Tech trees all the same

[Superman]

It seems to me as if everyone ends up with the same tech no matter what, so what is the point? I understand early on you essentially pick the tech that you want to win by, such as cultural and so on, but after turn 20 or so, everyone is almost identical. I feel as if there is pretty much no choice or real freedom and it leads me to getting bored. Maybe I am playing it wrong, maybe I am talking out of my ass, if so, please educate me and help me love this game.

[Eifersucht18]

Certain Civs have certain unique units - Assyrians for example with their Seige Tower - no other Civ has such a powerful unit at that stage of the game

Study each Civ and plan your strategy to maximize their individual advantages.

[Zednaught]

I think you're very mistaken. If anything, civs don't start to be differentiated by their techs until turn 20 at the earliest, and the later the game goes, the bigger the differences.

There are generally three 'paths' through the tech tree, and the techs you prioritize first make an enormous difference. Your choice of techs leads to wildly different strategies.

[katzenkrimis]

Yes, but we are all competing for different things among those trees. We can't have everything. Most of the time you lose out on getting many of the key Wonders. As only one can be built.

So it's a race.

Also, by the midway point of the game, a couple factions are at least 1 or two full tech trees ahead of the pack. Which is huge. And nearly insurmountable.

For example, if an opponent researches Flight before you, and a War Bomber shows up on your doorstep, you'll have zero counters for it.

Dead.

Meanwhile, you headed down the path to research submarines. You scramble to research Flight, to counter the Bombers, but realize that will take 24 more turns. On top of that, you'll still need a few turns to build the fighter planes. And make sure you have oil researched, too. Tack on a few more turns.

Dead.

In the end we all have Flight, yes. But for many Civs, it's often too late.

[Damsteri]

Maybe you need to up your difficulty level. I have notices that lower difficulty levels allow players to research all techs and there is no much variations in research, but higher difficulties force you to beeline to techs you really need and discard some other techs. Samurais who can't write? Well, if you can get them nice bunch of turns earlier without writing, why not delay it then?

All civs will eventually have all technologies, but it's all about timing, who gets what and when. You have an advantage if you get certain era unit earlier than other civs have them (ie. longswordsman vs. swordsman), or if you have an UU (ie. samurai vs. longswordsman). But... If you have an UU earlier than other civs have even a normal unit of same type (ie. samurai vs. swordsman), then you can steamroll them and win the game.

[Ryika]

Originally posted by Damsteri:

Maybe you need to up your difficulty level. I have notices that lower difficulty levels allow players to research all techs and there is no much variations in research, but higher difficulties force you to beeline to techs you really need and discard some other techs.

" I feel as if there is pretty much no choice or real freedom and it leads me to getting bored." - "Then play on a difficulty that forces you to beeline the same techs everytime you play!" - Isn't that a really silly argument? ^^

The tech tree is probably one of the worst balanced things in Civ 5, some techs are just so much stronger than other techs. Beyond Earth will probably have more options with its tech-web.

[Petrograd]

While some techs are much stronger than others, at time you may have to put an important tech at the back burner if you want to be able to get a particular wonder.

I always go for science early, but I don't -always- go straight for it.

If I'm mid-war I may be forced to take war-specific techs first. It'll be good for me in the short term (and can very much be worth it!) but will cost me in the long run.

[Matthew]

Originally posted by SuperCrayawn:

I understand early on you essentially pick the tech that you want to win by, such as cultural and so on, but after turn 20 or so, everyone is almost identical.

It is actually the complete opposite. From a human perspective it is nearly identical for the first 120 turns or so. NC ~> Universities while picking up whichever prereqs are in the way. Maybe, just maybe there is a tiny bit of variance after that point where some go to artillery and some pick up observatories/archaeology, but most will still go straight to schools and factories.

AI's most often beeline Civil Service for the pikes, then Flight. Both as an attempt on the developers part to allow them to "put up a fight". Some Civs like America and France will beeline muskets for their uniques though.

Overall you are correct though, very little variance in the tech tree. I blame the heavy reliance on the science mechanics which especially as you go up in difficulty there is very little options other than playing the science game.