Perhaps techs could become availible when you pick the starter tradition, and ascensions when you complete the tree?
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This is an interesting idea, but I'm concerned it would make certain traditions even more essential than they are now. If you can't even get Destroyers and UV Lasers without finishing Supremacy then it becomes a must to take Supremacy as your second tree. And Expansion would be nearly mandatory as the first tree because beyond the pop bonuses it already grants it would become a requirement to take Grasp the Void.
A couple ideas for fine-tuning in random order:
1) Impose the limit on tier 3 techs rather than tier 2.
2) Alterantively make the limit more progressive. For example tier 2 techs require you to have opened a tradition tree, tier 3 techs require you to have opened the tree and picked 2 further traditions, and tier 4 techs require you to have finished the tree. Or maybe tier 3 requires opener + 1 additional tradition, tier 4 requires opener + 3 traditions, and tier 5 is what requires you to finish the tree.
3) If you go that route maybe eliminate the tradition cost penalty for having multiple tradition trees open.
4) You probably want a few techs that aren't limited by tradition trees, so there will always be something to research. Alternatively make repeatables tier 2/3 techs, but let them keep their low weights. That way they'll show up to fill the gaps if you can't research any normal technologies, but any normal technologies that are available will be more likely drawn than the repeatables.
5) Ships components can be distributed among multiple tradition trees. For example weapons, armor, and shields require Supremacy, naval cap (logistics) requires Expansion, sensors and thrusters require Discovery. Hull sizes and reactors could be unrestricted by traditions or maybe they could require Prosperity, though it's a stretch. The idea is that you need a strong economy to afford big ships and reactors = energy = money.
6) Harmony is still pretty meh. Needs some cool techs associated with it.
Their trees mostly deal with tech that is a swap for regular empires, differences being the last two habitability techs are now exclusively for adaptability trees, along with tomb world habitability, and versatility is locking off the robomodding techs for machine empires.
I'm thinking of locking battleships to supremacy maybe (whilst removing their requirement for mega-engineering) but may leave this for version 1.
From testing so far, they seem capable of handling it. It's effectively forcing some tech picks from being chosen, so weapons / ship types are prioritised, meaning stronger fleet capability earlier, then they specialise in the early mid game, so supremacy adopted will have bigger fleets, prosperity will have stronger economies etc. |
Cool!
From testing so far, they seem capable of handling it. It's effectively forcing some tech picks from being chosen, so weapons / ship types are prioritised, meaning stronger fleet capability earlier, then they specialise in the early mid game, so supremacy adopted will have bigger fleets, prosperity will have stronger economies etc.
Cool!
I guess the follow up to that is how does the AI handle picking unity traditions? And do they always try to fill out a tree before moving on, or is it more of a random walk?
I've never looked into it. I know the ascension perks themselves have ethos weights, but not sure about individual trees.
I might give it a try. We'll see how much time I'll have to actually play.
I guess the follow up to that is how does the AI handle picking unity traditions? And do they always try to fill out a tree before moving on, or is it more of a random walk?
I've never looked into it. I know the ascension perks themselves have ethos weights, but not sure about individual trees.
ai_weight = {
factor = 10
modifier = {
factor = 5
years_passed < 10
}
modifier = {
factor = 2
has_ethic = ethic_materialist
}
modifier = {
factor = 3
has_ethic = ethic_fanatic_materialist
}
modifier = {
factor = 0
OR = {
AND = {
has_tradition = tr_diplomacy_adopt
NOT = { has_tradition = tr_diplomacy_finish }
}
AND = {
has_tradition = tr_domination_adopt
NOT = { has_tradition = tr_domination_finish }
}
AND = {
has_tradition = tr_expansion_adopt
NOT = { has_tradition = tr_expansion_finish }
}
AND = {
has_tradition = tr_harmony_adopt
NOT = { has_tradition = tr_harmony_finish }
}
AND = {
has_tradition = tr_prosperity_adopt
NOT = { has_tradition = tr_prosperity_finish }
}
AND = {
has_tradition = tr_supremacy_adopt
NOT = { has_tradition = tr_supremacy_finish }
}
}
}
}
}
This gives me an idea for a second set of checks.As a final note the ethics weight are a bit low IMO so the selection is still semi-random. An empire with Fanatic Militarist + Authoritarian would have a 30% chance to pick Supremacy, 20% chance to pick Harmony, and 10% chance for each of the remaining traditions. That's a 50% chance to make an ethic based pick and 50% to make a random pick.
This gives me an idea for a second set of checks.
Seeing as tech is tied to unity in this If an Ai starts in a federation/hygemony origin or joins a research federation, it might be interesting to issue a check against all other current fed members and partially de-weight trees they already have, encouraging that AI to pick something the others are deficient in, in this way the federation could better benefit from tech sharing, it might make fighting ai feds a little more spicy as they'd have a wider range of techs than someone without research agreements. Likely by nesting weighting blocks under a set of checks/ a decision tree.
@Cat_Fuzz Also just to confirm.
If a tech is locked behind, say, harmony for me, but not for an ai and I tech-share with it, will I have a chance to draw that harmony-locked tech anyway?
(If not, the above idea with AI federations sharing tech, to make them more well-rounded, can be ignored).
modifier = {
factor = 0.1
any_federation_ally = {
has_tradition = tr_discovery_adopt
}
}
Super helpful, thanks!According to the wiki there is an any_federation_ally scope. So it should be as simple as adding the following weight modifier:
Code:modifier = { factor = 0.1 any_federation_ally = { has_tradition = tr_discovery_adopt } }
The example is for Discovery and the naming for tradition openers all follows the same pattern. You don't want to set the modifier to 0 because you'd then risk getting a situation where all tradition trees have a weight of 0 and the AI will stop taking traditions. But 0.1 should work given how the base weight is 10.
So here's the Alpha release:
What a pity, would had liked to try it out. One more mod locked behind steam.
I generally don't like the idea of locking perks or techs behind some bars. it always, ALWAYS works poorly. Hard cap is always worse than soft cap. We experienced it with Espionage ideas debacle in EUIV and other features