The idea to replace static tech cost penalties for non-western countries with a more dynamic system in Rights of Man was a good one. It makes sense that the institutions would speed up technological progress. But simply having them give a tech cost discount would make technologies cost less with time, so later techs would need a greater base cost to compensate. Instead, a system was implemented that make the lack of institutions increase tech cost. This achieves most of the desirable properties, but has a couple of problems.
First, it doesn't quite make sense that Bronze Cannons get harder to research every year because some "Renaissance" has spawned in Italy, especially if you're on the other side of the world. Second, it counteracts the 'rubber band' effect of the neighbor discount, by making countries that lag behind in technology pay significantly more for it after institutions have spawned elsewhere. This latter issue also changes incentives in a "gamey" way, by making players (and preferably the AI) trying to advance most of their research just before the spawn of a new institution.
I propose that this is replaced by a "ahead of time"-ish penalty which I will here call "Lacking Institution". Just like "ahead of time" only applies to technologies whose expected year is ahead of the current year, "Lacking Institution" is applied to technologies whose expected year is ahead of the spawn year of the given Institution. This could either be a direct +50% cost for all such techs, or tick up by (say) 15% per tech. (It could even start ticking up a bit before the spawn of the institution, and it wouldn't have to stop ticking at 50%.)
This solves the problems stated above, because a given tech never increases in cost over time. Countries lagging behind will pay less (due to neighbor discount) instead of more, and it makes a lot more sense to be told that "Bronze Cannons cost 15% more because it expects Renaissance", than to be told that all techs cost 15% more because it's 15 years ago since Renaissance started.
My personal assessment is that this would be fairly easy to implement (just some modifiers and a half-dozen UI changes), but might have to be tuned for game balance (in particular, between western countries and the new world). My guess is that this issue would be smallest if the penalty ticks up uncapped, and Feudalism is expected already from Tech 1.
First, it doesn't quite make sense that Bronze Cannons get harder to research every year because some "Renaissance" has spawned in Italy, especially if you're on the other side of the world. Second, it counteracts the 'rubber band' effect of the neighbor discount, by making countries that lag behind in technology pay significantly more for it after institutions have spawned elsewhere. This latter issue also changes incentives in a "gamey" way, by making players (and preferably the AI) trying to advance most of their research just before the spawn of a new institution.
I propose that this is replaced by a "ahead of time"-ish penalty which I will here call "Lacking Institution". Just like "ahead of time" only applies to technologies whose expected year is ahead of the current year, "Lacking Institution" is applied to technologies whose expected year is ahead of the spawn year of the given Institution. This could either be a direct +50% cost for all such techs, or tick up by (say) 15% per tech. (It could even start ticking up a bit before the spawn of the institution, and it wouldn't have to stop ticking at 50%.)
This solves the problems stated above, because a given tech never increases in cost over time. Countries lagging behind will pay less (due to neighbor discount) instead of more, and it makes a lot more sense to be told that "Bronze Cannons cost 15% more because it expects Renaissance", than to be told that all techs cost 15% more because it's 15 years ago since Renaissance started.
My personal assessment is that this would be fairly easy to implement (just some modifiers and a half-dozen UI changes), but might have to be tuned for game balance (in particular, between western countries and the new world). My guess is that this issue would be smallest if the penalty ticks up uncapped, and Feudalism is expected already from Tech 1.
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