" in a large game, if you want to avoid that.

Nitram Draw · #6 May 31st, 2001, 07:01 PM

I tried that. It only effected certain techs though. Is this the way it is suppose to work?
Also, I found that with a high tech cost the AI really falls behind because they don't build as many research facilities as I do.

Suicide Junkie · #7 May 31st, 2001, 08:07 PM

I believe the "high tech cost" setting just affects how fast tech costs rise.

I always take high costs, and each tech level prety much doubles (or maybe quadruples, not sure) in cost.

On low cost, each tech level is only something like 50% more expensive than the Last.

So the difference in cost is higher for long tech threads than short ones.