Resource: Tech Tree for Manual/Wiki (image heavy thread)

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Ta'Lon
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Resource: Tech Tree for Manual/Wiki (image heavy thread)

#1 Post by Ta'Lon »

This thread is for the Tech Tree image I'm working on, for use in a FreeOrion Game Manual, and also for the Wiki.

I've previewed a couple of shots of this already in another thread, but was asked to start a new thread, so voila!

The tech tree is rather large, so a print version is problematic.
Nonetheless, I will look at breaking the master image down into smaller sections,
for those who want to print one at home and paste together the sections or some such.

Currently, by my estimates, I'm about 40% of the way through this.
Posted below are a couple of sample images.
Some may have noticed that things are getting repositioned in the various images as I progress,
as I'm trying to arrange the techs in such a way to minimize 'crossing' of the lines that show tech progression.
Yes, this does get rather tedious at times...

I'm sure a few things will change after the intial version is done,
as the various techs are tweaked, and perhaps new ones added,
as playtesting progresses.
Once this is done, editing in the new changes in will be easy.
Getting it done is the hard part!

Image quality has been lowered to reduce file sizes.
The final product will be at full resolution/quality, with 300 DPI and 72 DPI versions.

Enjoy!
:mrgreen:
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techtreeteaser.jpg
techtreeteaser.jpg (77.91 KiB) Viewed 13505 times
techtree4acloseup.jpg
techtree4acloseup.jpg (139.81 KiB) Viewed 13505 times
techtree4.jpg
techtree4.jpg (231.67 KiB) Viewed 13505 times
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adrian_broher
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Re: Resource: Tech Tree for Manual/Wiki (image heavy thread)

#2 Post by adrian_broher »

The first question is: why?

The raw data and rendering methods are already in place, why not utilize those instead of building the tree by hand?
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Ta'Lon
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Re: Resource: Tech Tree for Manual/Wiki (image heavy thread)

#3 Post by Ta'Lon »

I'd have no friggin' clue how to write the code to generate what you see above. Nor am I asking anyone else to.

I'm an artist, not a programmer, dammit! I like things that look pretty...
:mrgreen:

Again, this is an 'out of game' resource, not an ingame resource. Other 4x games have similar resources, and having the relevant info readily displayed (rather than having to click a couple of times on each tech box) has some appeal to me.
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Bigjoe5
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Re: Resource: Tech Tree for Manual/Wiki (image heavy thread)

#4 Post by Bigjoe5 »

In that case, you should be aware that the tech tree is very much a work in progress - much of the current tech tree will continue to be reworked, pruned, and added to as development progresses, and there's even talk of replacing the current tech tree with a set of tech 'columns', similar to MoO2. I don't want to rain on your parade, but it would probably be a better use of your time to create resources that won't become obsolete whenever a content developer sneezes.

Looks pretty nice though, if a bit crowded in techs that unlock more than one thing.
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Ta'Lon
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Re: Resource: Tech Tree for Manual/Wiki (image heavy thread)

#5 Post by Ta'Lon »

I went into this knowing full well that the tech tree is a work in progress.

As I said, laying the groundwork is the hard part. Once this is done, moving things around is fairly easy to do.

This should also help those pondering the tech tree to better visualize the current state of the tech tree, I would think.

It does illustrate a couple of 'nexus' techs, namely
Force Field Harmonics (7 subtechs, including N-Dimensional Subspace, and Theory Of Everything via Gravitionics)
N-Dimensional Subspace (6 subtechs)
Theory Of Everything (6 subtechs, 3 lead to Singularity of Transcendence's 4 preqs, N-Dim Subspace is also rooted in two of those paths, all are rooted in Force Field Harmonics)

But that should have already been obvious to those working with the current tech tree, so I'm not pointing out anything unknown here. It was a bit of a bear to minimize the crossings of tech lines from those three techs, but I think I did OK...

BTW, whomever designed the tech tree interface that allows you to remove various tech categories for easier viewing - very nice and kudos! The ingame interface is quite nice as far as function!

In general really do like the large number of techs in this game, although as others have noted things can always improve. I see some definite possibilities with race differentiation with some of the tech lines currently ingame (i.e. lithic species having an affinity for asteroid hulls, photoronic species having an affinity for bio-organic hulls, cyborg races having an affinity for robo/bio hybrid hulls, robotic species having an affinity for robotic hulls, etc). But that is a discussion for another thread...


Anyways, here is where I have progressed to so far. I have some 'placeholders' here: note the incorrect icons and such, I'm just reusing/relabeling some tech boxes for now, as working out the arrangement beforehand is helpful. The Weapons techs are pretty much standalone/don't interact with other techs currently, so other than Weapons, I just need to add the 'green' techs left plus a few other stray techs, notably the organic/symbiotic ship techs.
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Ta'Lon
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Re: Resource: Tech Tree for Manual/Wiki (image heavy thread)

#6 Post by Ta'Lon »

Techs are all placed - I just need to add the data to the last 40 or so techs, and swap out some tech images for the correct ones (I went Deuterium Tank happy as you can see)...

Also need to make some adjustments to the background art. The Gas Giant's shadow doesn't look right to me...
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Re: Resource: Tech Tree for Manual/Wiki (image heavy thread)

#7 Post by Ta'Lon »

I've finished adding all of the techs, and added the appropriate artwork.
I still have some visual tweaks I need to do (shading behind boxes, tweaking the background art, etc.)
, but this should give y'all a good idea of what the current full size image looks like.
This Tech Tree is as of SVN6824. I'll need to check what changes have happened since that version
when I get a chance (I have the more recent SVN, just haven't had time to check it out yet).

This is a low res/smaller version, with some minor issues.
Some of the green borders didn't shrink when I reduced the image size in Photoshhop, hence the different sizes.
The full size version has proper border sizes. I also had to drop the image quality quite a bit to fit the 1 mb upload cap.

I have a 4465x5500 pixel full resolution version, and a slightly smaller version as well.
The large version clocks in at 3.56MB.
I can send it to y'all in zip format for upload to the sourceforge download site if you like what you see here.
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techtree30x37preview.jpg
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Dilvish
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Re: Resource: Tech Tree for Manual/Wiki (image heavy thread)

#8 Post by Dilvish »

Looks like a lot of work, and turned out very pretty. I expect it will be a good addition to the wiki. I haven't myself done a thorough review to see if it could use any corrections yet.
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Ta'Lon
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Re: Resource: Tech Tree for Manual/Wiki (image heavy thread)

#9 Post by Ta'Lon »

Thanks!
:mrgreen:

I'm doing some cleanup now. I spotted one place where I could move Microgravity Industry up a 'notch' and run the yellow line underneath it instead of above it, hence reducing the number of lines that particular yellow line crosses from 3 to 2, resulting in a much cleaner visual association. Reducing the 'crossings' as much as possible, and making the ones that do occur look more clean was a goal of mine. One spot I did intentionally do a crossing is near the legend. I could have swapped the positions of Planetary Garrison 2 (3 & 4) and System Defense Mines 1 (2 & 3), but then the four Garrisons wouldn't have been in the same 'row'. That 'crossing' is a pretty clean one though, so I don't feel badly about it.

It also occured to me I should but the FreeOrion.org website url under the FreeOrion logo (which needs some cleanup after I enlarged it so much), just because. Assuming this is accepted, of course!


So far the only addition I can find since 6824 is the Ramscoop. The Krill Spawner thingie doesn't seem to have a home yet, but I see a perfect spot for it... going to that thread now!

Edit: Noticed that I forgot to update the entry/text info for Nova Bomb... doing so now!
Conquering the galaxy, one planet at a time...

Any artwork that I submit for use in the graphics forum is submitted under the CC-BY-SA 3.0 License.

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