discussion: tech and lategame

one of the things that I really like about coi, is the earlygame. I pretty much exclusively only play up until electronics 2. I've only produced electronics 2 one time (I've played dozens of games), cause that's about the time that I get tired of the game and do something else. so, because I like the earlygame so much, I've given a lot of thought to both the reason why I tire of it, and also the things that I think can be done to improve it.

1. coi tech does not follow very well natural progression of things. the acceleration of tech that happens in real-life does not compare with how it works in coi. there are so many "conspiracy theories" about tech that has been withheld by massive corporations (which all conspire), and so it's quite possible if corporate sabotage weren't a thing, that tech could have possibly advanced even more rapidly than it has. (tesla was talking about wireless internet and power delivery in 1910s) -- so I would actually imagine that if I were to be going up the tech tree on an island, the acceleration would be uninhibited because of a lack of competition (take japan for example), and it's actually our dis-unity which causes such a slow rise in tech. the amount of transistors produced in the 80s is a few orders of magnitude greater than in the 90s or 2000s.
   • coi models this by having e1, e2, and e3, which I roughly equate to 80-90s, 2000s, and 2010s (respectively).
     • electronics 1 (e1) is what I would consider stuff with copper wires with plastic around them. they're like the "landline" telephones systems with a million copper wires running everywhere. I also consider radios with potentiometers in this section of tech (dials and discreet components).
     • e2, is more like microwaves with LCD displays and buttons: now there are ICs along with the discreet components (also non-smartphones, walkmans, nintendos, and gameboys - 90's stuff).
     • e3 is something more like computer hardware: (2000-2010+) blackberries, smartphones, tablets, etc.
   • however, the way that coi goes about this isn't very realistic at all: I cannot add 10 landlines and some silicon together to make a blackberry or 10 keyboards and some silicon to make a touchscreen. sure, some things (notably consumer electronics like microwaves and dishwashers) just put fancy buttons and displays on old-school electronics, but that's not the case for new tech like smartphones and tablets. they are entirely different processes, so a factory that makes keyboards and CRTs is going to need a serious upgrade to make tablets and smartphones. --- sure, it'd be cool if there were a general way to "print" hardware so that assembly machines could be general like that and not specific, cause such a factory could make anything from touchscreens and microprocessors, all the way to laundry machines and clothes irons (that'd be a super lategame tech).
     • therefore, depending on the product, it'll require some of one thing and little of another. for example, for a server, there is the power supply and the case (plus a few other things) which would by e1, but most of it would be e2 and e3. however, consumer electronics for example should be mostly e1 and little bits of e2 -- yet later on when the pops want smart dishwashers and lighting, the amount of e3 will go up.
     • in fact, the different quantity of these different products can actually give a gradient to the technology: so, say that tech is researching/increasing consumer electronics, and so not only does this give a gradient increase in unity, but it'll shift the components required (for example: 50% e1 + 40% e2 + 10% e3 -> 40% c1 + 20% e2 + 40% e3)
   • tech does not upgrade in discreet units only one at a time. I would never say, "ok guys, stop all progress on steam turbines, and instead let's completely shift to data centers". it's often the case that one tech leads to another, and they're all being studied/researched simultaneously.
     • breakthroughs in tech come from people with an affinity for it.
     • it doesn't matter how many bricklayers you put in a lab, unless someone has an affinity for digital things, they won't discover microprocessors.
     • the other motivating factor in real-life is war.
     • people on an island (isolated from outside influence) don't typically increase tech very rapidly. if even at all (look at the terrible story of when easter island was discovered/ransacked by the dutch, or how slow the *-nesian islands have advanced -- (my father went to iryan jaya and they still were in the stone age).
     • tech is discovered by people with an ambition to create, and not only survive.
     • different people have propensity toward different things, and that comes from education.
       • survival mindset means very slow advance in tech (just the things necessary to survive and then that's get into that routine)
       • however, a dominant mindset will want to discover things that can be used to gain an advantage on the opponent (us vs them: the first binary).
       • a symbolic mindset (of which the most basic is the binary us vs them) also defines things, says what is what, and how they're supposed to be used, and things like that -- so they are their own worst enemy to tech (they have something that want to have or don't want them to have, so we must figure out how to destroy them).
     • coi is built around "unity" though and it's kinda a hippie game, in that there isn't even money (and the ship battles are laughable, without deaths, blood or and thing getting lost), so probably the game needs to take a different approach to tech (or increase the conflict component), and that is by motivating new pops (children, popitos?) with narratives about the future (what is proposed to be possible to discover) and they can start to think, dream and start to discover that. there needs to be a promethean inspiration looking forward toward the island life they want to live -- and in a bit of a recursive way, this game does exactly that for popitos playing your game :)
   • tech is also strongly fueled by demand ("necessity is the mother of invention"), and there's no greater motivator for a tech discovery, than a crisis.
     • this aspect alone can make the game more exciting and dramatic: imagine I have a serious diesel shortage, and that causes the tech guys to look for a way to get more out of what I have (say I have iron/steel and some e2), so they look for an upgrade (to existing trucks) which will increase all trucks fuel efficiency after passing though the vehicle depot (and maybe an upgrade for a cargo ship).
     • the basic formula is: (what do we have access to) + (what do we need) = (specific solution to using/modifying the components we have available).
     • using this formula, an infinite number of upgrades and techs can be discovered (and in the future, shared with others).