Age of Exploration

Age of Exploration
Habitat	Ancient
Type	Civilization
Generator Stats
Base Cost	Ideas 207,000
Base Production	Ideas 50/sec
Requires	Organized Religion Paper Money Printing Press
Chronology
Previous	Middle Ages
Next	Scientific Revolution

The Age of Exploration, formerly the Age of Discovery, is the sixth generator that creates Ideas. In this age, innovations in navigation and transportation allowed for Europe and the Americas to make contact, leading to colonization, cultural exchange, and violence.

Description

"Pushing the boundaries of land and sea, explorers open the globe to trade, colonialism, and an unprecedented exchange of knowledge and culture. Fighting the spread of disease remains a challenge."

Design

The icon for the Age of Exploration is a gold sextant and a spyglass.

Upgrades

Age of Exploration has 19 upgrades, increasing the generator efficiency with a total x1.22219e31 multiplier.

Icon	Name	Description	Cost	Efficiency	Requires
	Caravel	Explorers, traders, and pirates favor fast, versatile ships. Caravels have rounded bottoms and square sails for speed and triangular sails for steering near shore. Portugal relies on early models to set up trading posts and forts along the African coast.	Ideas 182,500	50%	Age of Exploration
	Musket	In the early 16th century, Europeans use muzzle-loaded long guns to pierce armored suits—soon to be obsolete. The slow load time is mitigated by soldiers firing in orchestrated volleys with greater accuracy and range.	Ideas 230,000	20%	Age of Exploration Fire Lance
	Astrolabe	Ocean navigators rely on astronomy tools to determine time and latitude by calculating the position of celestial objects. Astrolabes work, but their multiple parts for sighting are tricky to line up on a rolling ship deck.	Ideas 241,500	50%	Age of Exploration
	Galleon	Long, sleek, and sturdy, these multi-deck sailing ships can carry tons of cargo across open ocean. Cheap to build, galleons convert easily into warships, becoming a mainstay of naval warfare by the late-16th century.	Ideas 345,000	75%	Caravel
	Magnetic Compass	A free-spinning needle made of iron or steel points to Earth's magnetic north pole from almost any place on the globe. When crossing uncharted land and sea—no maps or guides!—explorers rely on compasses to keep heading in the right direction.	Ideas 345,000	30%	Astrolabe
	Global Trade	With the ability to sail around the world, ships of exploration are soon followed by trading vessels. The race is on to transport goods between continents for profit. Global trading markets, jolted by booms and busts, create a world economy.	Ideas 360,000	25%	Caravel Banking
	Cannon	Super-size a gun with powerful propellant and a sturdy barrel, and we can launch heavy balls over great distances. Artillery units cut large swathes of destruction across battlefields and blow holes ships, changing the way we fight wars.	Ideas 460,000	25%	Fire Lance Catapult
	Heliocentrism	At the turn of the 16th century, mathematical models lay to rest the dogged belief that the universe revolves around Earth. Placing the Sun at the center of the known cosmos is a leap forward, but it is just a start. This theory will be rigorously tested.	Ideas 525,000	50%	Telescope Magnetic Compass
	Sextant	Compact, simple, and more precise than astrolabes on rough seas, sextants become the navigation tool of choice in the 18th century. They can measure angles between any two objects, skyward or on land, guiding explorers ever further around the globe.	Ideas 1.38e6	25%	Astrolabe
	Microscope	About 1590, for the first time, we can see a tiny world that our eyes alone can't perceive. Microscopes with one or more curved lenses in a tube make objects appear larger, revealing bacteria, protozoa, living yeast, blood cells, and more.	Ideas 1.84e6	25%	Age of Exploration Glasses
	Coinage	Coins are small metal discs of different value that represent currency and enable commerce. Standardization of these coins allowed for buying, selling, and saving across different nations.	Ideas 1.5e8	1,000,000%	Government Mints Augmentations Console 50 Artifact in Augmentations Console
	Steel	An alloy with high tensile strength that is cheap to make, steel is strong and durable and used in building cities and making weapons.	Ideas 4.92e9	50%	50 Age of Exploration
	Colonialism	In the 15th century, explorers open sea routes across the Atlantic and around Africa to India and beyond. Five centuries of colonialism begin as Europeans conquer, develop, and exploit lands in Africa, the Americas, and south Asia.	Ideas 5.33e12	100%	100 Age of Exploration Musket Galleon
	Machu Picchu	At the cusp of the Amazon basin and the Andes, Machu Picchu is a pinnacle of civil engineering. Without the wheel or iron, Incas design stone structures, terraces, and water systems that will stand up to 500 years of earthquakes and landslides.	Ideas 3e22	1,100,000%	Age of Exploration Glitch: 1.00e7
	Longitude	Astronomy tools pinpoint latitude—the distance north or south of the equator—but tracking a ships east-west position is less exact. Longitude requires dead reckoning, estimating speed and time traveled in a direction and factoring in currents and wind drift.	Ideas 6e25	5,000%	Heliocentrism Machu Picchu
	Rocket	Fireworks shows spur inventors to improve rockets. In Germany, the first step rockets launch: A big rocket shoots sky-high and burns out, then a little rocket fires to deliver the payload. Four centuries later, multi-stage rockets will launch a Space Age.	Ideas 3.3e27	160,000%	Cannon Machu Picchu
	Magellan's Expedition	Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese noble, and all but 18 men of his 270-member crew die en route. But one ship out of five, captained by a Basque navigator, returns to Spain in 1521 to complete the first round-the-world voyage.	Ideas 5e29	7e7%	Galleon Darwinium 95 Artifact in Augmentations Console
	Stock Market	In 1602, the Dutch East India Company invites people to own a piece of the spice trade. The modern stock market is born—a central platform for buying and selling shares in companies. Investors reap rewards but also share in the risk of failure.	Ideas 6.3e29	3,200,000%	Banking Machu Picchu
	Taj Mahal	Mumtaz Mahal ("Chosen One of the Palace") died in childbirth, and Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan builds a marble mausoleum to immortalize her. The four faces feature identical symmetry, with a blend of Indian, Persian, Turkish, and Islamic styles.	Ideas 6e30	9e7%	Age of Exploration Organized Religion Augmentations Console 150 Artifact in Augmentations Console

Achievements

Icon	Name	Description	Requires
	To Boldly Go	Advancements in naval and navigational technology allow nations to explore the world like never before.	25 Age of Exploration
	Nina, Pinta, Santa Maria	After Christopher Columbus' death, his heirs sued the monarchy of Spain for part of the continuing profits from the colonization of the Americas.	50 Age of Exploration
	Going Viral	Smallpox, a systemic disease which was brought to the Americas by European colonizers in the 1400s, is thought to have killed 90% of all indigenous American peoples. It was eradicated in 1979 through the use of vaccination.	100 Age of Exploration
	Welcome Party	The first Westerners to reach Japan were a group of three Portuguese traders who stumbled upon the island of Tanegashima, opening up the region to trade and introducing firearms to Japan.	150 Age of Exploration
	Cornucopia	Many common crops that we use today originated in the Americas, and were only introduced to Europe after its colonization. These include corn, tomatoes, potatoes, tobacco, rubber, and cacao.	250 Age of Exploration