Advance (Civ2)

A civilization advance (also referred to as an advance, technology, and tech) is a quantified representation of discrete scientific, technological, and/or social development in Civilization II. A 's sector is wholly devoted to the acquisition of advances, funded by allocation of income. Advances can also be acquired through , and , reward, and/or .
A standard game features 89 advances (88 standard, and a uniquely repeatable ). The original Civilization II and Conflicts in Civilization include four unused advances available for ; Fantastic Worlds and later versions add another seven, for a total of 100 possible definitions.
==Overview==
An advance can provide varying benefits to a civilization, including access to s, s, s, alternative forms of , and/or special attributes such as the ability to bridge s and improved thrust for the . Advances may also render units and Wonders obsolete. Some advances do not have immediate effects, but are prerequisites to further research.
Advances are organized in a largely linear progression through four s, visualized as the "" in the Civilopedia. An advance may have two, one, or no prerequisites. A civilization can research one advance at a time, though this does not prevent acquisition of other advances, including those for which the player does not possess their direct prerequisites.
===Cost===
Advances do not have individual research costs; rather, the required Science investment increases as more advances are acquired. This ramp-up cost is further influenced by factors including , size, and the disparity in progress between the player and their so-called "key civ", an arbitrary link to a specific based on the player's .
===Development and pollution===
Once a civilization acquires , will generate based on their total . This is further aggravated by the discovery of , , and , and mitigated by and .
On difficulties higher than Chieftain, the total number of advances a civilization possesses increases the likelihood that city pollution will spill over onto the map.
==Modding==
Definitions for advances are located in the section of ; their order and internal ID tags are fixed, but name, , strategy, and prerequisites can be edited. is an unused advance defined on Line 64, with recommended prerequisites and . In the original version of Civilization II, three additional unused definitions are provided on Lines 91–93. The Fantastic Worlds expansion pack adds seven more options.
 (Line 90) MUST be directly accessible within the research tree (i.e. not disabled or dependent on "hidden techs"), or the game will crash.
Certain advances have hard-coded effects, such as providing s; consult for details.
The base research cost multiplier is defined as the "Tech Paradigm" at Line 12 of the section in . It can also be edited from the via "Scenario Parameters" (++), overriding the definition in the base rules; note that the session must be flagged as a for the Cheat Menu setting to take effect. Using too small or too large a tech paradigm can cause an integer overflow at unintended intervals of a player's research, leading to sudden spikes or drops in cost progression, respectively.
===Assigning advances===
The Cheat Menu includes several options relating to advances: "Technology Advance" (+) immediately completes the selected civ's current research goal. "Edit Technologies" (++) can add and remove specific advances from a civ's completed research. The "Edit King" menu includes additional options to modify a civilization's research goal and progress. Using the Edit Technologies command "Give/Take All" will grant and remove undefined/disabled advances, affecting the civilization's research ramp-up cost.
Civilizations can also be given specific advances via the "" event macro.
===Custom tech trees===
An advance with prerequisites or cannot be selected as a research option and is hidden from tech tree navigation in the Civilopedia. An advance with prerequisites cannot be researched, but can be acquired through other methods. In both instances, prerequisites are calculated normally; this can be used to give specific civilizations "hidden techs" to enable unique access to units, improvements, and special research branches.
Test of Time includes two additional sections in that provide an alternative mechanic to the "hidden tech" strategy described above. allows categorizing each advance into one of eight groups (numbered 0–7); then determines each civilization's access to these groups: 0 (default), 1 (can't research but can possess), and 2 (can't research and can't possess). These settings are written to the session at the start of the game, but can be modified by the "" event macro.
==Notes==
==References==
==See also==
* Advance in other games
Category:Game concepts (Civ2)