Abraxis-

Join Date 02/2005

Bug - Forcing Tech Specializations Through Gifting

In the third level of the engineering tree, I was researching "Hyperdrive specialization", while doing so, I was gifted "Advanced Recirculation". These are mutually exclusive, to my understanding. The game allowed me to continue researching "Hyperdrive specialization" though, so I did until its completion. I now have both specializations, however only the first acquired, the gifted "Advanced Recirculation" seems to apply.

I feel like gifting specializations should not be possible in the first place, but if they are, it should not allow you to continue researching a technology you will never be able to use.

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Actually, the issue I've noticed here

and correct me if I'm wrong

is you're only supposed to be able to research a single Specialization. After that? You have to trade for them.

However, right now it seems as though if you're gifted, or trade for, a specialization before you research one, you cannot research another one.

I'd love to see the ability to always self-research a single one and acquire the others through trade.

I'm not a programmer, but this seems as though each of the specialization technologies would need some "Researched" or "Traded" status attached in order for the game to differentiate. Right now it seems to sort by "If you already have one of these technologies you can't research anything else in this group, period".

EDIT: It'd be really mean to force non-ideal specializations down the throats of the AI using this method, though.

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I personally like this. Collecting the specializations is half the fun of trades now.

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The problem might be if you are gifted with a specialization you don't want to have means you can't research any of the others. Perhaps the AI should not gift specializations unless you have researched at least one of the other options first. Some players might just be a bit frustrated when they can't select their favorite specialization.

Trading for them is completely different, that is more of a conscious choice.

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aerez4546

Join Date 05/2007

+54

Dang, this can still happen? I bug reported this a week or two ago also.

Players need to be able to refuse tech "gifts" so they aren't forced out of getting a tech they wanted to research. Period.

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The spec system is ba-roken anyway you see it.

After all the good ideas your scientists had about better, smaller, cheaper lasers now that they researched smaller lasers they get mind worms in their heads thinking about their old ideas... meanwhile a friend or an enemy gives you a gift that no matter how many empire resources you have, you can never aquire on your own...

ba-roken

It breaks immersion, suspension of disbelieve, 4x player expectations and 4x tradition. The tech trees are already racial, why add another layer in it?

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I don't think it breaks immersion at all.

Unlike you, the player, scientists don't have a convenient technology tree to look at and go "Oh, I can make this smaller AND faster". Just like all of the other races in the galaxy didn't develop Hyper Drive because only the Terrans figured out small scale fusion for power generation. Because of this, the Terrans had the power requirements met for Hyper Drive.

The same idea applies to specializations: Something unique about your circumstances allows you to achieve whatever specialization it is that you achieve. Maybe your Hyper Drive is faster, as opposed to smaller, because your scientists were particularly insightful in regards to how Hyper Drive contracts space? They just never really considered the paths necessary in order to make it smaller to boot. I find this to be a very clean fit with the rest of the lore.

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Indeed, you can see the tech tree, but your scientists can't they think we can do this and unless they are actively thinking of it because now they've done it they've moved on to the next project. Then another species offers different insight into it because they thought differently, makes a lot of sense.

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Trading for "specializations" doesn't make sense (and, like full galaxy sensor boats, I see it as cheating and I don't do it in my games).

What they should do, IMO, is make specializations a tradeable resource. You can trade for the specialization buff for 50 turns (or until war is declared) and after the time runs out it needs to be renewed or the buff goes away.

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Ashbery76

Join Date 02/2002

+36

Quoting sweatyboatman,

reply 8

Trading for "specializations" doesn't make sense (and, like full galaxy sensor boats, I see it as cheating and I don't do it in my games).

What they should do, IMO, is make specializations a tradeable resource. You can trade for the specialization buff for 50 turns (or until war is declared) and after the time runs out it needs to be renewed or the buff goes away.

Yeah specializations should the personal ethos of that race.It's kind of like trading for communism while beign a capitalist.

If there a way to mod techs as untradeable? The game could do with a balance mod.

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Quoting Ashbery76,

reply 9

Yeah specializations should the personal ethos of that race.It's kind of like trading for communism while beign a capitalist.

There's actually a research specialization that is "Type of Government", so you can pretty much do exactly that in the game. Makes no sense.

Quoting Ashbery76,

reply 9

If there a way to mod techs as untradeable? The game could do with a balance mod.

I believe you can make the AI value them at ridiculously high valuations, but that might also have the effect of screwing up how it chooses what to research next.

Looking into my crystal ball I think that Stardock is going to do a bunch of balance passes between now and 1.1 (which is like a month, I think?).

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I would like for the game to have an option where only technology that are the same in different trees can be traded and specializations can't be traded once you have one of them.

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Alstein

Join Date 07/2004

+55

I believe you can research multiple specializations. Pretty sure I've done it before.

If the devs want to force it , they'd have to make those techs untradable.

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