What are the most important techs?

[Nerva]

Hey everyone, share your thoughts on what you think the most strategic technologies (both categories and specific techs) are in the game. I'm particularly interested in what works best for USA, which can get away with neglecting its army for a while and to a lesser extent its navy as well -- I'm guessing it is best to concentrate on industrial techs (particularly those that unlock new factory or warship types), but what about cultural ones that boost Educational Efficiency helping in the long run, for example?

 

[TK-XD-M8]

Paradox themselves tweeted a link to a post on this.

 

[RELee]

I'm guessing he's talking about @Peter Ebbesen Killer Techs

I always listen to @Peter Ebbesen . He just reads smart. He might be dumb as a rock, but boy can he write a good post.

 

[Greybeard0815]

Ideological thought and Medicine are usually my first techs, regardless of which nation I play. The former for all those precious plurality (thus research points) raising inventions and medicine for the population growth and life rating.
Political thought is important to get more national focuses, which are valuable to increase the number of clergymen first (to get more research points) and later to boost immigration in low pop states with important resources (like coal.. you can never have enough coal).
When you have some research up and running I usually go for the Philosophy tree to increase the research point gain and then researching all education techs. Biologism is very important because it has an invention that gives 50% education effiency, which is more than all technology leading up to it combined. So being able to research Biologism when 1850 hits is quite important.

The remaining cultural tech schools aren't that important imho. Aesthetics only give prestige and Psychology is only important if you expect to fight many bloody wars (because of the reinforcement bonus), though the last technology in that tree unlocks radio factories.

Organic Chemistry is a must have when 1870 hits, because it makes dye factories available and thus enables you to fuel your fabric and thus regular clothes industry without having to rely on dye imports from British India, which are unreliable to say the least.
Railroads speak for themselves.

From the commerce techs I always get the market functionaliy ones first, because of the diplomatic bonuses and more importantly the mining and farming bonuses, which can make a difference if the industry is still weak and more resources are always nice. Not to mention more diplomacy means bigger sphere of influence.

For naval techs getting ship construction and naval doctrine. The former for the ship unlocks of course and the latter for the ability to build higher level naval bases, which is needed to build more modern ships.

The Vicky2 wiki has some nice tables that show which each of the technologies and inventions unlock and provide. Link

 

[Peter Ebbesen]

I'm guessing he's talking about @Peter Ebbesen Killer Techs

I always listen to @Peter Ebbesen . He just reads smart. He might be dumb as a rock, but boy can he write a good post.

a) By education a master of mathematics, by occupation a software and occasional games developer, by intelligence as dumb as a rock, admittedly, but a smart rock. Which explains a lot.

b) That said, surely my tech guide from 2010, that I wrote for Victoria II's release, must have been superceded by patches and expansions changing game mechanics since then. Should it be the case that nobody else has bothered to do so, since you appear to still be playing the game RELee, how about you update the guide to reflect the current state of game mechanics and claim your five minutes of fame?

 

[TK-XD-M8]

Here: https://twitter.com/Victoria2game/status/692705546261172224

 

[RELee]

since you appear to still be playing the game RELee

I'm sure I don't know what I might have said to give you that impression.

I have done nothing but a minor piddle of a year-old save a couple of weeks ago. Found out that the major war I was in with France conquering my entire Italian peninsula was saved by them accepting a white peace from my faction leader, Russia.

This game is so broken!

 

[Nerva]

As USA with the PoD mod, I'm debating, for example, between starting with Mechanical Production vs. Positivism. Originally, I thought Positivism was the way to go, for the Educational Efficiency, since Literacy is so important for getting the Research Points that produce long-term success. But then I got to thinking that the USA is unique in terms of their population rising rapidly due to them getting a ton of immigrants that have lower starting Literacy, so how quickly I boost my Educational Efficiency in the first few years isn't going to be very important, because the vast majority of the POPs that will need their Literacy increased haven't even arrived yet. So then I was thinking that Mechanical Production might be better, because it unlocks Steamer Shipyards (and thus a domestic supply of Steamer Convoys for building/maintaining Commerce Raiders) and the industry bonuses will make my Factories more profitable and thus promote Clerks, who help with Research Points in their own way.

 

[am300307]

Medicine is the most important tech because the earlier you get it, the larger population you have. More population = more everything. Education techs that increase NF, research speed, and Plularity increase your research. More research = more everything

Only low literacy countries need the literacy rate techs mostly. So as Russia, if you want a heavy industry you gotta get some early literacy techs and then biologism.

Also I hear artillery techs are more important than rifles.

Dont really research navy unless you want to take down the UK.

 

[Kovax]

The US is a fairly special case, since its immediate needs and its future needs are so different. As pointed out, the majority of its future Pops haven't arrived yet, but you do need to develop things quite a bit before they arrive, or else you're starting at a disadvantage. You're also isolated by a couple of large bodies of water from the nasty events in Europe, so the army is of less immediate consequence, other than a few small spats with Mexico and the UK's Canadian garrison.

 

[Nerva]

The wiki is confusing on the subject of stockpiling research points. Is there a cap on how much RP can be stockpiled?

 

[RELee]

The wiki is confusing on the subject of stockpiling research points. Is there a cap on how much RP can be stockpiled?

Pretty sure there is. I don't remember the cap though.

 

[am300307]

Pretty sure there is. I don't remember the cap though.

You can only store 1 years worth of RP IIRC

 

[Nerva]

Yeah the wiki article on Research, the last paragraph says you can stockpile one year's worth of RP's and then spend them at the rate of 100 RP / day. But then after that paragraph there's this sentence:

"In vanilla RP has no limit and is spent at a rate of 1000/day."

Maybe by "vanilla" they mean pre-AHD/HoD?

 

[RELee]

Maybe by "vanilla" they mean pre-AHD/HoD?

Maybe. I don't remember that far back.