The Development tree

[rogue0]

Does anyone else think that the devlopment tree is a bit random, you seem to jump from miltaristic, to economic, to environmental without any rationale reason. This tends to create a race which cant specialise.

I started initally with the scientific race, and wanted to dabble in to military just enough to keep others at bay, and then concentrate on science, and try to tech others into oblivion, but just found i had to choose tech advances I didnt want to to progress.

The tech advances seem to be all scattered, which detracted greatly from the game.

[Sabratha]

Does anyone else think that the devlopment tree is a bit random, you seem to jump from miltaristic, to economic, to environmental without any rationale reason. This tends to create a race which cant specialise.

I started initally with the scientific race, and wanted to dabble in to military just enough to keep others at bay, and then concentrate on science, and try to tech others into oblivion, but just found i had to choose tech advances I didnt want to to progress.

The tech advances seem to be all scattered, which detracted greatly from the game.

Now you are gonna hear the dreaded line, the bane of all betatesters and QA specialists: "Its not a bug, its a feature"

[Delta66]

different peoples will have diffetrent opinions here.

Indeed I finf it is a very good feature. You can choose to have all the tech tree visible at start in the advanced options when creating a new game.

It make each game more different and force you to adapt your strategy. "Will I research that junk tech to get than important one afterward..."
It prevent players from always using the same tech development with each faction. In the end it makes for more decision making.

[Sabratha]

Now that I think of it, perhaps it should be optional? Have an option when starting a new world to play with a "standard" or "randomized" tech tree? I mena why force the players into each extreme if you can let them choose?

[tpaixao]

Indeed, I also found the tech tree disorganized, making it difficult to specialize.
But i didn't know it was random. I didn't notice that. I assumed it was the same every time (I only played one game, so far).
That makes it more interesting, I like the "having to adapt" angle.

[rogue0]

I dont know I would prefer to have the option of specialising if I wanted to, thereby emulating 'real-life', I reckon this in its self opens up more interesting scenarios, randomise the different branches of the development, but separate the development types

[DewyB]

This is a simulation game. In that are two parts... the simulation, which has us coming from a world where all of this already exists and we have to go thru a certain process with some linear progression... it would allow many choices, re-invent fire or the wheel first?

But the game part of this... that part will wind up being BETTER I think, for the randomization.

I'm still out on the fence about the tech advance system in many ways, and am not really a fan of the random tech tree... but I can work with it, help tweak and test it. It DOES shake up the early game a bit. More challenging to start the game not KNOWING a first move.

[madjoseph]

I like the randomization of the development tree. As a simulation game, it's reasonable to expect that settlers to a new world would bring a great deal of technology. However, applying that technology to an alien and new environment would depend not just on the technology they brought with them, but also the unique characteristics of the new environment. Some techs could be applied in surprising new ways which would be best represented by the randomization in the game itself.

To me, at least, it also makes for more interesting game play.

[Monaldinio]

I think randomazing is a very nice and unique idea!