Technology and Research
The science
your cities make each turn goes into the technology at the front of your research queue. Every technology unlocks something: units, buildings, wonders, improvements, trade goods, governments, policies or a religion. A technology's page lists all of it, and everything else in the book says which technology it needs.
Research
- Science comes from cities: the city tile makes 1, and libraries, trade goods, scientists (citizen specialists) and policies add more. The empire's total is what research advances by each turn.
- Choose what to research from the quick-select list on the top bar, or from the tree (Shift+T), which shows where each choice leads. Choosing a distant technology queues its prerequisites first.
- Only the front of the queue advances. Science beyond a technology's cost carries over into the next, and science made while nothing is queued is banked until something is.
- Some technologies carry a quote from history; a few are not researchable at all and only appear for reference.
Ages and categories
- Technologies are grouped into ages, from the Prehistoric onward. You enter an age as soon as you learn any technology from it.
- Each also belongs to a category, Growth, Ideology, Military, Science or Wealth, which is how the quick-select list sorts them.
- The first civilization to complete a faith's technology founds that religion. See Religion.
Known from the start
Spoken Language. Each civilization also begins with one technology of its own.
Prehistoric (16 technologies)
Spoken Language, Agriculture, Astrology, Domestication, Fishing, Hunting, Mining, The Wheel, Reincarnation, Trade, Writing, Archery, Equestrianism, Masonry, Polytheism, Pottery
Ancient (13 technologies)
Irrigation, Sailing, Simple Machines, Bronze Alloys, Currency, Literature, Monotheism, Trigonometry, Artisan Tools, Metal Casting, Drama, Maritime Trade, Hulls
Medieval (16 technologies)
Monarchy, Algebra, Calendar, Justice System, Apprenticeship, Architecture, Bureaucracy, Compass, Feudal Estates, Gears, Iron Smelting, Merchant Guilds, Navigation, Papermaking, Philosophy, State Religion
Renaissance (21 technologies)
Civil Engineering, Astronomy, Calculus, Mapmaking, Music, Optical Glass, Printing Press, Regimentation, Righteous Law, Alchemy, Banking, The Enlightenment, Economics, Education, Gunpowder, Representation, Liberalization, Metric System, Naval Power, Physics, Democracy
Industrial (14 technologies)
Corporations, Rifling, ScientificMethod, Chemistry, Germ Theory, Mechanical Engineering, Centralized Banking, Clockwork, Steel, Industrialization, Steam Engine, Artificial Fertilizer, Electricity, Railroad
Modern (22 technologies)
Sanitation, Medicine, Explosives, Immunology, Machine Guns, Propaganda, Capitalism, Combustion, Communism, Dreadnoughts, Fascism, Mass Production, Radio, Refrigeration, Relativity, Electrical Engineering, Flight, Mass Media, Quantum Mechanics, Fission, Nautical Aviation, Rocketry
Post Modern (12 technologies)
Antibiotics, Genetics, Pharmaceuticals, Counter-Culture, Jet Propulsion, Transistors, Combined Arms, Environmentalism, Fusion Weapons, Mutually Assured Destruction, Space Flight, International Law
Digital (27 technologies)
Quantum Chromodynamics, Computers, Diversity, Lasers, Cryptography, Doomsday Machines, Fiber Optics, GPS, Microelectronics, Stealth, Global Capitalism, GPUs, Lithium Batteries, Orwellian Autocracy, Telecommunications, World Communism, Global Internet, mRNA, Projectile Interception, Robotics, 3D Printing, Cryptocurrency, Cyber Warfare, Hypersonics, Machine Learning, SocialMedia, Data Mining
Future (11 technologies)
Superconductors, Anti-Matter, Fusion Power, Exobiology, Organ Printing, Drone Warfare, Reusable Rockets, Smart Weapons, Automation, Energy Weapons, Neuron Link