Why are technologies worth so much in the game?

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Why are technologies worth so much in the game?

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All Forums >> [New Releases from Matrix Games] >> Distant Worlds 1 Series >> Why are technologies worth so much in the game?

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Why are technologies worth so much in the game? - 4/27/2012 1:49:12 AM

NobleJms

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Joined: 4/22/2012
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Distant Worlds is a great game, and I'm yet to finish reading the entire Galactopedia but have already logged in about 8 hours into my current human game. Anyways, one thing I've found puzzling is that why are technologies worth so much when trading with other races? A not-so-awesome tech can be worth easily 300,000 credits, with which I can build a lot of destroyers and cruisers.

Isn't it easier then to exploit the system? I guess I must be missing something here. Please enlighten me! Thanks!

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RE: Why are technologies worth so much in the game? - 4/27/2012 3:25:31 AM

jpwrunyan

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Joined: 12/3/2011
From: Uranus
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It's not that the technologies are worth so much. It's just that money is worth so little.

(in reply to NobleJms)

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RE: Why are technologies worth so much in the game? - 4/27/2012 7:38:30 AM

onomastikon

Posts: 193
Joined: 11/29/2011
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- You'll need a money sink starting somewhere in mid-game. Tech buying helps a little bit. Often you will not be able to spend all your cash on cruisers because you cannot build ships fast enough.
- Some extremely not-so-awesome techs might be prerequisites to less not-so-awesome ones.
- Why do people spend buckets of cash for, say, an iPad, or a SUV? Like people *need* those?

(in reply to jpwrunyan)

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RE: Why are technologies worth so much in the game? - 4/27/2012 9:37:12 AM

adamsolo

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Joined: 12/31/2009
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I agree with the op. It's something that I also feel to be a bit unbalanced (just a little bit). The thing is, it's very useful at times :D It sounds almost like cheating (the funny thing is that I hate to cheat), when we buy out a race with a couple of "worthless" techs, at least we think they are. They become the best friends, we win a lot of money, will be able to reveal vast extensions of the galaxy (or other things), they get slightly faster engines or an ion cannon.

Look, I'm not saying there's something ultimately flawed here. I'm just saying that I felt the same way as the op at times regarding tech being too valuable. On the other hand it's plausible to assume that a race may value things very differently than other races (and we), and for them the Ion cannon may be the ultimate strategy to win. Add to this that Democracy (perhaps the government type the majority of the people play with) gives you +25 research. Perhaps that's why many of us tend to feel that techs are too valuable.

By the way, does research costs scale? I mean if we choose expensive research at game setup do techs become even more valuable too? Or do they worth the same when we do transactions?

Anyway I think tech's worth (not costs, but worth) could be tweaked (toned down) a bit. Perhaps it's something the devs have already tried and didn't like. It would be very interesting to have their opinion on this, and other players.

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RE: Why are technologies worth so much in the game? - 4/27/2012 9:46:23 AM

Modest

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From: Warsaw, Poland
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Yes adamsolo. If You will put at start more expensive technology, than it will automatically be more expensive to buy from other civ. I like to play with really expensive technologies, like 1000 for the tier 1. And with that it is really slow game (just as I like it). It also make buying tech very rare occasions.

(in reply to adamsolo)

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RE: Why are technologies worth so much in the game? - 4/27/2012 11:26:02 AM

adamsolo

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Modest

Yes adamsolo. If You will put at start more expensive technology, than it will automatically be more expensive to buy from other civ. I like to play with really expensive technologies, like 1000 for the tier 1. And with that it is really slow game (just as I like it). It also make buying tech very rare occasions.

Haha! You're my kind of gamer :D I definitely have to try that. But then, and for the op's argument sake, if the techs are also more expensive (more valuable) to buy they will also be more valuable to sell (although you sell them more rarely), and that means it will even be easier to buy the aliens' socks off. Or will everything scale in the transaction table (galaxy maps worth, etc)? OR as you sell them less often you can'tbe constantly bribing everyone. And since bribing effects decay with time this makes total sense to me.

This I guess is another classic example where we may spot (or think we have spot) an unbalance but in reality it is probably just a question to fine tune the game setup options. DW never stops to surprise me, it becomes deeper and deeper by the day.

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RE: Why are technologies worth so much in the game? - 4/27/2012 2:03:58 PM

Shark7

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Tech trading prices are set as they are for a good reason. In the original release, they were quite cheap TBH. You could buy your way through the tech tree with little effort and it made the game too easy. That was fixed as one of the player requests (yep, the player base asked for it).

Also, you can control the cost of tech trading, by adjusting your research cost slider (that is what controls it). I prefer a long game with tech advances being slow, so I set mine for max (999k). You can set yours using the presets or by setting it manually to where you want it.

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(in reply to adamsolo)

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RE: Why are technologies worth so much in the game? - 4/27/2012 3:04:01 PM

Modest

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From: Warsaw, Poland
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Of course You have to try this! Such long games are super :) Also it is not so easy to simply crash research - it is also adjusted to starting posision. And You are right that if You sell tech You most propably will be able to get more money for it... BUT! But AI propably will never have eoungh money to buy it from You for full price. So by selling tech You must realise that firstly - You will propably sell it for... Let say 30% of it actuall worth (since AI will not have so much money) and secondly - You must be aware that You waited for a very long time to have this tech. I mean, realllllly long time... And they will just get it like that. If this is not important tech than it is ok, but most of the time I would prefer to keep tech, as money are no big issue here. As for galaxy map worth it also scale but not towards technology value, but according to size of galaxy. But not directly! Just the bigger the galaxy is, the more unknow for opponent star systems You may know - and that is what make one civ map more valuable than other. Of course not only size of galaxy but also amount of star systems is important (actually I think that amount of star systems is more important than just size of galaxy). If I am mistaken somewhere than I am sorry and please - correct me by any means.

(in reply to Shark7)

Post #: 8