I played quite a bit and I find the reasearch hard to use. I found many player would like a "stack" system (where you queue single research item) instead of a "pathfinding" way to get to a certain research.



That would be great in the beginning, when you need to pinpoint research, but on long game I think it would be annoying. From a certain point in the game, you don't really care about what you research, as long research is going on. Clicking on a very far away research item is not very efficient and need to be readjusted all the time to avoid it to concentrate on very hard and long to obtain items instead of just picking out a lot of different "easy" one.



So my idea is that we porobably need some kind of "AI" or "Governor" to guide the research. Basically, you would head it a certain way and it would do its best to get the best path in the research tree to suit you.



Governor could be like :

- Expand (technologies to expand your empire : to unlock new "mineral", to "cures" bad anomalies, to unlock bad planet type, to open up new warp system, etc..)

- Power (technologies to crush your ennemies : new weapons (duh!) but also new ship hull, new warp system, more command fleet points, etc...)

- Home Improvement (technologies to improve the star system you already have : to unlock new constructions, to unlock mineral, to terraform planet, etc..)

- Heroes (to gather more heroes : more "card" technologies, more academy point, etc...)

- "Fast Everything" (always switch to the next lowest cost research each time one is done)

- "Slow but smart" (always pick up the hight cost research each time... would be useful to trade or in later game)





Additionnaly, instead of choosing a single governor, it could work as percentage. There could be slider for each possible governor so you could tell the game that you want "20% expand, 40% Power and 40% Heroes" or sometime similar.





Anyways, that's just a suggestion, you guys know best I guess

Are you suggesting the research to be auto researched by an AI for your empire?

There are 4 tech trees. If you just research into one you will be screwed over.

If you "don't care about what you research" you don't really seem to have a goal. I don't plan many many turns ahead, but I always have a good idea of what I'm looking to gain next.

Inquisitioner wrote:
Are you suggesting the research to be auto researched by an AI for your empire?

Yes. I wouldn't change the current tech tree, I would just add a way for the next research to be automatically choosen when the current one is over.

Right now, you need to "micro-manage" your research, it would be nice to have a way to let an AI take care of it.

Remscar wrote:
There are 4 tech trees. If you just research into one you will be screwed over.

I never said it should only research into one. Fact is, you always need technology from all the trees, no matter what you want to achieve. As exemple, if you focus on conquest, you still need to research different hull for ship or new warp system, otherwise you will be screw very quickly. An AI would need to consider the four trees in its choice.

Well typically in 4X games, research is THE THING you must control and be fully fully aware of, along with ship designs. Even though, in this very specific game, i would say the economy is even requesting more micro management than in most others 4X I've played (and don't get me wrong, I very much like it).



In Master of Orion (a reference in the genre) research was multilinear, so basically they were fields of technology (the lines) with specific technologies (the dots forming the line). One research unlocking the next one, and this one leading to another level of the previous research you've made, so basically you were just upgrading your colonies at the same time as you were researching.



ES is a bit more tricky, since they are four fields of technology (some interracting) and it's not a line, it's a tree. So you have 4 trees and since it's a tree shaped you may need to research a full branch to get to the end of it for the tech you want or you may totally ignore a branch, collecting some you did not think you would need (or that you are sure you won't need).



Additionally that tree allows you to skip some steps and it's also part of a good strategy to study it. Fact is it's important to know a bit the technology tree to understand the game and to define your eXpansion strategy. If you let that to the computer you will miss one X in your 4X experience.