Exclusive Techs - Theory and Discussion

[Suicide Junkie]

Exclusive techs, as seen in Moo games and etc.

If you've researched tech A, it is impossible to research tech B, but if you haven't researched tech A, you can research tech B no problem. (And vice versa)

Are there some good examples of techs that should be exclusive?
Surely there must be something if there are games that include it...

I never did understand how that sort of thing would make any sort of sense.

Eg:
If the russians develop tech A, they can't research tech B, even though the Americans decided to ignore tech A and sucessfully developed tech B instead.
If the americans did it, why can't the russians do it too if they really want to?

Originally posted by Me Loonn:
Well, one could think it as simple as railway track width, that differs in some countiers, or as bolts and screws that are either inch or mm based.
After making desision to use one, changing to other would require massive scrappin of old and replasing all those former bolts and screws that have now become "absolite".

... [trek example] ...

I know this sounds rather clumsy exsample, but in practical use of different techs, all kinds of problems emerge (PC, anyone... ?)

That's a fair start, but the imperial to metric conVersion will only take a generation or three if you try.
Probably the closest Space Empires analog to the railway idea would be Standard extractors to monoliths... you have to scrap the old and build the new from scratch... at worst, an entire planet at a time.
You'd have to lay down new track across your country/province/state, then get new trains, tear up the old tracks afterwards, and redesign the stations perhaps, but if the economic incentive was there, or if I became dictator for life of the country, it could happen .

I certainly agree that some changes should be difficult to make, but it seems to me that if it was physically possible to do before you learn something, it should certainly be possible after you've learned something.





Aside: Don't bother with the rest if you're just into the philosphical side.

However... I also believe that it would be a useful ability to have in the game.
For example, to close off truly useless tech areas. If you've just made a major breakthrough, and developed an engine that is smaller/faster/cheaper and uses less supplies than the previous drive would ever achieve, then it would make sense to have the old drive techs become Obsolete and unavailable.

Or, for two tech areas that both provide the same results...
for example, a 100,000 point area that provides access to a torpedo weapons tech area, and a 10,000 point area that also provides the same torpedo weapons tech area, but has other prerequisites, say a ruins tech or military science.
When you've researched one, the other will be useless, as they're both doors to the same tech.
So both techs should obsolete the other.

PS:
While I like StarTrek as much as the next guy, its hardly ever a good example for stuff like this.
They should have just ordered a pre-fab outpost from replicated parts from some Federation construction contractor in the area, and saved themselves a whole lot of trouble.
When things are that bad, you scrap and rebuild from scratch to save vast amounts of time and effort, and probably credits in the long run.