Make tecnological development depending trade relations

[Breoghan]

I think CA would make more easier for the factions to reach tecnological advances if they have enough trade relations with the rest of the factions. In the other side, the more isolated factions would have more difficulties to reach bigger advances if they don't have access to trade lines...
This would reflect reality of the ancient world, so the nations situated on the mediterranean shores (Carthaginians, Romans, Greeks...) were most advanced than the others wich don´t have the benefits of the trade influence...


P.S. Sorry for my bad, bad english

[kanzy]

Will ok trade relations but how about Conquering, a nation can also advance by conquering other nations and taking their technology advancement too.

[Iunius_Iaponici]

Yea, the Romans implemented a lot of things from different factions they encountered and conquered.

[Lord Baal]

I have proposed this before. Technological development didn't happen following a tree, and most of the time it was not actively sought after as the game depicts. It was attained by conquer of other nations, by trade with other nations and by strikes of luck and necessity. For example, tech related to sieges should develop at the phase you do siege other towns, cities and forts! Naval tech should increase as you have more and more ports, do more sea trading and warfare and so on...

[krisslanza]

I have proposed this before. Technological development didn't happen following a tree, and most of the time it was not actively sought after as the game depicts. It was attained by conquer of other nations, by trade with other nations and by strikes of luck and necessity. For example, tech related to sieges should develop at the phase you do siege other towns, cities and forts! Naval tech should increase as you have more and more ports, do more sea trading and warfare and so on...

Tech trees are a fine balance between reality and gameplay. CK2 uses a system more in line with randomness, which might be fitting, but it makes for really annoying gameplay when you just want your darn tech to level up but you just never make any progress for decades.

[Lord Baal]

I really dislike tech trees. I say, "you want to level up in siege equipment? Then do sieges and have fine engineers at it." They'll devise a way of doing it that could become a standard. Maybe add a little random progress here and there and that's about it.

Point and click research has always make my nerves irk... but meh.. I know more traditional tech trees are the widespread accepted thing.

[krisslanza]

I really dislike tech trees. I say, "you want to level up in siege equipment? Then do sieges and have fine engineers at it." They'll devise a way of doing it that could become a standard. Maybe add a little random progress here and there and that's about it.

Point and click research has always make my nerves irk... but meh.. I know more traditional tech trees are the widespread accepted thing.

The problem with randomness is, well, the randomness. You can keep trying to make your tech level up, but if the random never plays in your favor, it just never happens. Plus it's hard to make it work for the AI in the way you suggest, since they'd either have to program the AI to actively try and find situations to level its tech up, or just have it level up automatically which can place the player at a disadvantage if they aren't so lucky.

[Lord Baal]

Yes, but you don't seem to understand, maybe I don't explain myself well enough.

The military tech should go up as you fight battles and recruit units.

The civilian tech would go up as you build more civilian stuff, have more cities and things like that.

Instead of having a chart where you click and automatically x turns after poofffs! You have a new tech. That's a silly concept.

[krisslanza]

Yes, but you don't seem to understand, maybe I don't explain myself well enough.

The military tech should go up as you fight battles and recruit units.

The civilian tech would go up as you build more civilian stuff, have more cities and things like that.

Instead of having a chart where you click and automatically x turns after poofffs! You have a new tech. That's a silly concept.

Ah I see. Still, the problem still arises from the fact you have to be constantly seeking out the specific ways to level up your tech. Not hard for a human player, but for the AI?

It might be more realistic, but it's also perhaps a bit unneccessary when the tech tree has served many games, and game genres, very well.

[Lord Baal]

The Ai, as always could have help in the form of lower goals to achieve certain techs, or automatically get certain tech once x conditions are met, like at x date or when it have x amount of provinces.

As for the random tech I talk about it was things like I don't know, if you own X province at certain date range you have 80% of chances of getting x unit or y tech for example. Although that doesn't apply very well to context here, but more to a sci-fi game. Sword of the Stars have a classic tech tree with a twist. At the beginning of each game the computer randomly determinate which tech you can have and which ones you can't. So in this game the humans have plasma weapons, in the next they might not. But mind you that you can still acquire a lot of the of the tech you can't research by conquer and trade.

[Rhaegar1]

I'm still firmly against doing research actually in-game. I think CA should go to a system where you just get a research point every so many terms that you can invest in a certain tree. It's a more gameplay orientated solution but gives CA more options to force players to make them actually choose in what direction they want to develop their empire in instead of just investing a lot and just research everything.

Shall I put my precious research point in the military and governmental development trees and become a military empire or in the philosophic and production trees? becoming a republic based on philosophy, trade and productivity? Seems more fun to me and enhances replay-ability.

Some researches should still have requirements like builidings to be build or in the case of a seleucid cataphract technology you have to fight a few battles against cataphract units.

[Muizer]

I agree with the OP to the extent that adopting technology from other factions should be an important, perhaps the most important mechanism for acquiring new knowledge. Actual technological inventions should be fixed to a more or less historical timeline.