Specific vs Focused Technology Progression
Elemental Forums
From most of the screen shots it can be seen that the player would be researching specific technological/magical goals. I would argue for the option of focused technology/magical progression. By focused technology progression I mean a research system akin to that found in SMAC, where you set your prefer research direction(s) but have no control over exactly what is researched.
The reason I favor this approach is that it will add more accuracy to the game in that technological advancement is not linear. Also, it will add a bit of luck to how your research progresses and you will not be able to employ a strategy that requires you to attain a specific technology at a specific time.
The reason I am advocating this as an option and not an outright change is that I know some people would not share my views about how research should progress or just prefer to know where they are going. However, if the game is designed with focused research in mind it can easily be adapted to specific research but the opposite is not true.
Please post any comments, ideas, or criticisms.
NOTE: It appears that those that are not familiar with Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri(SMAC) are misunderstanding the concept but I didn't phrase it with those individuals in mind so I apologize.
Here is an example to better explain the concept. You have, for arguments sake, 4 different categories of research: Military, Industry, Economy, Agriculture. All of the technologies are categorized into the previously mentioned categories. You decide to temporarily focus only on Agriculture. This doesn’t mean that you will only research Agriculture technology. It does mean that if you meet the prerequisites for an Agriculture and, for example, a Military tech you have a much higher chance of researching that Agriculture Tech rather than the other.
Here is another example that addresses the concept from a different direction. From the club could you "see" the exact path to a short sword assuming the only knowledge you had was of the club? Not really. Would you even have a concept of an edged weapon? Maybe, maybe not. Would you know what to make it out of or how? Nope.
If you had a SMAC like tech system and wanted to get to the short sword ASAP you would select to focus on Industry and Military b/c the Industry focus will answer how to make it and out of what and the Military focus will fill in the concept. However, just b/c you are focusing on one area doesn’t mean that your civilization couldn't come up with new economic thoughts or of applying agriculture principals. It just won’t be as likely.
This adds to the strategy element b/c if you focus on industry and economy too exclusively you will not be guaranteed to get the military techs that you may need right away if you run into someone that wants to conquer you. At the same time it dampens the effect of player focus by giving them technologies that they don’t think they want or need right at that moment. This acts to give players that focus on industry and economy, for example, a few military and agriculture techs here and there so they are not extremely vulnerable to challenges in those areas.
Like I mentioned before, not everyone will prefer this option but I believe that it adds considerably to how the game is played and will fit in well with the ideas expressed by Frogboy.
