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[ArkDelgato]

Right now, if you stop a world in year 1, dwarves know all the intricacies to smith steel, and if you stop in year 1050, dwarves haven't gotten any farther than steel.
Nor have men or elves.

I suggest that civilizations evolve tech levels over time, starting with wood and stone, and progressing through copper, bronze, iron, steel, and perhaps other metals.

For example, if elves get the knowledge of bronze early on in world-gen, they have all the trees and would say that their forges are "eco-friendly" and soon the mighty elven phalanx would wipe the floor with the rest of the world.

Or the men weasel the recipie for steel from the dwarves, and create the superb Damascus steel, forcing the world to pay them tribute.

The kobolds would be stuck off with above ground deposits of ore, (unless they discover mining at some point) and would stop in the copper to folded Iron ages.

[blah28722]

It'd be kinda restrictive if a fortress had to exist at a certain time to use certain technologies.

Even worse if a fortress can create a thousand year's worth of innovation within years.

[Capntastic]

It'd be kinda restrictive if a fortress had to exist at a certain time to use certain technologies.

Even worse if a fortress can create a thousand year's worth of innovation within years.

'Fortresses' won't always just be dwarves, you'll be able to control other civs in their outpost/town building pursuits.   Likewise, civilizations will have different cultures and 'tech levels' that aren't inherent due to their race alone.

So yeah, there will be differentiation and gradual increase and changes in a civilization's technology and culture.

[Warlord255]

I don't think that world-spanning tech levels are a good idea just yet, though the idea of a bronze age -> iron age -> steel age progression would be interesting eventually.

There is some "soft" progression in-game already in that most advanced tech - such as steelmaking or glassmaking - requires more dwarves and resources to be run with any amount of efficiency.

[Hummingbird]

That sounds like something cool if we can figure out how it would work...

So what would be the exact mechanic for this?  Would it work randomly, as in some guy gets a strange mood and starts smelting a new kind of metal named "steel" (randomized names for metals would be awesome but annoying), or would civs be consciously investing resources on discovering these new technologies?

It's a promising idea, but might be a bit of a downer for adventurer mode players who stop worldgen at year 50 when they find that nobody's invented iron yet.

[stonemt]

..."dwarven sientist invents ______"?

[Capntastic]

..."dwarven sientist invents ______"?

No, having it be a moodlike event would be terrible and make everyone mad when it doesn't happen.

Having it happen as a cultural-wide thing during worldgen would be best.   That way worldgen parameters can ensure you get the tech levels you want.

[MrWiggles]

I don't know.

We don't know how old the universe is when its get simulated. It might very well get started with the dorf knowing the secret of steel, or possibly its divine gifts.(Although, we do know when the gods get born. Its very curious.)

Also, fantasy worlds seem to progress to a certain point. Well under the age of enlightenment.

It seem to be there a lot of assumtions for fantasy worlds being applied to its simulation that havent been justified. 

[Sensei]

If it's anything like in most strategy games... good idea, but not one that really fits with the spirit of DF, methinks.

[DennyTom]

I love this idea. There even could be trade with technologies, espionage, etc.

Sensei: There always could be a choice in init.txt

[Aquillion]

This was originally intended to be one of the game's features (and it's already possible to move between ages, though there's no real effects for this.)  But I think much of it ended up being dropped by the wayside as the focus shifted.

[Toksyuryel]

This was originally intended to be one of the game's features (and it's already possible to move between ages, though there's no real effects for this.)  But I think much of it ended up being dropped by the wayside as the focus shifted.

Hm, perhaps the philosopher noble is a relic of that system?

I don't really want to see a standard strategy game tech system. I think whatever tech system goes in, if one ever does, must be distinctly dwarvenly.

[Rowanas]

Hmm. If it were fully changeable I would be happy. I would like my civilisations to be moderately sized but still fully developed, so options would be necessary to make it work like that. I think in practice nobody will actually want to have to progress slowly, or be denied options.

[Grendus]

Since only a few hundred years pass in world gen, and since - for the most part - in the 1400's technological advance was relatively slow due to slow communication, I don't really feel this is a big problem.

What I would like to see is more progression based on parts needed to set up industries. For example, building an alchemists workshop requires vials, which require a jeweler and some raw crystals or a glassmaking industry. Perhaps there should be a better progression in industry requirements, which can be circumvented through trade (look at african nations for examples of that, many of them jumped from tribal culture to modern society in the space of a few decades (ignore the massive instability though)). For example, a pottery industry would produce clay molds which could be used in a casting industry to produce an anvil which could be used in a smithing industry to produce weapons and armor. With enough pre-requirements, technological progression could be simulated without the relatively metagamey version of "ages" or "discoveries".

[Bricks]

I strongly support technological development during world gen.  Obviously the survival of megabeasts and civilizations needs to be improved for this to work.  While it could carry over to dorf mode if you stopped world gen early, I don't want to see research of technologies going on during play.

Apart from the flat technologies we have now, which would probably be more of a hardcoded "leap" in a civ's technology (as in you could still mod in techs, just that the whole civ would learn them at once), it would be fancy-dancy if certain "secret" technologies could be discovered via moods or some other event, which would then sort of spread throughout the world via diplomacy or kidnapping.  One that comes to mind is glass as an armor/weapon material, ala Elder Scrolls.  It's not something that the game needs to always have, but it would be good flavor for a given world.  It would also be a good motivation to seek out master smiths (or whatever) as an adventurer, or to convince a master to come to your fort.