Technologies

[tiagocc0]

Hi,

Which technologies would you like to see in the game?

Example: Ion, Laser, Terraforming, Automated Factories.. or something similar.

This is would be just a brainstorming.

 

[Shemar]

Different means of interstellar travel each with advantages and disadvantages. Examples:

- Gate/wormhole travel: Near instant, but requires construction of gates at both ends, possibly only on already existing natural wormholes and is point-to-point only.
- Hyperspace: Average speed but ships in hyperspace are out of contact with rest of the universe, until they emerge back at the pre-plotted point.
- Warp travel: Slowest but is actually done on the physical universe, so communications and changes in destination mid-trip are possible.

 

[Malakal]

There is a LOT of technologies I could list but what I really want is having nice and diverse tech system with many possible options and game-changing techs.

Also Space Empires had this interesting and fun system with "special" techs, you could implement it too - having special tech trees dealing with space-time manipulation, inter dimensional stuff and so on. Would make races more different too.

So how I see it is a mix of MoO2/3 with SE: a big base tech tree with semi random techs (appearing based on chance and your empires predisposition) and some branching special tech trees available to races with special abilities. Nothing unbalancing, main tech tree would still be the most important one, but for flavor and fun.

 

[tiagocc0]

Different means of interstellar travel each with advantages and disadvantages. Examples:

- Gate/wormhole travel: Near instant, but requires construction of gates at both ends, possibly only on already existing natural wormholes and is point-to-point only.
- Hyperspace: Average speed but ships in hyperspace are out of contact with rest of the universe, until they emerge back at the pre-plotted point.
- Warp travel: Slowest but is actually done on the physical universe, so communications and changes in destination mid-trip are possible.

Nice, I found a great article about this:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn1 ... ?full=true

There is a LOT of technologies I could list but what I really want is having nice and diverse tech system with many possible options and game-changing techs.

Also Space Empires had this interesting and fun system with "special" techs, you could implement it too - having special tech trees dealing with space-time manipulation, inter dimensional stuff and so on. Would make races more different too.

So how I see it is a mix of MoO2/3 with SE: a big base tech tree with semi random techs (appearing based on chance and your empires predisposition) and some branching special tech trees available to races with special abilities. Nothing unbalancing, main tech tree would still be the most important one, but for flavor and fun.

Yes I remember playing it once, I plan to add these special tech trees as the result of events or from racial traits. Like a race that developed on a gaseous planet would have a special technology based on that.

 

[Malakal]

This link is interesting in a hard sci-fi kind of way, I wouldnt use those techs ingame. Unless you want to represent how LONG space travel would last.

Here is a draft idea I have:
1. Main tech tree:
a. energy sources (nuclear fusion, nuclear fission, gravity generator, renewable energy sources, deep core power plant, antimatter reactor, singularity reactor, exotic energy sources - warp, subspace etc)
b. propulsion (chemical, ion, plasma, inertia less drive, gate system, wormhole generator, subspace/hyperspace/warp drive, teleportation, possibly others)
c. weapons: divided into categories (beams, solid projectiles, missiles and torpedoes, fighters and bombers, drones, specials and others)
d. armor and metallurgy and construction
e. electronics and optics and AI (including ship systems and research facilities)
f. biology and biochemistry (including terraforming)
g. economy (including private sector)
h. sociology (including espionage and propaganda)
i. industry (including mining)
j. physics in general (other than drives, weapons and stuff like that, for example gravity manipulation, energy shields)
k. others (depending on how complicates the tech tree should be)
2. Special tech trees:
a. organic and genetic manipulation (think SWARM)
b. transdimensional (cthulhu)
c. psi (telepathic and stuff)
d. crystalline (think siliconids)

Now you would have to decide how much techs would you like to have and then start writing them when the times comes for introduction and implementation.

 

[tiagocc0]

This link is interesting in a hard sci-fi kind of way, I wouldnt use those techs ingame. Unless you want to represent how LONG space travel would last.

Here is a draft idea I have:
1. Main tech tree:
a. energy sources (nuclear fusion, nuclear fission, gravity generator, renewable energy sources, deep core power plant, antimatter reactor, singularity reactor, exotic energy sources - warp, subspace etc)
b. propulsion (chemical, ion, plasma, inertia less drive, gate system, wormhole generator, subspace/hyperspace/warp drive, teleportation, possibly others)
c. weapons: divided into categories (beams, solid projectiles, missiles and torpedoes, fighters and bombers, drones, specials and others)
d. armor and metallurgy and construction
e. electronics and optics and AI (including ship systems and research facilities)
f. biology and biochemistry (including terraforming)
g. economy (including private sector)
h. sociology (including espionage and propaganda)
i. industry (including mining)
j. physics in general (other than drives, weapons and stuff like that, for example gravity manipulation, energy shields)
k. others (depending on how complicates the tech tree should be)
2. Special tech trees:
a. organic and genetic manipulation (think SWARM)
b. transdimensional (cthulhu)
c. psi (telepathic and stuff)
d. crystalline (think siliconids)

Now you would have to decide how much techs would you like to have and then start writing them when the times comes for introduction and implementation.

Nice list!
I was thinking about some techs that would be available for research only after a certain condition is met, like you can only research an alien language if you meet this alien in game.

One way to differentiate races from the game would be that a race that has a hive mind would lack in some areas like economy, they would be great at logistics but they wouldn't need to use currency.
So if in a game they just meet races who also have hive minds the maximum they can learn is basic interplanetary trade, while if they meet a human race there would be available some more economy technologies that they would learn the hard way and by observation.

 

[tiagocc0]

Personally, I'm unsure if research would be better if it was SMAC style with the undertermined research option (the player just picks the focus, he doesn't pick up the technological discovery) or something akin to Hearts of Iron with research teams and stuff. Perhaps a mix of both?

What about having some techs no player can research but only find though the gameworld and with effort?
Also, if you go with some special tech trees like in SEIV, you could have the possibility of having the tech trees interact if the race has two or more of those special tech trees. Of course, to obtain such wunderwafen and miracle tech, the player needs to do some grueling research. Meanwhile his rivals are making more practical down-to-Earth tech that takes less time to make and research, so there's always a price.

There will be some technologies that the player can only get on the first part of the game (evolution) and some we can only get on the second part (space faring).
The tech will vary greatly depending on how the race evolved.
Humanoids race might have similar tech while a race that only lives deep underground might have a completely different tech tree at the start.