How to make a tech ladder system?

[McMoney]

Hello all, you might know me as the creator of the new map War Plan Red-Orange. I'm trying to make a new tech system for it, and the idea is this: each country unlocks tech by rolling tech tokens. However, the next they get is spoken for. For example, Germany might unlock techs in the following order:
Gas->Zeppelins->Tanks
While Britain might unlock them like so:
Tanks->Zeppelins->Gas
I'm having a lot of trouble implementing this system, though. My idea was to use triggers to have the unlock of one tech allow the next tech to appear in a nation's tech menu, but it seems like the trigger system can't recognize "technology" or "category" or "playerTech" as a property. Any thoughts? Any maps that do something similar?

[RogerCooper]

@McMoney I ran into a similar problem with East and West. I don't think TripleA supports this. I just ended up handling techs with random events that added the ability to product a new unit (and gave the player a free prototype).

You should check out Age of Tribes for how to support a tech tree in TripleA.

[GREGOREK]

@McMoney
Seems like AOT already does this. POS2 provides the details of triggers manipulating production menu. In Jurassic, I bypassed Tech and made it purchasable. Mushrooms that affect certain units for a limited time. Avoided the production menu maintenance with triggers modifying player-unit stats. I keep track of active shroom affects by placing a unit counter in their capital for a trigger to monitor. Your tech progress can be monitored in a similar way and is visible to all players.

(It would be beneficial to all if the production menu was changed slightly to give control of size to the map with direct indexing to menu cells like the table it is, and the introduction of a productionNote so the table can also advertise advancement progress/steps.)

[wc_sumpton]

@McMoney

Triggers use 'availableTech' to add/remove items from a player's tech.

There needs to be conditions to check the techs. In the example given, Gas->Zeppelins->Tanks for Germany

  <attachment name="conditionAttachmentGermansGas" attachTo="Germans" javaClass="RulesAttachment" type="player">
     <option name="techs" value="Gas" count="1"/>
   </attachment>
   <attachment name="conditionAttachmentGermansZeppelins" attachTo="Germans" javaClass="RulesAttachment" type="player">
     <option name="techs" value="Zeppelins" count="1"/>
   </attachment>

And triggers

    <attachment name="triggerAttachmentGermansZeppelinsTechAvailable" attachTo="Germans" javaClass="TriggerAttachment" type="player">
      <option name="conditions" value="conditionAttachmentGermansGas"/>
      <option name="availableTech" value="Air Technology:Zeppelins"/>
      <option name="uses" value="1"/>
    </attachment>
    <attachment name="triggerAttachmentGermansTanksTechAvailable" attachTo="Germans" javaClass="TriggerAttachment" type="player">
      <option name="conditions" value="conditionAttachmentGermansZeppelins"/>
      <option name="availableTech" value="Ground Technology:Tanks"/>
      <option name="uses" value="1"/>
    </attachment>

Cheers...

[McMoney]

@wc_sumpton Thanks much! I was able to get the tech system working exactly as I wanted it this way. Is there any way I can credit you for your contribution in the map's notes?
Also, since you seem knowledgeable, there's one more thing I wanted for this tech system, actually. The default cost of 6 PUs for a tech token is a little too low for my liking, is there any way I can set it to something different?

[wc_sumpton]

@McMoney

Tech cost can be set in "techAttachment":

    <attachment name="techAttachment" attachTo="Germans" javaClass="TechAttachment" type="player">
      <option name="techCost" value="5"/>
      <option name="superSub" value="false"/>
      <option name="jetPower" value="false"/>
      ...
    </attachment>

Cheers...

[TheDog]

@McMoney
To credit wc_sumpton for his genius help, here is how.
Download The Pact of Steel 2 (PoS2) seen as The Pact of Stee
Open its xml look at the end of the xml to see how its done.