Hurry Up & Wait

[alexrdavies]

Hmm. You're definitely right that simpler would be better.

I still think premiums should count against the eventual cost of the tech. This mod is designed to help backwards players. So they should (effectively) get their money back once they eventually research the tech themselves.

I also think 10t would be more appropriate than 5t (or an even larger premium initially). Imagine P1 who researches Rifling, then builds/drafts Rifles (which could easily take 6t to produce in numbers & ship somewhere useful) vs P2 who saves money, builds troops, organises in a staging city and mass upgrades.

Of course all this relies on Ruff answering that he's happy with something which only balances military progress (which I believe answers Sulla's concerns by still leaving major rewards for people who were simply better at teching).

I also wonder whether this is meant to be a SP mod or MP (or both). If it's single-player, how would raising the upgrade costs of units work with the AI bonuses to upgrades, which I seem to remember are considerable? Would the AI actually be able to benefit from a mod like this?

[Cyneheard]

I also wonder whether this is meant to be a SP mod or MP (or both). If it's single-player, how would raising the upgrade costs of units work with the AI bonuses to upgrades, which I seem to remember are considerable? Would the AI actually be able to benefit from a mod like this?

The AI bonus depends on how you program it. If the premium takes effect before the AI upgrade discount, then they'll get these upgrades on the cheap, and beelining to Rifling for drafting a conquering Rifle army becomes a fool's errand on Emperor+ because the AI can simply buy a rifle army. If the AI has to pay the premium, then the AI calculation of when to upgrade must take this under consideration, which is well beyond my expertise.

[Ruff_Hi]

I don't see why it's a bad thing to have backwards civs fall behind in technology. Why is it desirable to have all players bunched together in the first place? I see no reason to reward poor play.

Firstly, this mod isn't aimed at MP play, rather it is aimed at addressing a part of the game that I find boring ... tech to the front, build a modern army, crush an obsolete army ... boring. SO - yes, I am trying to stop the run away tech leaders from getting too far ahead.

But, I am also trying to extend the life of some techs ... most games find me whizzing through the middle techs and getting little or no benefit from the units / buildings they unlock.

I am concerned that this mod is open for gaming the system (ie saving tons of gold and then crashing through some techs when some bunny unlocks everything) but if that comes at a price, I would be happy. There are other things that you can do with your money (mass upgrades, EP, cash rushing).

You could even lightbulb the Key tech, grab the gold from it and leave the others with hardly any gold.

I am hoping that the ebbs and flows in the tech pace that such a mod would produce would create interesting games.