Ideas....

capnq · #1 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 · #2 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 · #3 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 · #4 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.

Nitram Draw · #5 May 31st, 2001, 08:16 PM

What I mean was not every tech was effected by changing the tech level from medium to high. Some stayed the same, some doubled, some went up a little.
Oops now I get what you mean, the price per level gets higher.

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

geoschmo · #6 May 31st, 2001, 08:17 PM

We had a whole thread on this a while back and we worked out the formula as...

quote:
For a Low Tech Cost Game:
The multiplier is simply tech level. It is linear.
For Example, Ship construction
Level Cost = 10000
Level 2 cost is 10000 X 2 = 20000
Level 3 cost is 10000 X 3 = 30000
Level 4 cost is 10000 X 4 = 40000

For a Med Tech Game:
The multiplier is the result of Tech Level rasied to the power of 2 and then divided by 2.

For example, Ship Construction again
Level 2 cost is 10000 X 2(2 to the power of 2 is four divided by 2 is 2) = 20000
Level 3 cost is 10000 X 4.5(3 to the power of 2 is 9 divided by 2 is 4.5) = 45000
Level 4 cost is 10000 X 8(4 to the power of 2 is 16 divided by 2 is 8) = 80000

For a High Tech cost game the multiplier is
Tech level raised to the power of 2

Ship Construction again
Level 2 cost is 10000 X 4(2 to the power of 2 is 4) = 40000
Level 3 cost is 10000 X 9(3 to the power of 2 is 9) = 90000
Level 4 cost is 10000 X 16(4 to the power of 2 is 16) = 160000

In all these, level cost is from the components text file.

Hope this helps.

Geo

Beck · #7 June 1st, 2001, 01:50 AM

Restrictions do not have to be arbitrary or unrealistic. One of things I dislike about the racial techs is the reasoning does not work both ways. On one hand if you're organic, it's taken ions to develop their special tech and hence is too difficult within the bounds of the game for others to learn even if taught by a willing ally. Yet if one developed an organic culture, wouldn't the reverse generally though not always apply? Having devoted their entire culture in organics for ions, wouldn't there be certain general techs which would be equally unlearnable to them not being of organic nature. As it is, there is no way of limiting them to the general techs (or any of the other racial techs). This is where I would see the use of a "can't have a certain tech" requirement. If you choose to follow certain paths like the racial techs, there would be areas because of that specialization which you would as find as undecipherable as the racial techs are considered to be to the rest of the races. There could be other specialty techs which would preclude some other tech if for no other reason than the inertia that builds up as huge amounts of resources are devoted to any single task. There becomes a point when too much is invested with too many people's egos, etc. on the line to change to something else. It's not always one can't do something as much as one won't. And if it basically got you to the same general point its even tougher. The organics come up with their own Version of armor, they wouldn't even think of developing any other type as the one they have within their frame of reference works just fine. They shouldn't have ability to research the general tech armor as they would have no cause to until such a time as they encountered other races and some other armor proven more effective. It wouldn't have to prevent you from capturing the tech.