Technological advance without historic events

[rebelyell2006]

I am working on a personal mod that uses two turns per year (but still ending in the 1500s), and I do not want to rely on arbitrary historic events for advances in armor and weapon technology. Instead, I would like to see technology (example gunpowder) being discovered through a combination of trade rights between the east and west, minor levels of heresy, and existing metal smithies and trade resources that, when found in the right amount triggers a "gunpowder_discovered" event. Or else all of those requirements add up in counters, and at certain counter levels gunpowder is discovered, then each level in gunpowder artillery is allowed in sequence according to the counters. Is this possible? Or is it too much? How could I go about scripting this for gunpowder and other technological advancements?

EDIT:

Just had a thought, is there a way to implement the guild point system to allow for this sort of thing: for example, for a gunpowder guild (the alchemists guild?), factions gain points as below:
~1 point for every turn (or every two turns?) the faction has trade with Muslim factions (if the faction is Catholic or Orthodox)
~25 points for possessing Jedda or Baghdad
~10 points for building a blacksmith

and so forth. And for discovering advanced metal forging, factions would gain points:
~10 points for building a blacksmith
~10 points for possessing iron or coal in a settlement
~1 point for every academic trait or ancillary that a family member in a settlement possesses

and so forth. Is this possible with guilds?

[Taiji]

Yes, but not sure about the resource levels - Maybe make them requirements for the building. You can also make the presence of the guild fire the event, if you want, so the AI can beat the player but the player gets to hear about it.

[rebelyell2006]

I've gone through the export_descr_guilds file and I think I can do it, but how can I take into account academic traits and ancillaries, and possession of specific regions (or trade with specific regions)?

This can be used for gunpowder:

Trigger XXXX_Declare_War_Muslim_Faction
WhenToTest FactionWarDeclared

Condition TargetFactionReligion islam
and FactionReligion catholic

Guild gunpowder_lab_guild a -10


Trigger XXXX_Muslim_Neighbours
WhenToTest SettlementTurnStart

Condition NeighbourReligion islam > 50
and FactionReligion catholic

Guild gunpowder_lab_guild s 10
Guild gunpowder_lab_guild o 1

But how would I take into consideration trade between Muslims and Catholics?


Trigger XXXX_Make_Trade_Agreement
WhenToTest FactionTradeAgreementMade

Condition TargetFactionReligion islam
and FactionReligion catholic

Guild gunpowder_lab_guild a 10

would that work?