Upgrades?

[juv95hrn]

Will there be tech upgrades and research available? How will this work? Will it be possible to dedicate resources to reserach or will it be automatic? Can every nation reserach every tech or is it decided beforehand?

[Ralegh]

In theory every advance is available to everybody - a subset of the advances you don't have is available for you to choose from once each season (quarter) if you qualify for an upgrade. In practice, some upgrades seem to usually be available, and others on the list less often - perhaps the selection is a weighted randomness.

How do you qualify for advances? There is an algorithm (involving squares, apparently) based on your level of barracks improvements and HALF your level of cultural improvements - so to get more advances, you build more barracks and culture.

Note that in some scenarios, you might start with less advances than you qualify for, in which case you will get to choose one each season until it catches up (ie. France in 1805); in others you might actually start with more advances than you qualify for - in which case you have lots of building to do before you can get any more.

Even if your score from the algorithm goes down, you don't lose advances - you just have more 'points' to earn to get the next one.