Before I start, I'd like to mention these observations have been made by playing the initial seed of any game I've started. I've yet to reload a game because an initial starting position was so bad it warranted it -- rather I just took it in stride and dealt with the hand played to me. There are still some glaring issues in terms of design that need to be addressed after release (if not prior -- I was wanting until the next patch, but this reflects 0.51.2); all of these comments are based on multi and single player experience w/ single player @ serious/impossible difficulty. I will try to refrain from the issues most frequently posted about as it is counter-productive.



Tech: here is my current tree as pilgrims, but it fluctuates from game to game; this summarizes my overall experience among all of the races with the exception of horatio. I intend to play Horatio tonight, but I expect that their innate population growth via cloning and other attributes makes them fairly powerful.



In terms of research trees I quite frequently find myself completing Exploration & Expansion before anything else. I believe this in part due to the benefits of a happier population during extended expansion, anomaly reduction, extra FIDS (mainly via low temp hydration [+1/FIDS/pop] / dark energy effects [+2/FIDS/pop,-22%expansion]), and population growth. I do not neglect the other trees per say, but I definitely find myself researching 'Endless Empire' before important previously researched technologies come into play: Terraforming to Tier 1 planets (Ocean/Terran/Jungle and Self-replicating habitats from this tree. By the time I can win via building the wonders, the effects of the previously researched technologies are minimal. Granted, the building for endless empire was raised in industry cost, but I assume most people are able to win in 4-5 turns after researching it via heavy industrial systems and dust.



I tend to research up to tier 7 in galactic warfare; tier 6 in diplomacy and trading (plus additional tiers as CP is needed); tier 9 in applied sciences (mostly for quadrinix -- required to terraform to tier 1 planets & a nice +25% space on ships). I've never researched galactic warfare to its full potential as it is easier to outpace your enemy with extra tonnage from the applied sciences tree and defenses. You combine a hero with your max CP fleet from these techs and one of two outcomes will occur: you can completely counter the enemy (usually an AI) with defenses, or you have a fleet capable of destroying anything you encounter with losses easily replaced by said tech.



To the point, wonder victory seems to be the most easily attainable aside from expansion / supremacy and invalidates a lot of the other technology. Perhaps this might more illustrate my point:



What point is there to researching sustainable supercities, dark energy effects, or anything else based on current research cost and eta until victory? To preempt a reply, I did not choose to research mass hydration over dark energy effects; I realize if I had manually selected my techs I'd attain victory sooner. If a wonder victory is disabled in multiplayer, I still feel the exploration and expansion tree is the most powerful due to its bonuses to population/FIDS and malus to expansion disapproval.



Combat: I'm still a fan of 1CP offensive (-20% weapon module tonnage) ships for several reasons:

+space is static, smaller ships get larger returns and ship tonnage is linear based on CP

per combat mechanics if I sustain losses, the CP amount of the loses is lower using 1CP ships. Consequently, I have more firepower going into the next fleet and replenishing losses is easier. If I'm losing a MP game I've found it possible to recover diversifying my fleet - 100% kinetics, beam, missile; if I lose all my ships, you will too and I'm usually better off in terms of FIDS.



Heroes: If a hero isn't pure (admin/corporate) or (adventurer/pilot), etc it is easy to hit level 20 without maxing out what they are innately good at. Hybrid heroes do not have this perk (you will typically max out what is best for them well before level 20). Furthermore, the best hero for my fleets seems to be someone who has tactician 1/2. Perhaps reevaluate this skill or how combat mechanics work in general (combine a lvl 2 tactician with a fleet early game and you are [almost] unstoppable). Planet based heroes benefit from building and as such ind->dust and ind->science seems to hurt them. The mechanics on system based heroes exp gain is questionable, but I've found in practice they level up so much faster when building 1 CP ships every turn. If you compare this with fleet based heroes, my third hero (recruited last, lowest level) always surpasses any system based hero; the exception is lies with hissho/cravers where I tend to recruit a fleet hero second.



I'm waiting for the next patch to further comment on the AI. Diplomacy wise it has gotten better, but I've yet to win via diplomacy. Then again I've yet to win via economics -- by the time I'm raising the dust necessary to win I can research the wonder victory and buy it with UE (happened last game).



In terms of victories, to summarize Expansion is easier than Supremacy (based on achieving that while working on supremacy), followed by Wonder, followed by Economic (I'm assuming, never waited for it), followed by Diplomatic (never gotten close).



Anyways food for thought from a fan.



Edit: you can't see the turns required in the picture above, but endless empire is 8 turns (sustainable supercities = 8 turns; dark energy effects = 5 turns) at 8190 research/turn. If a wonder victory is possible, there is no point to increasing your population (habitats via sustainable cities).

Fully agree with everything.



I would like to add that I miss a little randomness in tech trees. There are "general priorities" you always follow with a given race. Once you know the tree there is no tactics to it. Even MOO2 had randomness factored in with static tech tree.

And I would like to see a game option to slow down research. This makes the technology super valuable and lower tier tech viable for longer. Worked well in GalCiv.