power tech wealth growth

[bvanevery]

I'm wading into the "power tech wealth growth" settings for the various technologies.  The highest value in these fields sets the color for a tech, corresponding to Conquer, Discover, Build, and Explore.

alphax.txt says "growth   = colonization value".  I'm inclined to regard that as ambiguous.  The category is Explore, but what does Explore actually mean as far as the AI is concerned?  Does it mean you're spending all your time sending out colonies and founding new cities?  Or does it mean pushing back the black of the map, capturing mindworms, and popping pods?

Some of these weights are flat out wrong.  Doctrine:Mobility for instance should not be an Explore technology.  It should be a Conquer technology.  You get your Command Centers that way.  Speeders are fundamental to knocking the crap out of enemies.  Santiago goes on and on about the various Doctrines in her speeches, and nobody else does.  I think these categories were chosen so that Deirdre would feel like she has something to research.  Frankly, in a lot of cases she doesn't.  There are similar problems with confusing Discover and Build technologies.  Why is a Research Hospital under a Build tech?  It shouldn't be, it's a stupid mistake!  What do Recycling Tanks have to do with Discovering anything?  Nothing!  They increase your base infrastructure, they're a Build technology.

I am wondering the degree to which these settings are meant to provide "bread crumbs" for the AI to follow.  Would the AI come up with a plan to get to the highest value Discover techs, when faced with an arbitrary tech tree mod?  Or does it need to know that some techs are "proximate" to other important techs in a category?

[Fibonacci]

How about something like

Details Hybrid coloring for Doctrine: Mobility

Hybrid coloring for Doctrine: Mobility

to reflect that it does some of both?

Hmm, conquer wrapped in explore with pointy bits... some pointed inward instead of outward... I've seen that somewhere...
 

Symbols are the key to telepathy. The mind wraps its secrets in symbols; when we discover the symbols that shape our enemy’s thought, we can penetrate the vault of his mind.

—Lady Deirdre Skye,
“Our Secret War”

[bvanevery]

It would be nice except for the game decides coloration automatically.  You don't have that kind of control over what the icons will be colored.  They will become any of the colors depending on the dominant weight.