Physical Technology prerequisites

from Elemental Forums

For whatever reason, this came to me today as I was thinking about Elemental. Classic technology trees are pretty much entirely under the players control as far as being able to research them (barring random techs). You research Tech A and you can get to Tech B (or C and D, etc). Occasionally it'll have something like "build a mage tower" before you can research it. 

What I'd like to see is some techs or maybe entire trees/subtrees depend on accomplishing something in the game world. You can't research Necromancy techs until you've found the ArchLich and defeated him in battle (a hero quest). Or maybe you can't research a tech until you've struck a peace agreement with the "Keepers of the Fallen Library", a small cult that survived the world's destruction and has a library of ancient techs.

You get the idea. This would force turtlers to get out in the world a bit. It might also give you a potential strategic point where you really want to hold the territory around the "Keepers of the Fallen Library" to stop other players from accomplishing the task that lets them dig into that tech tree.

It certainly wouldn't be something for every tech or tree, but it'd be kind of cool to take some of the tech research control out of the players immediate control and make them go out in the world and hunt for the knowledge.

5,677 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

I like certain aspects of it ... like Necromancy (super army magic) being locked until defeating an ancient Necromancer/Bonelord, and super-library techs possibly being unlocked (or made cheaper) by holding the Fallen Library. In fact, it makes more since for Education based techs to be X% cheaper as long as you occupy the Fallen Library (30% cheaper?)

It'd be kinda neat for Cave lairs/dungeons to have a chance of containing some rare mineral, and so there is possibly a slim chance of X dungeon uncovering a cache of shiny metal ... and that either unlocks mithril working tech or makes it cheaper to build (by 20%) .... not entirely certain about that however. Also, It brings up the question of at what point do the developers want resources to be revealed? WIll they be revealed one relevant tech Prior to the one that Makes use of the resource? WIll they be revealed at the tech that makes use of the resource? or Will they ALWAYS be visible (or findable in dungeons/caves)?

Anyways, I also agree that physical requirements not be for "main" techs, but perhaps a natural presence of fish could make fishing tech slightly cheaper, and natural presence of wheat could make farming tech slightly cheaper, ect. (over-abundance of BlackSmiths could make weapons tech slightly cheaper, over-abundance of armorers could make armor techs slightly cheaper)

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

its  funny you are talking about  "forcing turtlers to get out in the world a bit"   when one of the example strategies Brad "Frogboy" Wardell (you know, the guy running the show) suggested is using magic to build a wall of impassible mountains around your cities, and do all your expanding 100% through diplomacy, allowing turtles  to win without ever having  to leave their shell until near the end of the game when suddenly they inherit half the world from  all the family ties they've created.

 

So, rather than  making a  game that forces turtles to come out of their shell.    THIS game is making "turtle" to a very strong game plan, and even providing the ability to literally create a "shell" around your city.   

 

Ideally things like caves/dungeons are still going to draw out bands of heroes and such, even from the turtles, but they wouldn't be whole armies, and hopefully could access dungeons on other sides of the map without too much hastle.

Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

yea, you could move troops through caves in the mountains }:)

although How one will find these caves/ navigate them/ and how many of which faction can fit through the caves will be another matter. I ask this because I find it hard to do diplomacy if their merchants and statesmen have no passage into the empire. (ergo tunnel roads through the mountains ... but that then negates "impassable mountains" ... unless you have a prince or two on the outside of your cities doing all the negotiation, but then that means no "trade"

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

I should clarify, I don't want to limit turtling. I tend to turtle. But I'd like to have your kingdom interact a bit more with the world than your typical strategy game. I think I was inspired by a book I read recently where key technologies were found in ancient cities and it was those tech that turned folks to a new way of thinking.

We already have goody huts giving away tech and quests for killer items, this concept just extends those a bit. Rather than getting an immediate freebie like goody huts or quests, your doing it for the privilege of unlocking a path of knowledge. It goes some what hand in hand with the ideas of minor kingdoms and dungeons. Make these types of facets of the world something that affects you on more than one level of the game (e.g. more than just "kill it" for a minor kingdom).