Technology

(This page is for Classic ruleset. For Technology in the Multiplayer ruleset click here.) 
Throughout the game you and your opponents will race to discover ever more powerful technologies, which enhance your own civilizations while menacing those of each other. A few advances provide immediate benefits, such as making new actions available to your units; many introduce new units or buildings you can construct; and most are also gateways to further technology. Beware that some advances also make things obsolete. While obsolete units merely become impossible to make — leaving the ones you have already made intact — obsolete buildings are immediately sold, and 
obsolete wonders lose their effect. Worse yet, your wonders can be obsoleted by an advance made by another player!
There are a few ways to gain advances from other civilizations: you will sometimes discover enemy technology when you capture a city; you can steal advances with Diplomats and Spies; the Great Library wonder, while it lasts, gives its owner every advance that two other civilizations have reached; and another player might grant technology in the terms of a pact. But otherwise advances must be discovered through the efforts of your own people.
By default, each player starts without any technology at all (this can be changed with a server option). From there you each direct your research toward one advance at a time, deciding which technology you need most quickly and which you can afford to attain later. Research progress is measured in research points (bulbs), which can be generated
through trade, by scientists or by Caravan or Freight arrival bonusesWhen you found a trade route or enter a marketplace with a unit, be sure to select your scientific goal before, since switching techs later in the turn in some cases may reduce or eliminate the boonus bulbs. This bug is going to be reduced since release 3.0.5 and removed completely in v.3.2, see . The cost for each technology is fixed and depends on the number of its 'parent techs'. With r the total number of required techs for a given 
technology, the number of bulbs that will be needed for researching this technology is (r+2)*sqrt(r+2)*10 with default rules. See below the total cost (including parents' cost) for each technology.
Instead of selecting each new advance manually, you can
establish a long-term goal that is several technologies away, and
your scientists will work through all the prerequisite advances
automatically. If you ignore technology completely then your
scientists choose the next advance on their own.
You can ask the game for a report on your science progress, or
simply watch the lightbulb on the client which gets brighter as the
next advance nears. The online help system displays a very helpful
technology tree for every item and technology in the game, allowing
you to explore the advances they require.
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= The Space Race =
As described in the overview with which
this manual opened, the game may be won peacefully by building a
spacecraft and becoming the first civilization to reach Alpha Centauri. 
One civilization must start the space race by completing
the Apollo Program wonder, which allows every civilization with the
necessary technology to begin building spacecraft components:
{| cellpadding="4" width="100%"	
	Space Module
cost:320 upkeep:0
requires:Superconductors
The skeleton of your spacecraft consists of structural components, 
each of which can hold in place either a component or
module. Components provide fuel and propulsion systems, and
decrease the amount of time your craft will require to reach Alpha
Centauri; you can install up to sixteen, though they must be
installed in pairs. Modules themselves come in three
flavors: a habitation module provides living space for ten thousand
colonists; a life support module can keep ten thousand colonists
alive; and a solar panel provides the power required by any two
other modules.
Use the spaceship window to observe your progress as you build
your spacecraft. You may manufacture spacecraft elements anywhere with a factory;
they will automatically be assembled in your capital city. As you
add components you improve the craft's probability of success and
travel time; you may launch as soon as you find these satisfactory.
If several civilizations are building spacecraft, they are faced
with the decision of whether to launch quickly and start their
craft on its way, or continue building in the hopes of launching a
faster spacecraft later, or one with a higher probability of
success.
Both during construction and after its launch, the spacecraft is
considered a building of your capital city, and will be lost if
your capital is taken or destroyed.
= Specific Technologies =
Here each technology is shown, together with any prerequisite
advances and with a summary of its effects.
For a graphical technology tree, see this link.
Technology