Technology Catch-up

Preface:

Technological superiority translates to increased efficency in all other aspects of the game.

Also histroically, adaptation of foreign innovations has happenend regularly and mostly readily due to apparent benefits. The in-game representation via Culturual osmosis however, feels like providing both too weak buffs and also feels like putting the cart before the horse at the same time (while technology and culture are mostly seperable as one can adopt one without the other, arguably technology tends to shape culture more and thus a higher technological level often equates to or is at least often perveived as a more "cultured" society).

Technological disparity also leads to AIs disproportionally building research quarters "to try to keep pace" (and failing) - leading to a vicious negative feedback loop because by building research quarters they focus their efforts on them (opportunity cost) and additionally increased district costs of overall. And with a disproportinal amount of research quarters the efficency benefits techology brings can not be realized enough by the remaining farmer, industrial or commercial districts making them even less competetive in the end.

Proposed solution:

Encounters with more technologically advanced empires should passively provide (fractional) access to their technologies. The proposed idea has two complementory parts which could be implemented independently but work better together.

[Part 1: Trade]

The peaceful exchange of wares often goes hand-in-hand with observations of (ingenious) solutions others have found to common problems. Translated to the game that could mean:

For each traded ressource and each passed turn a (small) fraction of a (civil) technology one culture has a) unlocked and b) employed in the form of infrastructure while the other has not will be progressed for the one that does not have the technology yet. Mechanically that could be done via added research points for said technology. I strongly suggest not tying a specific amount of research points to a trade route but instead adding a fraction of the techologies total research point cost - and a greater fraction if the technolgical gap is larger (--> infrastructure is present that requires two or more consequtive technologies which are both not yet unlocked by the trade partner).

This should also be able to work both ways if each of the repective trade partners has a technology and the respective infrastructure which its trade partner has not yet.

Additionally, I propose to increase the modifier for cultural export/pressure towards the empire that receives technological "support" via trade.

[Part 2: Warfare]

Expierencing military inferiority also has exerts pressure to adopt newer technology. Translated to the game that could mean:

For each enemy unit fought that requires a technology the empire that fought it does not posses yet and each round of combat passed a (small) fraction of said (military) technology is unlocked. Deafeating a unit of that type could grant additional boni.

Again the effect might be "symmetrical" if each side posses units that fulfill the requirements. Also, the effect should be greater when a bigger technological gap is present (for what I mean by bigger technology gap refer to the respective cursive part in the paragraph on trade).

Closing remarks (and adjusting for game speed and map size):

The size of a fractional contribution must be tested, of course. As a starting point I would suggest something like 2-3% of a technologies research cost per traded ressource and turn / per deployed unit and combat round on normal game speed.

Higher/lower game speeds should increase/lower the fractional contribution through trade accordingly. According to my perception the number of combats is not really affected by game speed however since it is tied to unit production which is adjusted for by gamespeed already. The fractional contribution of warfare can therefore probably be unchanged.

Map size however should affect both fractional contributions due to lower numbers of ressources and also generally total units around for smaller maps and vice versa for larger than standard maps.