An Introduction
In many games, what content is available to the player at a given time is determined by a 'tech[nology] level'; these levels being arbitary numbers (especially ranging from 1 to 5, 1 to 3 or 1 to a similar convenient integer) which, upon achieving a given level, 'unlocks' a set of units, buildings, weapons or other type of content that has been standardised to be at this level. Since I write primarily in relation to Lucasarts'/Petrogyph's Star Wars: Empire at War, and its expansion, Star Wars: Empire at War Forces of Corruption, I shall illustrate this with an example from these.
This is the space tech tree, as displayed in-game, for the Galactic Empire in Forces of Corruption. As we can see, at each discrete tech level, a set of new units are unlocked for the player. This is performed by a highly simplified mechanism, in which a player purchases a research option for 'advancing to the next tech level', which upon completion releases everything in that 'tech level'.
This is a mechanism that has always frustrated me, and I shall proceed to explain why in the following sections.
My dislike of the system at a glance
'Tech Levels' are a purely artificial system of managing technology and design. Admittedly, every tech system in a game is artificial, but to have pre-defined 'levels' within a game is an artificial system within an artificial system. Technology doesn't actually advance in blocks that come together and immediately supersede and render the predecessors obsolete, it occurs in reality and in sci-fi universes as a result of evolutionary advancements in design, not only yielding new designs, but also modifying existing ones and creating variation.
This artificial system is one of my pet hates for another reason - it is based on simplification. Game developers often make the false assumption that they need to simplify strategic reality and thus game complexity, believing this is necessary for marketing them to the 'casual gamer'. Of course, one cannot expect a game that is so complex that it is like trying to actually manage an empire or cause single-handedly, but this simplification for its own sake is vile, and often massively over-pursued. In the case of Empire at War, the developers opted for a system for the Galactic Empire to simply click a button for each tech level, unlocking everything above, with both a disrespect for trying to add any aspect of research gameplay into the game, as well as for the content of the tech 'levels' - though the inaccuracies in their content was itself a problem beyond the teching problem.
I am of the opinion that the research system in Empire at War is both far too artificial and far too simplified, and of course amending this problem could and will, in many modifications, not only make research far more plausible, but indeed to introduce research as a major part of the game, producing a deeper strategic simulation and a more challenging Galactic Conquest mode.
On the failures of an artificial system of 'levels'
The notion that technology advances in blocks or levels is entirely implausible. Tech 'levels' are constructs that group technology together for purposes other than representing technological prowess: in any experience of a proper strategy game or from reality, we must understand that technology very rarely progresses in sudden massive leaps that are discrete and produce a line of products; and even on the rare occasion that this occurs, a singular advance in technology does not yield immediate and multiple applications of it.
Technological advance as a rule-of-thumb occurs evolutionarily. Whether this is looking at the Star Destroyer line of ships and how different models are adapted to different roles and tactical considerations at the time of their conception, or smaller things like changes to efficacy of individual engine units or the rate of cooling of a turbolaser barrel (thereby affecting the time between shots) and how this compromises with the power output of a volley.
This is entirely unrepresented in the game. Admittedly, the Alliance to Restore the Republic has a very slightly better method of technological advance that involves 'stealing' technology from the Empire (even if said technology was never possessed by the Empire or indeed developed by Rebel engineers), but there is no concept of evolutionary technology, only sorted into the arbitary tech 'levels'. The only true use for tech levels can be as a relative scale - one's technology ought not depend on a numerical 'stage' which one strives to get to, but rather the tech 'level' at most should be a representation of your relative advances - level dependent on tech, as opposed to tech dependent on level. The artificial grouping of technology undermines the differing value of individual technology, as well as entirely removing any research strategy for the player and preventing a technology aspect of the game developing.
In order to properly simulate technological advance and to enable the creation of a research aspect of the game, one must eliminate the beholden nature of actual technology to these external 'levels', and enable research, including what technology should be invested in and developed, in what order, to be controlled by the player. Not only would this bring research and funding into every player's considerations, it also would bring in new gameplay-style options - players would need to learn how to budget per department effectively, and make decisions on how they want their military to look to best fight, in their opinion, the enemy; whether this choice means a player opts to fund highly powerful laser-based weaponry development to increase the volley power of their vessels (or any small-scale areas such as shielding, armour, PDS, engines, et cetera) or look into entire vessel designs and lines branching from this is a matter for the player's discretion, and in no way bound by 'levels'. Indeed, this links heavily into the anti-simplification principles that I shall elaborate on next.
On the patronising and game-spoiling principle of simplification
Much of the reasoning behind the artificial 'levels' of technology imposed upon the game as criticised above are due to the principle of simplification. Why did they choose to impose such a binding and unrealistic system on the game? To make it simpler and straightforward for players to use. This is a patronising principle, and indeed some of the best games around are those that refuse to be simple and present things on a plate to their players. The Total War series, Galactic Civilisations and web-based games such as the forever excellent and mind-boggling Warring Factions are all testament to players appreciating both the challenge of an in-depth strategy game, the latter two examples showing excellent examples of the application of research systems that work on both a top-down level of budgeting as well as controlling what you are doing.
To properly implement a decent technological aspect to EaW can be quite hard - the game engine itself doesn't have in-built support for such things beyond the capacity to recognise tech 'levels' and the Rebel method of stealing technology with designated units. However, through combinations of event coding and lua, implementing research options on the build-bar is quite possible with a little work, and implementing a special tool-bar dedicated to research is also possible if one edits the GUI model.
Different modders who agree with my criticisms of the vanilla system and the notion of tech-levels here may go about improving it differently, both to fit their mods, personal preference and how they perceive technology advancement should occur. I can speak for myself, as a Co-Leader for Ultimate Empire at War and the Head Coder there - not only do we plan to have a fully implemented tech-tree approach, encompassing both unlocking new designs as well as improving attributes (we are limiting the depth of it a little to appeal to players across the strategic spectrum), but also recognising other realistic means of advancement. Certainly, the vanilla method for the Rebels of 'stealing' technology isn't a bad idea per se; it's vastly over-used but can play a role, but also methods such as purchasing technology from private contractors, reverse engineering ruins or other pieces of foreign technology and potentially even accidental discovery of unexpected technology whilst focusing on another piece are perfectly do-able and add all sorts of possibilities to the game, including locational and explorational predicates. Not only does the variety in focus, expenditure and timing make the player better in control of his faction, it also allows for more exciting gameplay - the player who spent most of his research effort on advanced shielding systems may overwhelm and surprise his enemy as they find to their surprise that their weapons are near-ineffective, but equally when the player realises his imbalanced research has both lead him to neglect the fact his enemy has researched a brand new range of shield-piercing munitions, and his own weapons are balefully mediocre.
A note on the implementation of proper research systems
Whilst such an ideal system as I elaborate (probably beyond what is necessary in my enthusiasm) is certainly possible and would help, along with enhanced economic mechanisms and military acquisition and combat mechanisms, to make EaW a far deeper, more challenging and strategic game, there are a handful of problems any modder needs to be aware of.
Firstly, whilst complexity is good, the recipient of the mod needs to be capable of understanding the basics of how to operate the system and how the system itself operates with relatively little searching around in game; aesthetic design can help make controls intuitive, and UEaW will have a player manual released with the game, since so much is newly made, so that is also a possibility. A research system, indeed any system may be complex and in-depth without being boggling to the player, indeed this is essential.
Secondly, how the AI deals with such a system can be extremely complicated. It's best for the serious modder who goes into a detailed research system to deal with modifying and synthesising new AI to go with it, and balancing the value of research item place-holders can be very important. Beware - putting in a research system whilst employing the existing AI will result in a very static and unimpressive enemy who may not even advance at all!
This concludes my first ever blog entry on Moddb - I hope someone reads this and finds it in some way enlightening!
LTCC
