Ideas...how do you know the cost?

[ceadd]

This is so basic and yet I cannot see anywhere how you know what a given idea costs. I have spent Diplomatic points to open an idea tree and I want to select an idea from the diplomatic subgroup. However, nothing is selectable, nothing says what it costs. There is 0 information. Where can you find this?

[Xara]

Uh I've always seen it shown in the tooltips on the ideas tab

The base cost is 400

[ceadd]

Strange, I have over 400 and yet there is no way to purchase any of them. I want to get Colonial Ventures but hovering over anything in the screen give no information on how to acquire it. Very frustrating!

[Xara]

You say you "spent diplomatic points to open an idea tree". The trees are not unlocked by spending any diplomatic points. You gain a new set at given intervals of admin tech. and I have no idea what else your problem could be without like, a screenshot. All you do is click on the next idea in the idea screen when you have 400+ points. There's a flag dropdown that says "you can now invest in a new idea - colonial ventures" blah blah.

[Triggerhippy]

Ideas work like this:-

1. There are 2 different sorts of ideas, the generic ones which every country has and the national ideas which are mostly unique to your country (or your area of the world, i.e all Irish countries have the same national ideas)

2. As you tech up Admin tech you will unlock slots where you can put an idea tree, these unlock at admin tech 4, 7, 10, 14, etc (as shown on the ideas page)

3. Once you have reached the level of admin tech where you can select an idea group to put into the new unlocked slot. The ideas are grouped in three different sets and cost either admin points, diplo points or military points to take the next idea.

Innovative, Religious, Espionage, Economic, Administrative ~ will cost admin points
Diplomatic, Trade, Exploration, Naval, Expansion ~ will cost diplo points
Aristocratic, offensive, defensive, Quality, Quantity ~ will cost military points

4. Once a tree is chosen it is locked into that slot, e.g when you choose your first idea tree at admin level 4 then that is locked and you can never change it, since there are only 8 unlockable slots and 15 different idea trees you can never have them all.

5. Once an idea tree is locked into a slot, you can spend 400 of what ever points (admin, diplo or military, depending on which idea tree) to buy the idea on the left hand side of the tree. You must always work your way up a tree taking ideas from left to right. Once you have worked your way all the way to the end of the tree (7 steps, therefore costing a total of 7*400=2800) you will unlock that trees special ability which is shown as a little lightbulb just above the final idea in the tree.

6. For every three ideas you take (from any tree) you automatically unlock the lefthand most of your national ideas (shown at the top of the idea screen), and again once you have unlocked all your national ideas you get another special national ideas bonus.

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So to answer your specific question to get colonial ventures, you would first need to get your admin tech upto 4, most countries start on 3 so for most it's one tech up (some countries start on tech 2). Then once you've got admin tech 4 the first blue box on your ideas page will unlock, click on the blue box and select Exploration ideas as your first idea tree. Then once you've got at least 400 diplo points saved up you'll be able to click on the first idea (colonial ventures).

Note there will be a green bar below the idea representing how far away from 400 diplo points you are (i.e if you at 200 then the bar will be half way up)

Once an idea is selected it becomes a coloured icon rather than a greyed out icon.

Hope this helps.

[jords321]

you have to click on the little picture (the newest bonus), maybe thats your problem?

[Free Luigi M.]

You don't know how ideas work. Basically you have 8 slots for ideas. Only 8, so plan well.
They are all locked at the very start of the game. When you usually have all 3 in technology.
You can't select any idea. To unlock these slots you have to advance your administrative technology. Certain steps in that technology will open up an idea slot for you.
Once an idea slot has become available you can select any existing idea group to fill it. It doesn't cost anything. You can't remove it though. Choosing an idea group doesn't do anything per se. It is free and has no effect. Except you can only buy ideas in this idea group until you unlock another slot. Now you can purchase ideas inside the group you selected. You have to buy them in progression, and getting them all will grant you a bonus. Every idea cost 400 base points. What points (adm/dip/mil) depends on which group you got among the three types of them.