Like what you ask? Well, like...

Radar.

Radar can be researched as a tech. When it is discovered, air units in that Civ gain +1 on attack and defense, and maybe then get 2 space visibility.

Sonar.

You guessed it, sea units can now spot submerged subs. All units in said Civ can attack subs, and the sub gains 2 space visibility.

Currently, the only enabling tech I can think of in Civ2 is Nuclear Power, which doesn't do much besides give +1 on sea movement. Not a whole lot, but perfect as an enabling tech.

The nice thing about these techs is they are easy to add and don't require fancy graphics or other changes. They can really fill out a tech tree and make for a really robust research race.

AND...they avoid unit hell, witness SMAC. Who wants to worry about "Oh, my Silksteel Plasma Missile Speeder doesn't have ECM, so I have to now obsolete a unit and upgrade all my old units...". The enabling tech simply gives a slight boost to existing units, giving the player an advantage for his research without the administrative overhead of worrying about obsolete units.

So...what do you think?

quote: Originally posted by OrangeSfwr on 05-14-2000 06:13 PM I like this idea a lot. Enabling techs are a great idea, especially so you don't have to keep upgrading units.

Thanks, the idea can even be more than military. For example, agriculture could make irrigation take 1/2 time, etc. I like discovering brand new units, but you can really fill the game out by simply empowering existing units with subtle changes.

quote: But Sonar and Radar - shouldn't they only apply to certain units? If you have a Galleon when you discover sonar (I know that's silly, but ya never know) would it recieve the bonus?

Excellent point. I have a hard time seeing a Saleucian oarsman detecting a LA-class nuclear fast attack sub and ordering "row MUCH faster"...

Maybe the flag applies to the era, i.e. modern era sea units, as opposed to all others?

A prerequisite of Sanitation might be Medecine.

Yes - Sanitation allows Sewer System to be produced which does something to your disease rate and also allows cities to expand beyond size 12. It's prereq is Medicine.

Similarly, you can "take" transport ability away from opponents. You might remove all native tranpsort ability of many units (that can only be created by tribes X and Y) if tribe Z makes some advance, such as an impenetrable shield.

You could also tie the creation of units to some advance. For example, you could create one settler that requires support every turn (could be QUITE a nuisance) until a tribe discovers birth control.

- toby

Just wipping down these ideas before I go to bed.

Agricultural genetics
+2 food per square in range of city with lab or something helps science cities.

Robotic Manufacturing
Important for computer production and advanced unit production. Needs to be seperate from robotics. Could give construction of units bonus.

Microprocessor
This is change to the computer. Gives big research bonus, access to computer for corporation, unit upgrades, happiness with computers in population. Plus what it gives in Civ2.

Internet
World Wide Web could be a wonder. Increases overall population intelligence and happiness and individuality.

These would be small techs that only take a turn or 2 to complete. Except for Microprocessor.

And to solve the problem of the sonar-equipped galleon, flags in the text file could be used, such as in rules.txt for Civ2 or alphax.txt for SMAC. So essentially the rules file would specifiy whether a unit should get a sonar upgrade or some other upgrade when it becomes available.

quote: Originally posted by UltraSonix on 05-23-2000 09:11 AM No, in Australia we don't live with kangaroos and koalas in our backyards...

Hey, don't tell them that!

Don't listen to him, guys. The fact is, I used to ride to school on the back of a kangaroo. Oh, in it's pouch too.

(You don't know how many non-Australians, particularly Americans, will believe that. Not just believe it, but actually ask if we do. Sheesh!)

No, but there's plenty of cane toads up north, and that's where they were pulling the gag from. Not this far south, though.

And imagine Big Beazley does have much bigger boots.

Oh, and sorry for high-jacking your thread guys. We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

You are the Zulus. You just traded Bronze Working to the Egyptians for Literacy. You now wish to research writing (in order to create a library). Should the acquisition of Writing be twice as fast now that you have Literacy? Or should you not be able to trade techs that you do not have prereqs for? (In my example, you would have to trade for Writing before acquiring literacy)