Does anyone else feel that you should just be able to pay the differance in science for buildings?

[Starwarrior1128]

For example, if you have Irrigation already, and want to play Selective Breeding. I feel you should just be able to pay the difference in science (so 2 science instead of the full 5 science), just like you can pay the difference in construction when upgrading yellow cubes to a higher level building or military units. Which I also feel you should just be able to pay the difference when paying the science cost (e.g playing Modern Infantry when you already have Riflemen out). It's kinda hard playing higher level cards because they cost so much science and thematically it also works, you already developed the previous tech so the next tech development shouldn't be so big. And the mechanic is already there for yellow cubes.

[Remkar]

For example, if you have Irrigation already, and want to play Selective Breeding. I feel you should just be able to pay the difference in science (so 2 science instead of the full 5 science), just like you can pay the difference in construction when upgrading yellow cubes to a higher level building or military units. Which I also feel you should just be able to pay the difference when paying the science cost (e.g playing Modern Infantry when you already have Riflemen out). It's kinda hard playing higher level cards because they cost so much science and thematically it also works, you already developed the previous tech so the next tech development shouldn't be so big. And the mechanic is already there for yellow cubes.

No, that would require a lot of rebalancing of other aspects of the game, and fundamentally change the game.

I see you're asking a lot of questions about the game recently (and are new to the game) which means you are getting into the game (which I think is great, as it's a wonderful game) and you're curious (a great attribute).

But... this game can take a little while to fully appreciate and get good at, and I probably wouldn't try too hard to imagine changes to a game that is a decade old, which is a revamped version of a game that was a decade old before that, that likely went through years of creation and play-testing before that. So 20-some years of who knows how many total games, and this game ranks in a lot of people's top 10-20 have of all time lists (currently #15 on Board Game Geek).

There for a reason it's so highly thought of, and I think if you wait until you hit at least maybe 300 ELO and start to appreciate more of the nuances better, you'll likely see why so many things are balanced the way they are.

Not that you can't ask questions, but you tend to word things as if you think the game is broken in some way and needs fixing. Maybe I'm misreading your posts, though, in which case, I apologize.

Either way, I hope you continue to enjoy and explore the game more!

[Starwarrior1128]

For example, if you have Irrigation already, and want to play Selective Breeding. I feel you should just be able to pay the difference in science (so 2 science instead of the full 5 science), just like you can pay the difference in construction when upgrading yellow cubes to a higher level building or military units. Which I also feel you should just be able to pay the difference when paying the science cost (e.g playing Modern Infantry when you already have Riflemen out). It's kinda hard playing higher level cards because they cost so much science and thematically it also works, you already developed the previous tech so the next tech development shouldn't be so big. And the mechanic is already there for yellow cubes.

No, that would require a lot of rebalancing of other aspects of the game, and fundamentally change the game.

I see you're asking a lot of questions about the game recently (and are new to the game) which means you are getting into the game (which I think is great, as it's a wonderful game) and you're curious (a great attribute).

But... this game can take a little while to fully appreciate and get good at, and I probably wouldn't try too hard to imagine changes to a game that is a decade old, which is a revamped version of a game that was a decade old before that, that likely went through years of creation and play-testing before that. So 20-some years of who knows how many total games, and this game ranks in a lot of people's top 10-20 have of all time lists (currently #15 on Board Game Geek).

There for a reason it's so highly thought of, and I think if you wait until you hit at least maybe 300 ELO and start to appreciate more of the nuances better, you'll likely see why so many things are balanced the way they are.

Not that you can't ask questions, but you tend to word things as if you think the game is broken in some way and needs fixing. Maybe I'm misreading your posts, though, in which case, I apologize.

Either way, I hope you continue to enjoy and explore the game more!

Thanks for the nice and kind reply. Yes I recently just got into the game and am naturally curious and likes to ask lots of questions. Thanks for the advice to give the game more time to fully appreciate the nuances, I guess I wasn't aware it was such an old game and that it was an revamped of an older game. I also like to critique games with my friends when we play games in real life and that attribute carried with me to online games which I hope doesn't come off as being too critical.

[Remkar]

Thanks for the nice and kind reply. Yes I recently just got into the game and am naturally curious and likes to ask lots of questions. Thanks for the advice to give the game more time to fully appreciate the nuances, I guess I wasn't aware it was such an old game and that it was an revamped of an older game. I also like to critique games with my friends when we play games in real life and that attribute carried with me to online games which I hope doesn't come off as being too critical.

All good!

And I'm even ok if you ARE critical. I just think the community in general is more likely to give good responses to your queries if they look more like questions and less like you think the game needs to be changed (not that you're necessarily doing that, but tone can obviously be hard to read on message forums).

I've played a decent amount of Through the Ages, although not much recently, but I do really love the game, so happy to try to answer questions when you have them.

I hope you keep having fun with it!, good luck!

[Darth_Feather]

The thing about applying the yellow cube "upgrade" mechanic to science is that everyone would basically always be able to get the highest tier of buildings in every single game, taking away the score advantage of those who decide to focus on that aspect, basically levelling that score source out evenly making the entire game more predictable.
It would also incentivise everyone to just grab the science cards all the time instead of taking other scoring cards making all games start to feel, and indeed be, the same.

Thematically speaking, upgrading a yellow cube (population) is basically paying for the education of a worker who already knows about irrigation to learn Selective breeding as well to build on your example.
And while you do have a thematic point that basic knowledge doesn't need to be invented again ("reinventing the wheel") to just build upon it, more advanced technology is just that: more advanced and/or complicated, requiring a greater amount of reasearch to fine tune into working properly.

Sorry for the wall of text. I tend to ramble.