[Freeciv-Dev] Re: (PR#9147) researchcost proposal

["Per Inge Mathisen" <per@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

<URL: http://rt.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=9147 >

On Tue, 29 Jun 2004, ue80@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> >- a new researchcost option is added, which is researchcost * no. tech
> > dependencies * sqrt(no. tech dependencies), and this is made default.
>
> That is good, because now researching a unneeded tech makes all other
> techs more expensive. Would be better in future.
>
> Second it would make techtrading in alliances useless, because not the
> number of techs someone has counts.

I would think it made tech trading easier, since you no longer have to
worry about tech cost increasing. Also stops nasty tricks like giving
other players (AI!) useless techs to slow them down.

> That doesn't say anything. More important is:
>
> How much bulbs to
> Republic
> Map Making
> Navigation
> Magnetism
> Steam Engine
> Trade

Here is a table showing total bulb costs for the listed prerequisites:
prereq=1 new=5 old=10
prereq=2 new=19 old=30
prereq=3 new=45 old=60
prereq=4 new=85 old=100
prereq=5 new=141 old=150
prereq=6 new=215 old=210
prereq=7 new=307 old=280
prereq=8 new=420 old=360
prereq=9 new=555 old=450
prereq=10 new=713 old=550
prereq=11 new=896 old=660
prereq=12 new=1104 old=780
prereq=13 new=1338 old=910
prereq=14 new=1600 old=1050
prereq=15 new=1890 old=1200
prereq=16 new=2210 old=1360
prereq=17 new=2561 old=1530
prereq=18 new=2943 old=1710
prereq=19 new=3357 old=1900
prereq=20 new=3804 old=2100
prereq=21 new=4285 old=2310
prereq=22 new=4801 old=2530

Then you can look up the prereq number from this list:
calculating tech cost for The Republic to 50 (would be 100), prereqs 5
calculating tech cost for Trade to 50 (would be 80), prereqs 5
calculating tech cost for Map Making to 20 (would be 20), prereqs 2
calculating tech cost for Navigation to 100 (would be 160), prereqs 10
calculating tech cost for Steam Engine to 220 (would be 410), prereqs 22

Giving:
Map Making: new=19 old=30
Republic or Trade: new=141 old=150
Navigation: new=713 old=550
Steam Engine: new=4801 old=2530

Note that these numbers are for when you are going _directly_ for the
listed tech, any techs chosen along the way will make the tech more
expensive under the old tech cost style more; while under the new tech
cost style, the cost will remain exactly the same.

> > The above will slow down research in a more graceful way that the doubling
> > of researchcost after 1AD, and also slow it down a bit in general.
>
> I like your idea.

Cool.

> > PS Note that since I propose that we count number of dependencies of a
> > tech and not number of techs ever researched, similar to
> > tech_cost_style=1, the costs do not increase as much as the above would
> > seem to indicate. Here is a list to show the difference between the
> > tech_cost_style=0 (default rules) and tech_cost_style=1 for some late
> > techs (full list available on request), current cost in parenthesis:
>
> > calculating tech cost for Polytheism to 30 (would be 700), prereqs 3
> > calculating tech cost for Monotheism to 100 (would be 710), prereqs 10
>
> Think that is wrong, or i didn't understand.

If you research Polytheism as your 70th tech, as I did above, then it
would cost 700 under the tech_cost_style=0 and 30 under tech_cost_style=1.
It makes quite a difference to techs you delay for long.

  - Per