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A civilization advance (also referred to as an advance, technology, and tech) is a quantified representation of discrete scientific, technological, and/or social development in Civilization II. A civilization's Science sector is wholly devoted to the acquisition of advances, funded by tax allocation of 
Trade income. Advances can also be acquired through diplomatic exchange, theft and city conquest, village reward, and/or scripted events.
A standard game features 89 advances (88 standard, and a uniquely repeatable Future Technology). The original Civilization II and Conflicts in Civilization include four unused advances available for modding; Fantastic Worlds and later versions add another seven, for a total of 100 possible definitions.
Overview[]
An advance can provide varying benefits to a civilization, including access to units, improvements, Wonders, alternative forms of government, and/or special attributes such as the ability to bridge rivers and improved thrust for the Spaceship. Advances may also render units and Wonders obsolete. Some advances do not have immediate effects, but are prerequisites to further research.
Advances are organized in a largely linear progression through four eras, visualized as the "technology tree" in the Civilopedia. An advance may have two, one, or no prerequisites. A civilization can research one advance at a time, though this does not prevent acquisition of other advances, including those for which the player does not possess their direct prerequisites.
Cost[]
Advances do not have individual research costs; rather, the required Science investment increases as more advances are acquired.[1] This ramp-up cost is further influenced by factors including difficulty level, map size, and the disparity in progress between the player and their so-called "key civ", an arbitrary link to a specific color group based on the player's power rating.[2][note 1]
Development and pollution[]
Once a civilization acquires Industrialization, cities will generate pollution based on their total population. This is further aggravated by the discovery of Automobile, Mass Production, and Plastics, and mitigated by Sanitation and Environmentalism.
On difficulties higher than Chieftain, the total number of advances a civilization possesses increases the likelihood that city pollution will spill over onto the map.[3][note 1]
Modding[]
Definitions for advances are located in the @CIVILIZE section of Rules.txt; their order and internal ID tags are fixed, but name, category icon, AI strategy, and prerequisites can be edited. Plumbing is an unused advance defined on Line 64, with recommended prerequisites Construction and Pottery. In the original version of Civilization II, three additional unused definitions are provided on Lines 91–93. The Fantastic Worlds expansion pack adds seven more options.
Future Technology (Line 90) MUST be directly accessible within the research tree (i.e. not disabled or dependent on "hidden techs"), or the game will crash.
Certain advances have hard-coded effects, such as providing governments; consult Modding (Civ2)/Advances § Special effects for details.
The base research cost multiplier is defined as the "Tech Paradigm" at Line 12 of the @COSMIC section in Rules.txt. It can also be edited from the Cheat Menu via "Scenario Parameters" (Ctrl+Shift+P), overriding the definition in the base rules; note that the session must be flagged as a scenario for the Cheat Menu setting to take effect. Using too small or too large a tech paradigm can cause an integer overflow at unintended intervals of a player's research, leading to sudden spikes or drops in cost progression, respectively.
Assigning advances[]
The Cheat Menu includes several options relating to advances: "Technology Advance" (Shift+F6) immediately completes the selected civ's current research goal. "Edit Technologies" (Ctrl+Shift+F6) can add and remove specific advances from a civ's completed research. The "Edit King" menu includes additional options to modify a civilization's research goal and 
beaker progress. Using the Edit Technologies command "Give/Take All" will grant and remove undefined/disabled advances, affecting the civilization's research ramp-up cost.
Civilizations can also be given specific advances via the "GiveTechnology" event macro.
Custom tech trees[]
An advance with prerequisites no, no or nil, no cannot be selected as a research option and is hidden from tech tree navigation in the Civilopedia. An advance with prerequisites no, nil cannot be researched, but can be acquired through other methods. In both instances, prerequisites are calculated normally; this can be used to give specific civilizations "hidden techs" to enable unique access to units, improvements, and special research branches.
Test of Time includes two additional sections in Rules.txt that provide an alternative mechanic to the "hidden tech" strategy described above. @CIVILIZE2 allows categorizing each advance into one of eight groups (numbered 0–7); @LEADERS2 then determines each civilization's access to these groups: 0 (default), 1 (can't research but can possess)[note 2], and 2 (can't research and can't possess)[note 3]. These settings are written to the session at the start of the game, but can be modified by the "EnableTechnology" event macro.[note 4]
Notes[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 After researching 256 advances, an integer overflow occurs, resetting the counter. See Future Technology (Civ2) § Integer overflow exploits for details.
- ↑ Equivalent to no, nil.
- ↑ Equivalent to no, no.
- ↑ Note that while the effect is applied to an individual advance, it alters the entire group to which the advance belongs.
References[]
- ↑ samson (24 April 2001). "The Cost of Research Explained". Apolyton Civilization Site. Archived from the original on 27 June 2008. Accessed 10 December 2023.
- ↑ samson (22 April 2001). "The Key to Tech Gifting". Apolyton Civilization Site. Archived from the original on 27 June 2008. Accessed 10 December 2023.
- ↑ starlifter (24 June 2001). "Pollution Explanation (by request from Supernaut)". Civilization Fanatics' Center. Accessed 10 December 2023.
See also[]
- Advance in other games
| Advances in Civilization II [edit] | ||
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| Era | Type | Advances |
| Ancient | 
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| Renaissance | 
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| Industrial | 
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| Modern | 
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| Related pages | ||
| Civilization II [edit] |
|---|
| Conflicts in Civilization • Fantastic Worlds • Test of Time† |
| Lists |
| Concepts |
| Miscellaneous |
| † Standalone remake with different graphics, units, etc. |