We already have a method that can be adopted to limit tech and unity rushing and in effect this will allow the player to decide if in their game tall to be on par or perhaps better than wide for development. Implement a feature similar to Growth Required Scaling. I am not addressing sprawl in this suggestion.
Quick diversion...
We have one existing slider that needs to be split. Why these were grouped together I will never understand. By splitting these up we can tailor our games a bit more to suit our own needs. Simple increasing the cost of each technology to be researched does work to a point against tech rushing but when grouped with unity production it can really put a drag on the game. So separate them
Tech/Tradition Costs with scale from 0.25x to 5x.
Now for slowing down tech acquisition separate from the cost of each technology, create a new slider
Applied research scaling
The Applied Research Scaling is used to set the how many points of research to the current tech tier costs that can be applied. This affects affects research from labs, stations, and stored research. It does not affect the points provided by empire wide bonuses, research treaties, or leaders. This does mean you could accumulate a large amount of stored research but this is offset by researching events and when you increase your tech tier which you may not at cap for.
Example, tier one technologies cost between 2000 and 3000 research points. Using a fairly average start you have two researchers who produce on average five points per category for a total of ten and your base empire provides ten points per category. This would result in 100 months assuming no scientist bonus or stored research. Currently you can simply build as many labs as you want limited by building slots which is where tech rushing gets most of its power.
Base tech cost per tier are 2000, 4000, 8000, 16000, and 32000. Simple progression.
So how does the slider work? Two methods present themselves, both are based on researching a technology from the current maximum tier for the category.
Quick diversion...
We have one existing slider that needs to be split. Why these were grouped together I will never understand. By splitting these up we can tailor our games a bit more to suit our own needs. Simple increasing the cost of each technology to be researched does work to a point against tech rushing but when grouped with unity production it can really put a drag on the game. So separate them
Tech/Tradition Costs with scale from 0.25x to 5x.
Now for slowing down tech acquisition separate from the cost of each technology, create a new slider
Applied research scaling
The Applied Research Scaling is used to set the how many points of research to the current tech tier costs that can be applied. This affects affects research from labs, stations, and stored research. It does not affect the points provided by empire wide bonuses, research treaties, or leaders. This does mean you could accumulate a large amount of stored research but this is offset by researching events and when you increase your tech tier which you may not at cap for.
Example, tier one technologies cost between 2000 and 3000 research points. Using a fairly average start you have two researchers who produce on average five points per category for a total of ten and your base empire provides ten points per category. This would result in 100 months assuming no scientist bonus or stored research. Currently you can simply build as many labs as you want limited by building slots which is where tech rushing gets most of its power.
Base tech cost per tier are 2000, 4000, 8000, 16000, and 32000. Simple progression.
So how does the slider work? Two methods present themselves, both are based on researching a technology from the current maximum tier for the category.
- The easiest to understand is, minimum number of years. It scales from 0.25x to 5x. This would keep the rate constant throughout the game but consider that leaders, treaties, and empire wide bonuses, will still reduce time. The game would simply do an under the covers calculation of dividing the cost by the value and throttling applied research to that value
- Percentage based, similar to above but probably lending it self to more confusion. It is 1 to 100, what percentage of the cost can you apply per turn. Using the tech tier one example setting it to ten would be ten percent of 2000 or 200 points which is still a large number. That is why I prefer the first method in that its easier to make understandable changes.
Code:
# TECH COSTS
@tier1cost1 = 2000
@tier1cost2 = 2500
@tier1cost3 = 3000
@tier2cost1 = 4000
@tier2cost2 = 5000
@tier2cost3 = 6000
@tier3cost1 = 8000
@tier3cost2 = 10000
@tier3cost3 = 12000
@tier4cost1 = 16000
@tier4cost2 = 20000
@tier4cost3 = 24000
@tier5cost1 = 32000
@tier5cost2 = 40000
@tier5cost3 = 48000- 2
