Many of C-evo's advances add some factor to future unit design or allow a building that strengthens all units in a city. Some advances your enemies research allow the effect of your units to be reduced; of course, that and the other class of advance works both ways.
Table summarizing benefits[]
- Notes:
- The Manual divides advances into four groups, based roughly on chronology, but an alphabetical listing has advantages and is used here. Other arrangements of these data are possible and are likely to be created as alternatives by selective copying from this table when it has all links in.
- Abbreviations:
- "Cost to" stands for "Cost multiplier increased to"; see http://c-evo.org/forum/p-397-1.html and http://c-evo.org/forum/p-397-1-1-1.html for relevant forum postings about cost
- "Max wt" stands for "Maximum weight [of that type of unit] rises to"
- "Str" stands for "Strength multiplier"
- "Trans" stands for "Transport multiplier"
- The term "multiplier" is perhaps misleading for additive "factors", but it is correct, because the number reached by all the addition is what is then multiplied by the number of modules to give the total construction cost of the unit (excluding other enhancements that are not modules but have their own cost requirements).
| Advance (and prerequisites) | Air units | Ground units | Naval units |
|---|---|---|---|
| Advanced Rocketry (Computers, Rocketry) | Allows SAM Missile Battery | Allows SAM Missile Battery | Allows Air Defence, SAM Missile Battery; Str +32, Cost to 38 |
| Amphibious Warfare (Navigation, Tactics) | - | - | Str +24, trans +1, Cost to 18; allows Dockyard |
| Artificial Intelligence (25 possible) (Smart Weapons) |
Str +7, Cost +4 | - | Str +14, Cost +4 |
| Ballistics (Mathematics, Metallurgy) | - | Allows Artillery | Allows Artillery |
| Combustion Engine (Explosives, Refining) | - | - | Allows Submarine |
| Communism (Industrialization, Philosophy) | Allows Fanatic air and ground units | Allows Fanatic air and ground units | Allows Fanatic air and ground units (which can attack ships, and vice versa) |
| Engineering (Construction, Bronze Working) | - | Allows Great Wall | Trans +1, Cost to 8; allows Great Wall |
| Explosives (Chemistry, Engineering) | - | Str +4, Cost to 9 | Str +16, Cost to 24 |
| Gunpowder (Iron Working, Medicine) | - | Str +3, Cost to 8 | Str +8, Cost to 12 |
| Magnetism (Iron Working, Physics) | - | - | Str +12, Trans +1, Cost to 20 |
| Map Making (Alphabet) | - | - | Allows naval units, allows Longboats |
| Masonry | (Aircraft have no strength in defending cities or bases) | Allows City Walls | Allows City Walls (remember: ships defend cities with half normal strength) |
| Material Technology (25 possible) (Composites) |
- | Str +10, Cost +2 | Str +14, Cost +4 |
| Medicine (Mysticism, Pottery | Allows military bases | Allows Supply Ship; allows military bases |
Allows military bases |
| Metallurgy (Gunpowder) | - | Allows Coastal Fortress | Allows Coastal Fortress |
| Navigation (Astronomy, Seafaring) | - | - | Gives Navigation to all future designs; Str +4, Cost to 10; allows Magellan's Expedition |
| Nuclear Power (Nuclear Fission) | - | - | Gives Nuclear Power - speed +1 - to all future designs |
| Physics (Science) | - | - | Allows Turbines - speed +2 but at a cost - to all future designs |
| Radio (Electricity, Engineering) | - | Str +6, Cost to 11 | Allows Radar/Sonar (at a cost) |
| Seafaring (Map Making, Pottery) | - | - | Max wt 7 |
| Steam Engine (Engineering, Science) | - | - | Gives Steam Power - speed +1 - to all future designs; Str +24, Cost to 28 |
| Steel (Iron Working, Railroad) | Max armor +1, i.e. up to 4 | Allows Command Bunker; Max armor +1, i.e. up to 3 | Allows Command Bunker; Max wt 9, Max armor +1, i.e. up to 4 |
[]
- Engineering - trans +1 (which usually means each module will now hold two units, as do Longboats); cost to 8; allows Great Wall
- Amphibious Warfare - trans +1, Str +24, cost to 18 (but if you already have Steam Engine for speed, or even Explosives for engineers and ground unit benefits, your cost is already above that), and allows Dockyard for pre-hardened ships and faster healing
- Magnetism - trans +1, Str +12, cost to 20 (a very small cost increase, so well worth researching soon after you find Amphibious Warfare; but if you already have Steam Engine for speed, or even Explosives for engineers and ground unit benefits, your cost is already above that)
Submarines can carry ground units in v 1.0 but not in v 1.2.
[]
- +24: Amphibious Warfare, which also allows Dockyard, which heals ships faster and produces hardened units (i.e. already 50% stronger than "green")
- +32: Advanced Rocketry, which also allows Air Defence (+100% strength against air attacks)
- +14: Artificial Intelligence (for each of 25 possible steps)
- +16: Explosives
- +8: Gunpowder
- Initial 8: Map Making
- +14: Material Technology (for each of 25 possible steps)
- +12: Magnetism
- +4: Navigation
- +24: Steam Engine
Total strength without any Artificial Intelligence or Material Technology: 128
Note that Masonry and Engineering (which is derived from it) allow City Walls, which add 200% of any defender's basic defensive strength in a city, but for naval units the effect is only half.
[]
- 5: Map Making
- 7: Seafaring
- 9: Steel
Note that "ships with a weight of 6 or more take double support".
Costs[]
- 8: Engineering (but that is the same cost as with only Map Making) - and trans +1 (i.e. each transport module carries two ground units - or more if you have researched in an unusual order)
- 10: Navigation - and str +4 and Magellan's Expedition (increasing by 2(00), at no cost, the speed of every new or existing ship) and the quality of Navigation (which allows passage over deep Ocean, essential on some worlds but useless on a few and of some value on many)
- 12: Gunpowder (important also for ground units) - if you are concerned to improve transport without great concern about strength, try to get both Engineering and Navigation and design new ships before you get Gunpowder and certainly before you get Explosives
- 18: Amphibious Warfare - and trans +1; enables Dockyards for hardened units, often neglected by AI players
- 20: Magnetism - and str +12 and trans +1
- 24: Explosives - and str +16; commonly researched very soon after you discover Science, for ground unit value and Engineers, thus superseding the costs from Amphibious Warfare and Magnetism - if you are concerned more about transport than strength, try to get Navigation and design new ships before you get Explosives
- 28: Steam Engine - and str +24; this is on the path to the important ground-related advances Railroad and Steel and may therefore often be researched before the above Amphibious Warfare, Explosives, and Magnetism, so if you have it you should get the other three before designing new ships
- 38: Advanced Rocketry - and str +32; and it is required for both Smart Weapons (which is the top non-futuristic air unit enhancement) and Space Flight (which is essential for winning)
- Artificial Intelligence and Material Technology each add 4 (and 14 str) for each of 25 possible steps; the first step of either one adds 10.5% to the total cost but 12.5% to the strength of each weapons or armor module; each subsequent step of either one adds a fraction less in percentage terms.
Other significant factors[]
- Ballistics allows Artillery so that ships (except submarines) can fire on cities and other land tiles
- Combustion Engine allows Submarine; in v 1.0 that was compatible with carrying passengers and with artillery to attack units on land, but v 1.2 removes those
- Nuclear Power increases speed of future designs by 1(00), automatically at no cost
- Physics allows Turbines - optionally adding 2(00) to speed but at high cost in weight and some cost in production
- Radio allows Radar/Sonar, putting 12 additional tiles into the sighting radius over both sea and land
Earliest possible units available with Map Making[]
Longboats (speed 2.5)[]
- Cost 20:
- 0/3, carry 2
New designs (all with speed 3.5)[]
- Each module costs 8
- Defensive strength must be 1, 2, or 3 modules (each having strength 4); and you may add weapons modules (each strength 4) and transport modules (each costing 4 but counting as 2 modules for "weight"), up to maximum of 5 modules' worth of weight (or 7 if you have Seafaring; not included in following list); defensive strength is probably irrelevant because there will be few attackers early in the game and the first AI attackers will probably have strength 64.
- Cost 8:
- 0/4 carry 0 - much cheaper but a little stronger and 40% faster than longboats, useful only for exploration
- Cost 16:
- 0/4 carry 1 - 20% cheaper but stronger and 40% faster than longboats, though with half the capacity unless you have researched Engineering
- 0/8 carry 0 - probably a waste of resources
- 4/4 carry 0 - cheapest ship that can sink foreign longboats
- Cost 24:
- 0/4 carry 2 - 20% dearer, though 33% stronger, and importantly 40% faster than longboats; the speed is worth paying for unless you have only a little water to explore
- 0/8 carry 1 - probably a waste of resources
- 0/12 carry 0 - probably a waste of resources
- 4/4 carry 1 - probably a waste of resources
- 4/8 carry 0 - probably a waste of resources
- 8/4 carry 0 - probably a waste of resources
- Cost 32 (probably all a waste of resources):
- 0/12 carry 1
- 4/8 carry 1
- 4/12 carry 0
- 8/4 carry 1
- 8/8 carry 0
- 12/4 carry 0
- Cost 40:
- 8/12 carry 0 - probably a waste of resources
- 12/8 carry 0 - probably a waste of resources
- 16/4 carry 0 - the only one able to sink any of the others in this earliest group - but AI nations seldom produce any new ship designs until they have Gunpowder
You should almost certainly wait until you have researched Seafaring (which is needed for Harbors), because it increases the weight limit from 5 to 7, allowing another armor module or two weapons modules or (more importantly) another transport module. However, there is a cost: ships of weight 6 or more have double maintenance cost. If all that you want is to carry more ground units, you can wait for later advances that let you carry more units on each transport module, particularly Engineering, which adds nothing to the cost: see above.