posted May 22, 1999 22:49                

Stone (allows 100% of techs)
Bronze [Requires Bronzworking--allows 95%]
Iron [Requires Ironworking--allows 90%]
Dark [you get the idea--85%]
Middle
Reason
Industrial
Atomic
Information
(etc.)

Each age will let you get a certain percentage of technologies or until you discover the next age's prerequisite technology, once you get that, the age advances for every player (improving the need for spy jobs), but the techs in each age still have prerequisites in the previous ages.

This would make spying imperative for nations that haven't discovered what they need.

There should also be a science advisor who advises you on technologies, along with other council members. Like in Civ2 with the High Council. There should also be worthless advances, or advances with seemingly little value but important in the longrun, but at least a logjam of advances to confuse the player on what is important. This could be a good history lesson.

Here's an example debate of what I was talking about:

Military Advisor:
"No! No! No! The technology of Aircraft Carriers would be worthless to the military. Our (unit) serves our needs just fine!"

Science Advisor:
"But with the advent of (air unit), we need to utilize all our options!"

Foreign Advisor:
"Who needs a military when the advance of (advance) would better serve our diplomatic stance?"

-->Or, in the case of a 'worthless' advance
Luxury Advisor:
"King, we need to know of the wonderful advance of Jewelry! I have already learned that the (civ) have benefited greatly from this knowledge!"

Trade Advisor:
"Who needs this luxury advance when the knowledge of (Trade) is much more important!"

--You get it, it would be all text based but would give the player some real decisions to make. The worthless advances wouldn't be entirely worthless (as in the Jewelry would increase hapiness by a small percentage in all cities, say 3% maybe). Combined with ages, they would really have to decide which technology is most important to their empire.

posted May 22, 1999 23:26                

We need to keep these forums organized so that the ideas can be easily compiled.