Re: Feature Request: Advance Prohibits Advance

[Lincoln Peters <sampln@sbcglobal.net>]

On Sat, 2004-09-04 at 18:48, Elijah Meeks wrote:
> As it stands, there's no way to simulate different
> tech paths.  I'd like to have a way to shut off
> advances if certain advances are researched, so that
> sides can choose different directions to take.  For
> example, if we have two spacefaring societies, we can
> have two techs, one being Ground War Focus and the
> other Stellar War Focus.  The side that pics Ground
> War Focus spends less on developing AT-ATs and
> Battlemechs and more for its Cordships and A-Wing
> Starfighters while the other side has to pay extra to
> develop its hovertanks but manages to design
> galaxy-class starships and battlestars at a faster
> rate.

You could probably get the same effect (or at least a very similar one)
by making research dependent on multiple materials, which are in turn
dependent on specific "gateway" advances.

Suppose that you want to create a game based on the (admittedly very
weird) movie "Wizards" by Ralph Bashki.  Your big choice for research is
whether to focus on technological marvels (tanks, stealth bombers, etc.)
or magical marvels (magic weapons, scrying devices, etc.).  You could
handle this by using three materials: base-ideas, tech-ideas, and
arcane-ideas.  All advances require base-ideas, which therefore would be
fairly common.  Technological advances require a significant number of
tech-ideas in addition to base-ideas, and the "Tech focus" advance would
double (or more) the production of tech-ideas.  Similarly, magical
advances require a significant number of arcane-ideas in addition to
base-ideas, and the "Arcane focus" advance would double (or more) the
production of arcane-ideas.

Basically, "Tech focus" and "Arcane focus" would use the
advance-multiplies-production table to increase the production of
tech-ideas and arcane-ideas, respectively.  You could even make "Tech
focus" reduce production of arcane-ideas, or make "Arcane Focus" reduce
production of tech-ideas, by setting an advance-multiplies-production
value less than 1.

This would make it possible for a side to focus on one line of advances
or another, or to generalize and gain both at a slower rate.  It would
also allow a side to focus on one line while picking up an occasional
advance on the other line of research (thus allowing, for example, a
wizard to quickly end a battle with another wizard by pulling out a
handgun and shooting him).

---
Lincoln Peters
<sampln@sbcglobal.net>

A soft answer turneth away wrath; but grievous words stir up anger.
		-- Proverbs 15:1