Partial TL payments

[Jemaat]

First of all, I'm not all too familiar with programming, so feel free to shoot this idea down on that count.

Second, I realise that if it were implemented this could make things somewhat easier than originally intended, but I don't know what the original intentions behind TLs were so I may as well throw it out there.

So. Having teched up to 4, and moving slowly but surely towards tech level 5, I had periodic (and on occasion unavoidable) problems with overflow as my stockpiles of the required resource exceeded 10 or so.

My suggestion is that partial payments towards a TL be made possible. To offset the benefits this would grant, I would suggest that any change in government cut your tech progress in half (or perhaps even wipe it out altogether). This includes changes in government not initiated by you, so to avoid a messy situation, those with plenty of storage space may still opt for the one-off payment.

Technocracy may well lose out on this deal, but from what I gather it's a fairly unpopular government style already.

[jc]

Nah, I like this idea.
Although, now, with MVO, you won't have to worry about overflow as much.
However, partial payments might still be interesting.
Perhaps make it so you have to pay all of that resource (ie if you're paying in Sand, all of your Sand is payed at once, so you couldn't have Sand leftover after choosing to "Research")... and save up until you have enough to TL (ie 15).
Here's the fun part:
Technocracies lose none of it, if their government changes (but if it changes to something else after that, there's a loss as usual).
Other governments lose half their invested research, rounded up, when they change...
And Theocracies lose all of it.

Also add some negative events that make you lose invested research, and it'll be a bad idea to invest research unless you really need to

In fact, make it so that if you lose a battle, you lose Research as if you had changed governments (meaning only Technocracies get to keep it if they lose!), which makes Technocracy much improved (but require full 15 resources instead of only 14)...

Meanwhile, Theocracies aren't crippled (as they have a higher chance of winning battles, due to combat bonuses, and also get good luck to help prevent Research loss, but they still lose it all if they lose a battle or change governments)..

Actually, a better idea would be to base it on what you change your government TO : change to Theocracy, you lose it all. Change to Technocracy, you don't lose any. Otherwise you lose only half... Hmm...

[xade]

hmmm, I might have agreed to this, cept, it kinda makes warehouses redundant.

It takes the thrill out of building up your warehouses to a state high enough to hold what you need.

And that's not even to mention those extremely expensive hull-upgrades!

I could get to Tech-level 14 twice (prolly even more) on what I've spent on hull upgrades!

[Rycchus]

As JC said, it's not really necessary so much, with MVO settings. Just set your Most Valued Object to Coal, or Sand, or whatever, and you're pretty sure you won't lose it.

[Jemaat]

Oh, I didn't mean overflow of the resource needed to advance another TL - just overflow in general, on account of having 10+ of that resource as well as other necessaries like coal, ammo, palantir, and more recently, a deterrent ICBM or two and a few DDRLs. And that's as a BXT producer, so you'd be right if you were assuming I have max warehouses.

[Throggg]

no I think this one is a no-go

you need to get all those resources together at one time have the space to store it
resist the temptation to use it and avoid battles that could mess with your ability to hold the required materials