Short or Long Games--in Options Menu

[Zeno]

On the options menu, have the choice of a short, medium, long, or extra-long game. A short game would have a drastically reduced tech tree. (maybe just quark cannon, cruiser, and class I shield) The extra-long game would include a vast menagerie of Uber techs and/or bonus techs. The short game would be played in small galaxies only, with three or fewer opponents; extra-long games could be played in galaxies from small to extra-large. (Each length of game could only be played in its corresponding galaxy size or smaller, and a corresponding maximum nunber of opponents [3,7,11,17]) The point here is varied lengths and depths of gameplay, all in the same game, Freeorion.

[Dreamer]

I don't thing that would be a good idea. But having a reduced tech tree or even an expanded one at game creation could be nice. You end selecting between tech length, diplomacy complexity, detailed or automatic battle, etc.

[Geoff the Medio]

Drastically altering the tech tree is likely in the realm of mods, not standard game setup options.

Galaxy size is a standard option, which is controlled independently of other such options, like starlane and planet frequencies, or things like number and type of opponents likely will be.

[Krikkitone]

One thing that could be done is select Tech speed, so that in a long game you get one tech every 20 turns, but in a very short one you get one every 2 turns. (that way you still see change in the tech level even though your game is much shorter)

[Dreamer]

The problem with that is that you will not be able to adjust to tech changing so fast. Your fleet will be obsolete in 4 turns and new ships will be already obsolete when they are finished. Colonies will be trying to adjust meters all the time, etc. I think it shouldn't be very difficult to pick the final tech tree and cut some tecnologies off. You get a simplier game with less elements and shorter.

It happens a lot that in shorter galaxies you never get very far with tech.

[Daveybaby]

I think adjustable tech speed might be nice to have. I'm guessing it will have to be adjustable via a config file at the very least just so that the game can be balanced during development.

However, an additional option to those presented so far would be to have something similar to that in Moo2/BOTF, where you could select an initial level of development, i.e. a preset level of tech and/or colonisation advancement at the start of the game. Plus there is always the Moo3 option of letting the game freerun for n turns, although this can tend to put some players at a disadvantage if they are given a starting position that the AI cant adapt to as well as a human would.