Mechanics - Heliomance/Uncharted-Horizons GitHub Wiki

_{Focus Areas · Design document §3}

Available from: MA01 (Geometry) + S03 (Quarrying)

Also reachable in this focus (dual-path; home focus in parentheses): Mechanical Weather Predictor (O15, from Observation); Stirling Engine Mastery (TH08, from Thermodynamics).

18 breakthroughs — CORE 9 · STANDARD 5 · RARE 4 — Primitive – Atomic

Builds on: Fire (1) · Stonework (1) · Social Organization (2) · Mining (1) · Metallurgy (4) · Mathematics (3) · Philosophy and the Arts (2) · Textiles & Materials (2) · Water Management (3) · Chemistry (3) · Electronics (1) · Computing (1)

Leads into: Observation (1) · Social Organization (1) · Mining (1) · Metallurgy (2) · Construction (2) · Seafaring (2) · Warfare (4) · Philosophy and the Arts (1) · Medicine (1) · Trade (1) · Textiles & Materials (1) · Water Management (1) · Thermodynamics (6) · Electricity (1) · Electronics (2) · Computing (1) · Quintessic Physics (2) · Quantum Physics (1) · Relativity & Cosmology (1) · Aeronautics (4) · Space Engineering (2) · Energy Systems (2)

_{The numbers count prerequisite links between this focus and the other. How to read the tables.}

flowchart LR
  n_MC01["MC01 Wheel"]:::CORE
  n_MC03["MC03 Gearing"]:::CORE
  n_MC04["MC04 Windmill"]:::CORE
  n_MC08["MC08 Steam Engine"]:::CORE
  n_MC09["MC09 Internal Combustion Engine"]:::CORE
  n_MC19["MC19 Crank and Connecting Rod"]:::CORE
  n_MC05["MC05 Clockwork"]:::CORE
  n_MC10["MC10 Precision Machining"]:::CORE
  n_MC11["MC11 Assembly Line"]:::STANDARD
  n_MC12["MC12 Robotics"]:::STANDARD
  n_MC14["MC14 Babbage Mechanical Computer"]:::RARE
  n_MC18["MC18 Clockwork Analytical Engine"]:::STANDARD
  n_MC15["MC15 Mainspring Energy Storage"]:::RARE
  n_MC16["MC16 Clockwork Automaton"]:::STANDARD
  n_MC17["MC17 Spring-Powered Vehicle"]:::STANDARD
  n_MC06["MC06 Printing Press"]:::CORE
  n_MC07["MC07 Hero's Aeolipile (Early Steam)"]:::RARE
  n_MC13["MC13 Perpetual Motion Understanding"]:::RARE
  n_MC01 --> n_MC03
  n_MC03 --> n_MC04
  n_MC03 --> n_MC05
  n_MC03 --> n_MC06
  n_MC03 --> n_MC07
  n_MC04 -.-> n_MC08
  n_MC08 --> n_MC09
  n_MC05 --> n_MC10
  n_MC10 --> n_MC11
  n_MC11 --> n_MC12
  n_MC03 --> n_MC13
  n_MC05 --> n_MC14
  n_MC10 --> n_MC14
  n_MC05 --> n_MC15
  n_MC15 --> n_MC16
  n_MC05 --> n_MC16
  n_MC15 --> n_MC17
  n_MC01 --> n_MC17
  n_MC16 --> n_MC18
  n_MC14 --> n_MC18
  n_MC03 --> n_MC19
  n_MC04 -.-> n_MC19
  classDef CORE fill:#dbeafe,stroke:#1d4ed8,color:#0b1b3b
  classDef STANDARD fill:#f1f5f9,stroke:#64748b,color:#0f172a
  classDef UNCOMMON fill:#dcfce7,stroke:#15803d,color:#052e16
  classDef RARE fill:#fef3c7,stroke:#b45309,color:#3b2005
  classDef UNIQUE fill:#fae8ff,stroke:#a21caf,color:#3b0a3f

_{Prerequisites within this focus. Box colour is the tier (blue CORE, grey STANDARD, green UNCOMMON, amber RARE, purple UNIQUE); dotted arrows are alternatives (“or”); a line can pass behind another box, so follow it from its start. 16 of these 18 breakthroughs also need breakthroughs from other foci, which the overview above lists.}

• Tier: CORE · Era: Primitive
• Prerequisites: S01 (Tool Knapping)
• Unlocks: ⟨[+1] Movement <for [Civilian] units>⟩ (carts).
• Leads to: WA08 Chariot Warfare, MC03 Gearing, MC17 Spring-Powered Vehicle

• Tier: CORE · Era: Classical
• Prerequisites: MC01 + MA01 (Geometry)
• Unlocks: ⟨[-25]% construction time for [Mine] improvements⟩ — geared hoists and windlasses sink the shafts faster. Gears turn everything that follows; the Workshop comes with the crank that turns their motion to work (MC19). ⟨[-25]% construction time for [Farm] improvements⟩ — the seed drill is a geared machine, Han-era in China (Mechanical Seed Drill, merged here in v3.101). ⟨[+10]% Production when constructing [All] wonders [in all cities]⟩ — the crane lifts what the arm cannot: lever, pulley and gear together, as in Hellenistic mechanics (Lever and Pulley, merged here in v3.102).
• Notes: Toothed gears are Hellenistic and Han: Philo's geared water wheel (3rd c. BC), the Antikythera mechanism (2nd c. BC), Vitruvius's mill and hodometer; the lever and pulley are older (Classical since v3.119).
• Leads to: O10 Antikythera-Style Mechanism, SF13 Submarine, WA09 Crossbow, WA17 Repeating Crossbow (Chu-Ko-Nu), MD08 Prosthetics, TX05 Cotton Gin, WM05 Water Mill, MC04 Windmill, MC05 Clockwork, MC06 Printing Press, MC07 Hero's Aeolipile (Early Steam), MC13 Perpetual Motion Understanding, MC19 Crank and Connecting Rod, TH03 Turbine Design, TH14 Atmospheric Engine, AE05 Helicopter, AE09 Ornithopter

• Tier: CORE · Era: Medieval
• Prerequisites: MC03 (Gearing) + TX01 (Weaving — the sails' cloth)
• Unlocks: Windmill — the mill for country with no river to turn one. Where there is no Water Mill, it drives the industrial chain in its place: the crank (MC19), the Blast Furnace's bellows, Plate Armour's hammers and the Steam Engine's gearing. Also discoverable through Energy Systems.
• Notes: CORE (v3.117) as the Water Mill's alternative for a civilisation without a river or water source. Sistan's vertical-axis mills (10th c.) needed no gears; the European post mill (1185) took the water mill's; the Dutch wind sawmill of the 1590s put a crankshaft on one.
• Leads to: ME08 Blast Furnace, ME18 Plate Armour, MC08 Steam Engine, MC19 Crank and Connecting Rod

• Tier: CORE · Era: Medieval
• Prerequisites: MC03 + ME05 (Steel)
• Unlocks: ⟨[Great Engineer] is earned [+10]% faster⟩ — the clockmaker, the first precision engineer.
• Leads to: SF19 Longitude, MC10 Precision Machining, MC14 Babbage Mechanical Computer, MC15 Mainspring Energy Storage, MC16 Clockwork Automaton

• Tier: CORE · Era: Medieval
• Prerequisites: MC03 + TX10 (Paper Making) + SO04 (Writing)
• Unlocks: ⟨[+10]% [Science] [in all cities]⟩ (Insight is science); Leaning Tower of Pisa (world wonder). Switches Knowledge Diffusion to its post-press phase (Section 1.2). The most important breakthrough in the game.
• Notes: Most important breakthrough in the game.
• Leads to: SO16 Public Education, PH04 Scientific Method

• Tier: RARE · Era: Classical
• Prerequisites: F01 + MC03 + WM01
• Unlocks: Unlocks Thermodynamics focus, centuries early; Steam Templeⁿ [100/1; +2 Faith, +1 Culture, +1 Production]. Seed of the Early Steam chain (TH13/TH14).
• Notes: What if Hero of Alexandria's steam engine was taken seriously?
• Leads to: TH13 The Weight of the Air

• Tier: CORE · Era: Early Modern
• Prerequisites: ME08 (Blast Furnace — coal or charcoal) + (WM05 or MC04 — the millwright's gearing and shafts) + PH04 (Scientific Method — the air-pump physics of Boyle and Papin)
• Unlocks: Steam Worksⁿ [250/2; requires a Workshop in this city; +2 Production; Engineer ×1; ⟨Remove [Engine House] [in this city]⟩; ⟨[+100]% Production when constructing [Factory] buildings [in this city]⟩ — built where an Engine House stands, it converts it]; Big Ben (world wonder); unlocks Thermodynamics if not already open. Prerequisite for the Railway (CO23). Costs ×0.5 if the Atmospheric Engine (TH14) is known (a multiplier, §1.2).
• Notes: Watt's separate condenser (1769) began as a repair to a model Newcomen engine, hence the Atmospheric Engine's discount. Where no Atmospheric Engine came first, Newcomen's engine is folded in here — and it ran for decades before oxygen chemistry existed, so this needs the Scientific Method, not Oxygen Theory.
• Leads to: MI07 Petroleum Discovery, CO23 Railway Network, MC09 Internal Combustion Engine, TH01 Laws of Thermodynamics, TH08 Stirling Engine Mastery, TH09 Caloric Theory

• Tier: CORE · Era: Modern
• Prerequisites: MC08 + ((MI07 + CH09) or (CH04 + CH07))
• Unlocks: Landship, Tank, Anti-Tank Gun (units — Tank requires Oil; the Landship and Tank take this row as their requiredTech). Distillery Fuel Depotⁿ [375/2; requires a Distillery in this city; ⟨Provides [1] [Oil] <when number of [Worked [Farm] Tiles in this city] is more than [2]>⟩; ⟨[-20]% growth [in this city] <when number of [Worked [Farm] Tiles in this city] is more than [2]>⟩] — grain into spirit, only while its city works at least three Farms; ethanol counts as Oil, so it fuels any tank, battleship or aircraft, and its cost scales with the surplus the grain would have become. Either fuel opens the engine — petroleum refined where there are wells (Petroleum Discovery and Petrochemistry), distilled alcohol where there are none (Distillation and Organic Chemistry) — and every civilisation can raise Depots: an expensive way to get Oil, worth it to a civilisation short of wells, or to one pushing to field more tanks and aircraft than its wells could fuel. Also discoverable through Chemistry.
• Notes: Brazil ran its economy on ethanol, and fuel-starved Europe ran its cars on alcohol and wood gas in the Second World War.
• Leads to: AE02 Dirigible/Airship, AE03 Heavier-Than-Air Flight, ES05 Oil Power Plant, ES05-W Alcohol/Biogas Power Plant

• Tier: CORE · Era: Early Modern
• Prerequisites: MC05 + ME05 (Steel)
• Unlocks: Great War Infantry (unit); Statue of Liberty (world wonder); ⟨[+10]% Production when constructing [Military] units [in all cities]⟩ — interchangeable parts.
• Leads to: WA18 Pneumatic Weaponry, MC11 Assembly Line, MC14 Babbage Mechanical Computer, EL09 Wireless Transmission, EN03 Integrated Circuit, QM-E13 Aetheric Vacuum (Void-Cycle Tap), QP12 Casimir Effect Amplification, RC03 Gravitational Waves Detection

• Tier: STANDARD · Era: Modern
• Prerequisites: MC10 + SO05 (Specialization)
• Unlocks: Machine Gun (unit) — the line moves, the workers stand; ⟨[+15]% Production when constructing [All] buildings [in all cities]⟩; ⟨[+25]% Production when constructing [Military Base] buildings [in all cities]⟩ — buildings made on the line, too: forward bases in weeks (Prefabrication, merged here in v3.100).
• Leads to: CO14 3D Printed Construction, MC12 Robotics

• Tier: STANDARD · Era: Atomic
• Prerequisites: MC11 + CP01 (Computer) + EN03 (Integrated Circuit)
• Unlocks: Spaceship Factory; ⟨[-25]% construction time for [All] improvements⟩ (robot labour). Prerequisite for AI (CP07) and Orbital Assembly (SE02).
• Leads to: TR15 Post-Scarcity Economics, EN07 MEMS, QM-E21 Compact Re-Tempering Reactor (Compact Cycle Reactor), SE02 Orbital Assembly, SE06 Orbital Resource Delivery

• Tier: RARE · Era: Classical
• Prerequisites: MC03 + PH01 (Formal Logic)
• Unlocks: ⟨[+1 Production] from all [Water Mill] buildings⟩; ⟨[+1 Production] from all [Windmill] buildings⟩ — knowing what cannot be done makes every engine better; +15% Insight to Thermodynamics and Energy.
• Notes: Insight from the negative result.

• Tier: RARE · Era: Early Modern
• Prerequisites: MC05 + MC10 + MA07 (Binary Math)
• Unlocks: Difference Engineⁿ [national wonder; 250/0; +4 Science; ⟨[+10]% [Science] [in this city]⟩]; opens the Computing focus without electricity. Cost halved if any Antikythera (O13–O15) or Clockwork (MC15/MC16) breakthrough is known.
• Notes: What if Babbage succeeded?
• Leads to: MC18 Clockwork Analytical Engine, CP13 Analog Computing Mastery

• Tier: RARE · Era: Medieval
• Prerequisites: MC05 + ME05 (Steel)
• Unlocks: Clockwork Toy Worksⁿ [105/1; +1 Happiness, +2 Gold]; ⟨[+1 Production] [in all cities] <in cities without a [Water Mill]>⟩ — spring power where water gives none. In ENHANCED_SPRINGS worlds the whole Clockwork path is dramatically more viable.
• Notes: What if metallurgy produced springs that stored far more energy?
• Leads to: MC16 Clockwork Automaton, MC17 Spring-Powered Vehicle

• Tier: STANDARD · Era: Medieval
• Prerequisites: MC15 + MC05
• Unlocks: Automatonⁿ [unit, Civilian; cost 90; mv 2; ⟨Can build [Land] improvements on tiles⟩; ⟨[-100]% maintenance costs⟩ — needs no pay]; Automated Workshopⁿ [105/1; requires a Workshop in this city; +2 Production; ⟨[+1 Production] from every specialist [in this city]⟩]; The Mechanical Turkⁿ [world wonder; 250; +3 Culture, +2 Science; Great Scientist points 2]. Halves the cost of MC14.
• Notes: Vaucanson's Duck, but useful.
• Leads to: MC18 Clockwork Analytical Engine

• Tier: STANDARD · Era: Early Modern
• Prerequisites: MC15 + MC01 (Wheel)
• Unlocks: ⟨[+1] Movement <for [Civilian] units>⟩ — wind it at the city and drive until it stops. In ENHANCED_SPRINGS worlds these rival early steam and need no fuel at all.
• Notes: Range limited by spring tension — unless springs are better than expected.

• Tier: STANDARD · Era: Early Modern
• Prerequisites: MC16 + MC14 (Babbage) + MA07 (Binary Math)
• Unlocks: Analytical Engineⁿ [national wonder; 300/0; +6 Science; ⟨[+15]% [Science] [in this city]⟩]; opens the Computing focus with no electrical prerequisite. The clockwork computing path — slower than silicon, centuries earlier.
• Notes: Babbage's dream fully realized.

• Tier: CORE · Era: Medieval
• Prerequisites: MC03 (Gearing) + (WM05 or MC04 — a water or wind mill to turn the crank)
• Unlocks: Workshop (and the Iroquois Longhouse) — rotation turned into strokes: mills that saw, hammer and pump. CORE because Unciv's Factory requires the Workshop, and every power plant the Factory.
• Notes: Al-Jazari (1206); Cornelis Corneliszoon's wind-powered sawmill (1590s) put the crank on a windmill.