Video game experiment: replacing the tech-tree in Civ 3 with METAL!

[Umbrage]

Thought this might make an interesting topic, I'm guessing most people here still remember the metal genealogy chart from Headbanger's Journey and that it was discussed here.

Is anybody familiar with the video game series "Civilization"? Lately I was playing Civ 3 for a while, the "complete edition" of civ 3 comes with an editor. This is where the real fun starts.

Civilization has a tech-tree. You can invest in research and invent things. That way you can stay ahead of the competition and defeat them easier in combat because you have the latest units etc.

The tech tree is divided into four eras. This is what they look like:
Ancient Times
Middle Ages
Industrial Age
Modern Times

The challenge should be obvious by now: let's try to make metal tech trees spawning four eras! And yes, it would be possible to actually make this into a video game mod and release it. But atm I just think the challenge of making metal tech trees is fun enough.

To make things harder: you're not allowed to use bands or albums in the tech tree. The tech tree should simply focus on technical and aesthetic details, genres and subgenres, riffing technique and theatrics, etc. Philosophy is allowed as a tech but the timing of it's discovery should make sense of course (does the tech tree start with Nietzsche because he already existed, or does he pop up later when he is "discovered" by black metal bands?)

To make things easier: I'll let the forum decide what four eras should be explored. You don't have to make an era exactly 10 years, for instance "the seventies" You can also make it "late seventies and early eighties" since not enough happened in the seventies to make a tech tree last from 1970 to 1980.

Another cool thing: don't mention any genre you think is crap. Nu-metal, metalcore, glamrock, whatever you think should be ignored, just ignore it. They can be used as enemy AI. Play as a true metal tribe and go against weak metalcore barbarians, wouldn't that be fun?

If nobody can make a metal tech tree then I don't want anyone ever complaining about dumb video games again. Hur hur.

[Cargést]

Haha, I stopped playing those games when Civ 3 was crap.  Looking into the development history, though, I'm about to give Alpha Centauri a try, to see whether it's as good as Civ 2 was.

I guess the first step is to identify some basic origin points for each section of the tree, which asks the question "what was first discovered in music that was categorically 'Metal' and not something else?".  Maybe "Power Chord" could be the first 'guitar' tech, "Tritone" could be the first 'theory' tech (?)..  Hmm, perhaps we should first work out what areas have actually seen innovation in Metal.

Cheers for the thread, though - it's definitely got me thinking!

[Umbrage]

In some ways Civ 3 was an improvement over Civ 2. Finally a decent trade system, no longer having to build caravans and having to send them half-way across the map just to get some trade going. Also if you get the Conquests expansion you get fascism as an optional form of government, something that gaming company Fireaxis was previously too PC to include.

Alpha Centauri is a classic. But I grew tired of the sci-fi theme rather quickly. I haven't played any of the later versions of Civilization yet. My pc is kinda old.

What you said about putting the invention of the Power Chord in the tech tree is the type of thing I was thinking about. Since you already know the game civilization I might as well say that I was thinking about making albums Wonders of the World. So for instance when you invent black metal you can build "A Blaze In The Northern Sky"

[Cargést]

Haha: you win the game by building "Hvis Lyset Tar Oss", but an expansion pack will allow you to continue up to "Engram" XD

[Invisible Sandwich]

If you guys are considering modding a 4X for Hessian purposes, you should consider using something like Freeciv, as the open source nature would make modifications and total conversions easier, and the community might be more open to it. Also, for a tech tree, I would recommend starting not with early metal proper, but with important musical aspects coming from metal's influences, like classical and folk music, and (if the tech tree becomes especially lengthy) technologies powering the instruments.

My era suggestions:
Ancient Times - Everything up to 1984, when many evolutionary works were released
Middle Ages - 1984-1988/1989, or whenever it's felt that death metal and black metal properly split
Industrial Age - Late 1980s to 1995, the end of the 'golden age' of death/black.
Modern Times - Further developments, like ambient/martial styles of music.

[Umbrage]

I made this. It goes up to the invention of NWOBHM. The middle ages would start with speed metal, thrash metal, etc. and end with death metal (1989).

Any comments? I might change some stuff when I'm working on the middle ages tech tree.