Technology

Technology

Production technology

Military technology

Society technology

An overview of the beginning of the production tech tree.

Technologies represent new inventions, doctrines, and philosophies that are developed over the course of the game. Each technology belongs to one of three technology trees: Production, Military, and Society.

There are 198 technologies across the three technology trees. Each tree has two starting technologies, and all other technologies require one or more other technologies to be researched before becoming available for researchable. Many countries start with around 20 to 30 of these technologies already researched – representing their existing research and knowledge at the start of the game. On average, countries can research one new technology every 2 to 3 years, though this pace can vary greatly from country to country. Additionally, countries which are behind the leading edge receive technology spread which unlocks a new technology in each tree slowly over time.

Many technologies have no direct effect on a country, but instead unlock new buildings, production methods, laws, military units, or other mechanics. Other technologies – particularly society and military technologies – also have direct benefits, such as increasing army offense and defense, reducing loan interest rates, or providing more  influence or  authority. Technologies can also have 'hidden' effects, such as unlocking new leader ideologies, revealing journal entries, or allowing for certain national unifications.

Researching a new technology is a simple as clicking on its icon in the technology tree and waiting for it be completed. Technologies can also be queued by ⇧Shift clicking the icon so that the next technology begins as soon as the current one completes. Clicking a technology with unresearched prerequisites queues each required technology and finally the selected technology.

Technology trees

Production technology

Main article: Production technology

Production technologies tend to be very concrete inventions which increase the output or yields of all kinds of buildings. Some are more abstract, such as more effectively utilizing labor in the manufacturing industries. Production technologies also include advances to railways, and some even unlock goods unknown at the start of the game such as  rubber,  electricity, and  automobiles.

Military technology

Main article: Military technology

Military technologies improve the army and navy. These consist of a mix of new weapon technologies, doctrines, and ways of organizing servicemen and officers. The naval part of the tree is mostly dedicated to the invention of new ship types, but also includes a few new naval strategies as well as upgrades to civilian ports to improve the country's supply network and trade capacity.

Society technology

Main article: Society technology

Society technologies include ideas pertaining to politics, finance, and diplomacy, among others. Several technologies in this tree also unlocks specific ideologies which may appear with new interest group leaders and shake up the political landscape. Society technologies also often unlock diplomatic actions, laws, and other benefits for managing a country such as increased maximums for institution levels.

Eras

Eras are a rough classification of which time period a certain idea was first discovered or developed.

• Era I inventions are well-known in many parts of the world prior to 1836.
• Era II inventions are associated with the First Industrial Revolution (1836 to mid-19th century).
• Era III is a period of evolution, stabilization, and standardization that runs until late 19th century.
• Era IV corresponds with the second industrial revolution around the turn of the 20th century.
• Era V inventions are transformative, modern ideas of the early 20th century.

Eras act as an indicator of roughly where the country is in a given tree, but also serve a role in ensuring that rushing a certain late-game technology is difficult. Not only do technologies in later eras take more innovation to research, but each technology from previous eras which has not yet been researched in a given tree makes it harder and harder to make progress. This means technologies are not unlocked in specific years, but there is never a hard block to research technologies earlier than they were historically invented. Though it is typically a less efficient use of time, so acquiring a specific technology ahead of time is usually only beneficial for certain strategies.

Innovation

Each technology has an  innovation cost, representing the amount of effort it takes to discover or develop that technology. The base innovation cost depends on the technology's era, later eras have a higher cost; additionally, if there are unresearched technologies from a previous era in a tree, later technologies have an increased cost.

All countries start with a base of 50 innovation generation. Countries can increase their innovation generation by constructing  university buildings. Each university level – when fully staffed – produces a base of 1 to 2 innovation, depending on its current production method.

All generated innovation, up to the innovation capacity, is applied each week to the currently researched technology. The amount of innovation applied to a technology so far is saved if another technology is selected as the current research.

Maximum innovation investment

The amount of innovation that can be used for directed research is capped. All countries start with 50 max innovation investment, and each 1% of a country's national literacy adds +1.5 max innovation investment. National literacy is the average  literacy of pops in the country's  incorporated states.

Literacy

A pop's  literacy score represents approximately what percent of individuals in that pop can read and write. Literacy is a major factor for most qualifications, thereby affecting for which professions individuals can change to. Literacy also affects a country's research by limiting the maximum amount of innovation for directed research and increasing the amount of technology spread.

A high average literacy also increases a culture's  fervor up to a maximum of 25.

Education access

Literacy increases over time toward a pop's education access. Base education access is +0.5% per wealth, which is further increased by certain society technologies. The  Education institution also increases education access and certain professions have inherent additional education access. The Promote Social Mobility decree increases education access by +25%, and certain events or other sources increase education access as well.

Source	Education access
Rationalism	+1% Per wealth
Academia	+0.5% Per wealth
Empiricism	+0.5% Per wealth
Pious Fiction	−10%

Profession	Education access
Clerks	+25%
Engineers	+25%
Academics	+50%
Bureaucrats	+50%
Clergymen	+50%

Education institution law	Per level effects
Religious Schools	+10% Access
Public Schools	+12.5% Access
Private Schools	+0.5% Access per wealth

Companies	Education access
Ericsson ( Sweden)	+0.5% Per wealth

If a pop's literacy is above its education access, it slowly declines as literate individuals die over time.

Technology spread

Aside from directed research, countries can also gain new technologies from technology spread. Once any country has researched a technology, other countries that can research that technology may have it spread to them passively. Each country may have one new technology spreading to it in each tree. Countries on the leading edge of technology often cannot gain new technologies this way, as they have researched more technologies than any other country.

The speed at which technology spreads to a country is highly dependent on its population's  literacy. In addition, any innovation being generated in excess of the innovation cap is funneled into improving technology spread rate, though at a reduced efficiency. Technology spread is also affected by Free Speech laws and a country's diplomatic recognition or, more precisely, lack of recognition. A country can bolster technology spread by selecting the same technology for directed research. If it does so, both the technology spread and directed research apply innovation to the same technology.

The combination of innovation capacity and technology spread prevents large, wealthy countries from pulling too far ahead in technology compared to smaller, poorer countries and allows countries to more easily catch up once they can afford more universities. In both cases, a highly educated population is key to quickly researching new technologies.

Formulas

Technology cost

Era	Era cost
1	7,500
2	10,000
3	12,500
4	15,000
5	17,500

A technology's innovation cost is based on its era and the number of unresearched technologies from earlier eras in the same tree. Each era has a base cost as in the table on the right. The full formula is as below.

${\text{Tech cost}}={\text{Era cost}}+\#{\text{ of unresearched tech}}\cdot ({\text{era difference}}\cdot 0.25\cdot {\text{Era cost}})$

For example, Dynamite (an era 3 technology) has a base cost of 12,500 points. If two technologies from era 2 were unresearched, the cost would increase by $2\cdot (1\cdot 0.25\cdot 12,500)=2\cdot 3,125=6,250$ additional points. The unresearched penalty only applies for technologies within the same tree; so unresearched military technologies do not penalize society research, for example.

The power bloc principle  Advanced Research II reduces the unresearched penalty by −5% per level of  Education. With this principle and the Education institution at level 5, the example above would add only $4687.5$ additional points to the technology cost.

Innovation gain

All countries have a base innovation gain of +50 plus the output of their  Universities, which is a base of 2 to 4 per level, depending on production method, scaled by employment and throughput bonuses. Certain modifiers can further increase or decrease innovation gain by a flat amount or multiplier.

Maximum innovation investment

The maximum amount of points that can be allocated per week to a technology is 50 plus 1.5 times the country's average literacy. The prosperity bonus of the Philips company adds +15 max innovation investment; the power bloc principle  Advanced Research III adds +5 max innovation investment per level of  Education.

For example, a country with 60%  literacy has an innovation cap of $50+60\cdot 1.5=140$. A country with 80%  literacy, Philips prosperity bonus, and  Advanced Research III with Level 5  Education institution has an innovation cap of $50+80\cdot 1.5+15+5\cdot 5=210$.

Research speed

Research speed is a bonus or penalty to innovation applied when researching technologies. It is applied to the weekly innovation and can increase the points applied past the innovation cap. Research speed modifiers can be general for all technology or specific to one of the three trees. Multiple modifiers are additive together.

There are three consistent research speed bonuses from the happy traits of the  Industrialists –  Engines of Progress,  Armed Forces –  Veteran Consultation, and  Intelligentsia –  Avant-garde, which increase the speed of production, military, and society technologies by +10% respectively (doubled when the IG is powerful). Conversely, the law Industry Banned inflicts a research speed penalty to production technologies of −25%. Finally, a number of temporary modifiers can be gained from various events or journal entries.

Technology spread

Each week, for each technology spreading in each tree, a country accumulates innovation points – based primarily on literacy – with an additional random factor so spread is not entirely predictable

${\text{Spread}}=(25+[0.2\cdot {\text{Unspent innovation}}]+[0.75\cdot {\text{Literacy percentage}}])\cdot \textstyle \sum {\text{Modifiers}}\cdot {\text{rand}}(0.5,1.5)$

Unspent innovation is the amount by which innovation exceeds the maximum innovation investment. If no technology is selected for research, all innovation becomes unspent.

The main modifiers for spread depend on laws and country status:

Modifier	Cause
Laws
−15%	Outlawed Dissent Free Speech law
−10%	Censorship Free Speech law
0%	Right of Assembly Free Speech law
+25%	Protected Speech Free Speech law
−15%	Isolationism Trade Policy law
−25%	Industry Banned Economic System law Only for production technology
Unrecognized Status
−15%	Unrecognized Major Power
−20%	Unrecognized Regional Power
−25%	Unrecognized Power
Other
−10% −20% if powerful	Old Ways trait from  Rural Folk
−10% −20% if powerful	Traditsye trait from  Jewish  Devout
+10%	Ruler with  Innovative trait
+5%	Advanced Research principle Per level of  Education institution
Varies	Various event modifiers
Varies	Various companies prosperity bonuses

Strategy

Slingshot method

The slingshot method is a useful strategy to manage tech spread. You choose not to research a tech that is currently spreading even if it is a desirable tech with the idea of maximizing the amount of weeks that tech spread is working to your benefit. When a spreading technology is finished, another is chosen at random, which is not guaranteed to be a priority. Instead you choose to begin researching a different technology, that still has an ahead-of-time malus. You do not intend to finish the technology, but only to research it up until the point, where it would have been completed without the ahead-of-time malus. When the spreading technology is finished, the malus is removed from the top, meaning the more expensive technology is now merely 1 week away from completion.

A common example is all countries that start with every era 1 production technology except for Lathe. In this scenario it is guaranteed that Lathes will begin to spread as the first technology. Instead you begin to research Atmospheric Engine, an equally desirable tech. If lathes is fully completed, and then atmospheric engine is fully completed afterwards, it will cost a total of 17,500 innovations (7,500+10,000), but it is not guaranteed that tech spread will help with the second tech. If atmospheric engine is completed followed by lathes, it will cost 20,000 innovation (7,500+12,500), but tech spread will help with virtually the entire process. With the slingshot method, the cost will still be 17,500, and it is guaranteed that tech spread will help with virtually the entire process.

References

1. To update page content see reference files in folder /Victoria 3/game/common/technology/technologies:
   1. Each tech tree has its own txt file (named after the tech tree).
2. To update era details see reference file in folder /Victoria 3/game/common/technology/era/00_eras.txt:

Game concepts