This is the part of the C-evo HOWTO that describes technology.
Technology
Civilization games cover the history of humanity from the end of the stone age up until the space age. To implement this, each nation makes discoveries which improve their technology. This research is controlled by each player; after your first turn ends, it will ask, at the beginning of your second turn what you wish to research.
This window shows a handful of choices. It also has, in the upper left hand corner, a button that looks like a target or bull's eye. Pressing this button causes the number of technologies visible to greatly increase; you can now choose to direct your research towards a technology not immediately visible.
A number of technologies need other technologies developed first. The way technologies are dependent on each other is called a "tech tree" and is a very common feature of video games (not only do all of the Civilization games have tech trees, but also games like People's Tactics, Age of Empires and Starcraft also have tech trees).
For example, here is the tech tree to develop Monarchy:
- "Monarchy" needs "Polytheism"
- "Polytheism" needs "Ceremonial Burial" and "Horseback Riding"
- "Ceremonial Burial" has no prerequisites — it can be developed at the beginning of the game
- "Horseback Riding" also has no prerequisites
After clicking on the target button, scrolling down to select monarchy, and selecting the advance monarchy, the list of advances will become much shorter and the box will ask what you wish to research, with the caption "Focus: Monarchy" and a list of all available advances that are available prerequisites for Monarchy. You can either choose one of the technologies that brings you closer to having Monarchy, or click on the target-shaped button to change your research focus.
To find out what a given technology advance offers, hold the the shift key on your keyboard and left-click on the name of the technology in question; the manual page describing the technology will appear.
Some important early technologies to develop are "The wheel" (allows roads to increase research), "Monarchy" (lowers corruption, increases research), and, on maps with a lot of ocean, "Map Making" (allows longboats to explore the sea).
Setting Tax and Research Percentages
At the beginning of the game, 30% of one's trade pays taxes (adds money to the nation's treasury that the nation needs to run and can be used to speed up unit production), and 70% of one's trade is devoted to researching new technologies. This percentage can be adjusted:
- Click on the image of a building in the lower right hand corner of the screen, just above the octagonal "end turn" button.
- Select "Economy and Tax". This window can also be popped up by hitting the "F10" key on your keyboard.
Unless you are at war with another nation and need to build a military, adjust this number to have the lowest possible tax rate that doesn't result in the nation losing money every turn. At the top of the screen, you can see an icon of a treasure chest; next to this chest, the top line shows how much money your nation currently has and the line below it shows how much money the nation is getting or losing every turn.
It is also possible, in this window, to give your society wealth. This, in addition to contributing money to your society's treasury (but not as much as taxes), decreases civil unrest and increases happiness in your cities.
Increasing technology research
Every time your nation discovers a new technology, the next technology needs more "bulbs" (research points) to discover. Getting more bulbs is a matter of:
- Establishing a new town
- A new town does not contribute to trade (research) at all until a town hall is built in the town
- A courthouse ("Code of Laws" technology needed) increases the amount of trade a town contributes to your nation.
- Putting roads around your town also increases trade once your nation has “the wheel” technology.
- Other structures, such as the library, university, observatory, and research lab also increase research.
- Changing the type of government you have increases research: Being a monarchy increases trade (by lowering corruption); a republic or democracy increase trade even more (but with different side effects).
Changing government type
To change the government type you have to do the following:
- Research the technology advance that allows the government type in question. The advance needed for most government types is the same as the type of government in question: Monarchy, Republic, Democracy, and Communism. The two government types where the advance has a different name is Fundamentalism; "Theology" is needed to be a fundamentalist government, and "The Internet" is needed to make a "future society" government.
- Start a revolution. This can be done by clicking on "Yes" when you get the advance needed for a new government type and C-Evo asks if you want a revolution, or by going to the menu visible by clicking on the icon of a building in the lower right hand corner of the screen and selecting "START REVOLUTION".
- For three turns, your government will be an anarchy; no money can be earned or spent and no management of your cities is possible.
- After three turns, C-evo will ask you what kind of new government you want.
Information about the various government types is available in the online manual; click on the C-evo logo in the upper left corner of your C-evo screen, select manual (or hit the "F1" key to get at the manual), scroll down the manual, and click on "government forms". The manual does not make the effects of each government type completely clear:
- Despotism. A very bad government type; change to a monarchy as soon as possible.
- Monarchy. A good early government type; balances research with the nation's ability to wage war against other hostile nations.
- Republic. A good government type during reasonable peaceful times; faster research but it's more difficult to go to war.
- Democracy. Even faster research, but not a good government to go to war with.
- Fundamentalism. A good government to have if at war with another nation and the war will be resolved before the nation you're fighting can develop new technologies.
- Communism is a good government for building units or building structures. It is not the best government for advancing technology.
- Future society is good for the endgame when all of your cities do not need more population, and you need to either develop future technologies to defeat any enemy nations still around, or build the spaceship to win the game.