(09-20-2018, 06:20 AM)Mr. Mortius Wrote: Let’s not confuse my love of a good argument for worry. I’ll lay off that for now, since it seems it’s getting in the way of things.
Sorry, writing my last post took me over an hour, so most you kinda answered in your reply to Anr.
I can agree with the idea of a replacement system being ready to replace it right away would be nice. But I wouldn't say it is required, I think that getting rid of it now and then slowly planing out a new system is a better option than keeping the broken system.
(09-20-2018, 06:20 AM)Mr. Mortius Wrote: My main criticisms still stand, as far as I can tell. I can’t think of any other good features, but I also don’t see any reason to throw out the positives along with the negatives. I do think your idea about better tools leading to increased extraction quality is a good one, since it keeps many of the benefits. I should point out that it isn’t really a form of tech that requires real maintenance though, since it would only require creating a manufacturing process for the tool, which could then be left running indefinitely.
I don’t see a simple way around the permanent tech either, since it is always possible to place a colony tens of thousands of sectors into deep space with whatever you would need to rebuild.
Technology is basically just the knowledge of or capability to make better tools. Using tools normally don't require the same knowledge or capability.
If you loss access to cryozine you stop being able to make heat sinks, which then makes you unable to make laser weapons and energy shields. That is the best example of having capability to create better technology through resources.
Patents could be considered the knowledge, but it isn't really a limiting factor.
Preferably technological knowledge would be represented by how well educated your population is. Since a simple mining colony won't need anything but the advanced tools to do their work, but a factory on the homeworld would require some educated workers to manufacture those advanced tools. Number of educated workers would get lower the more automation you have access to, which is currently shown as computers increasing production output per citizen.
If you suddenly lose your educated population, you have to relay on your stockpile of advanced tools, untill you have the population educated enough to start tool production again.