10 lines
3.9 KiB
JSON
10 lines
3.9 KiB
JSON
{
|
|
"id": "technology",
|
|
"name": "Technology",
|
|
"category": "civilization",
|
|
"summary": "Research technologies across nine interconnected pillars to unlock buildings, units, improvements, and new eras.",
|
|
"body": "Technology research is the primary means of advancing your civilization. Unlike a linear tech tree, the tech system is organized as a web of nine pillars: Agriculture, Aviation, Civics, Masonry, Metallurgy, Military, Natural Philosophy, Naval, and Scholarship. Each pillar contains technologies that advance semi-independently, but many techs require prerequisites from other pillars, creating a branching web of dependencies. Husbandry in the Agriculture pillar is a starting tech that unlocks the Granary, Mill, and Farm improvement. Irrigation requires Husbandry and opens up water management. Smelting in the Metallurgy pillar unlocks the Forge and the Smith support unit. Each tech has a research cost paid in science points accumulated per turn.\n\nEra advancement is triggered by reaching tech thresholds. The game spans ten eras, from the Age of Awakening (Era 1, where you start) through the Age of Ascension (Era 10). Era 2, the Age of Founding, requires 4 total researched techs. Era 3, the Age of Exploration, requires 10. The thresholds climb steeply: Era 6 needs 40 techs, Era 8 needs 66, and the final era requires 86. Advancing eras unlocks higher-tier buildings, units, and governments, and also increases the maximum severity of environmental events that can occur. You do not choose which pillar to advance first, but your research priorities will shape which eras feel early or late depending on what you unlock.\n\nTechnologies unlock concrete gameplay elements. Masonry unlocks the Engineer unit, which can build tile improvements. Military Doctrine unlocks the Barracks and opens the Military State government type. Governance unlocks the Monarchy government. Iron Working unlocks the Armory (enabling tier 3 military units) and the Deep Mine Network wonder. Mathematics unlocks the Siege Workshop for catapult and battering ram production. Trade Routes unlocks the Market building. Each tech also has a tier that roughly corresponds to the era in which it becomes relevant, though nothing prevents you from researching high-tier techs in any pillar if you meet the prerequisites.\n\nScience output comes primarily from buildings. The Library (cost 75, upkeep 1) provides +2 science and is the first research building available, requiring the Scholarship tech. The University (cost 160, upkeep 2) adds +3 science and a 25% science multiplier but requires Advanced Scholarship and a Library already built. The Observatory (cost 180, upkeep 2) provides +1 science plus additional science for each mountain tile near the city. Government choice also affects research speed: the Republic provides +1 science per city.\n\nThe web structure means there is no single optimal research path. A military-focused empire might rush Military Doctrine and Iron Working while neglecting Agriculture, fielding powerful armies but struggling to feed growing cities. An economy-focused empire might prioritize Trade Routes and Scholarship, generating wealth and knowledge while relying on terrain and diplomacy for defense. The nine pillars ensure that every civilization eventually needs breadth as well as depth, since higher-era techs often require prerequisites scattered across multiple pillars.",
|
|
"design_notes": "The nine-pillar web structure prevents the feeling of a single optimal path that plagues linear tech trees. Tech thresholds for era advancement reward breadth: you cannot reach Era 10 by mastering a single pillar. The pillar names are deliberately mundane and genre-agnostic at the engine level; the fantasy display names come from vocabulary.json mappings.",
|
|
"related": ["city_management", "buildings_overview", "government", "tile_improvements"],
|
|
"tags": ["technology", "research", "science", "pillars", "eras", "tech_web", "unlocks"]
|
|
}
|