This is something i've been wondering for a while. I can understand a lack of demanding Technologies or trading Technologies as it'd lead to gamey exploits, but I don't understand why a Technology has a static cost, only affected by which research mode you favour, throughout the entire 100 years.
The problem is if your country starts with low literacy, or is an unciv, whatever, you'll never be level with countries like the US or the European powerhouses by endgame. And maybe you shouldn't be level, but as someone like Japan you should be able to get pretty close. What i'm suggesting, and I imagine it's been suggested already, is that tech costs reduce somehow over time.
For example, you could have a tech cost 5% less research points (all these modifiers would be multiplicative) for every 10 years after it becomes available, or have it so the number of people who have researched it reduces the cost for everyone else, simulating that technology would spread by itself. You would bar Uncivs from these discounts ensuring that they stay backwards until Westernisation, or you could link these discounts to a Literacy modifier. This would mean someone like Japan with a decent literacy rate could Westernise early and actually be level with most of the main powers by game end. Instead a player currently has to sacrifice techs elsewhere in order to maintain a similar level of military or industrial power.
This would also mean that you could alternate between beelining for certain techs, and then picking up low cheap techs. I find I pretty much ignore the Commerce tree bar the lowest 5 techs, and a couple of cheap tax efficiency ones. The reason is it simply doesn't make sense to invest in a 7200 RP Commerce tech when I could spend double those points getting Electricity, which is far more worthwhile. The other tech I always find myself neglecting is every single Naval tech bar the Steamer line and the Naval Base line, and even down those it's only worth advancing up to the point where you can get dreadnoughts or have enough naval range to colonise what you want. If these techs were down to only say 2000-3000 RPs by endgame, they'd be worth picking up! That, and it comes across as daft that a nation can have Combustion Engines, Tanks, Aeroplanes, Electricity, yet not have developed the concept of a basic Stock Exchange.
You'd also have a situation where any edge you gain in tech doesn't last that long, as everyone around you would get bonuses to catch up on it, which makes sense. If you developed Tanks, it doesn't make sense that it takes everyone else the same amount of effort to construct them when they've been around for 20 years and you've had them trounce your armies badly.
Thoughts?
The problem is if your country starts with low literacy, or is an unciv, whatever, you'll never be level with countries like the US or the European powerhouses by endgame. And maybe you shouldn't be level, but as someone like Japan you should be able to get pretty close. What i'm suggesting, and I imagine it's been suggested already, is that tech costs reduce somehow over time.
For example, you could have a tech cost 5% less research points (all these modifiers would be multiplicative) for every 10 years after it becomes available, or have it so the number of people who have researched it reduces the cost for everyone else, simulating that technology would spread by itself. You would bar Uncivs from these discounts ensuring that they stay backwards until Westernisation, or you could link these discounts to a Literacy modifier. This would mean someone like Japan with a decent literacy rate could Westernise early and actually be level with most of the main powers by game end. Instead a player currently has to sacrifice techs elsewhere in order to maintain a similar level of military or industrial power.
This would also mean that you could alternate between beelining for certain techs, and then picking up low cheap techs. I find I pretty much ignore the Commerce tree bar the lowest 5 techs, and a couple of cheap tax efficiency ones. The reason is it simply doesn't make sense to invest in a 7200 RP Commerce tech when I could spend double those points getting Electricity, which is far more worthwhile. The other tech I always find myself neglecting is every single Naval tech bar the Steamer line and the Naval Base line, and even down those it's only worth advancing up to the point where you can get dreadnoughts or have enough naval range to colonise what you want. If these techs were down to only say 2000-3000 RPs by endgame, they'd be worth picking up! That, and it comes across as daft that a nation can have Combustion Engines, Tanks, Aeroplanes, Electricity, yet not have developed the concept of a basic Stock Exchange.
You'd also have a situation where any edge you gain in tech doesn't last that long, as everyone around you would get bonuses to catch up on it, which makes sense. If you developed Tanks, it doesn't make sense that it takes everyone else the same amount of effort to construct them when they've been around for 20 years and you've had them trounce your armies badly.
Thoughts?
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