High Tech Vs Low Tech

Post by **George Geczy** » Sep 14 2003

I thought Chris might tackle some of these questions, but I guess I'll give it a try:

- Regarding the 'tech level' number, this does not actually have any effect on the performance or quality of the unit (there are other stats in the list for those factors). It indicates a starting technology level that a unit can be researched at, and tends to be based on the 'real world' date that a technology becomes available (ie, a tech level of 104 would equate to equipment that becomes commercially available in the real world around the year 2004).

For some regions, a tech level 104 unit might be inferior to other units developed much earlier, but would usually have some advantage (ie cost, or some feature improvements, etc). The US regions also do have a bit of an advantage at being able to develop certain designs (ie F-117) much earlier (lower tech level) than other regions.

Though here part 2 of our research system comes in to play - to develop a certain design, you need both the sufficient regional tech level, AND you need to have researched pre-requisite techs (ie Stealth techs, fly-by-wire, etc).

On its own, a tech level improvement currently does not have much direct effect on combat, relations, etc, but it will open up other research avenues - both military improvements and social/economic improvements. Having said that, I've added to our 'to consider' list the idea that improving tech level alone might have some automatic spin-offs, to encourage research investment.

There is no pre-set maximum tech level, but each level becomes more expensive to reach. At some point it will become financially prohibitive to move the tech level much faster than "real time" (ie raise tech level by one level in the period of one year); smaller regions will have trouble even keeping up with that pace.

And finally, regarding the original question of F-22 versus MiG-35, I'm not sure if Chris has the final spec numbers for those in the list yet. Once they are there we may try a showdown to see who wins...

-- George.

tkobo · Post by **tkobo** » Sep 14 2003

Thanks again lord.I had no idea the mig 35 had the plasma cloud.I went out and did some more searches for info on this and did indeed find reports that it did.
If it does,than the tech should actually be higher than listed in the unit file.
Last I heard,Russia was the only nation to have this technology working.

LORD_BUNGLA · Post by **LORD_BUNGLA** » Sep 15 2003

yeah, it's the most advanced aircraft, it even has a computer for each wing, so there is no human error. But the only problem is, if one of the computers crashes, you lose one wing.