Well improvement to things like the economy can then allow systems to more heavily devote towards your goal like science.



but I do get your point, so I will otherwise remain neutral towards how to specifically do it.

You could have technologies in the blank spaces between the branches in the tree, only unlocked once you have researched all the surrounding tech. Which provide all kinds of bonuses or neat things and represent an empire's perfection of those surrounding scientific principles.

EDIT: Sorry, double post (using awful public internet).

Igncom1 wrote:
Indeed, but at what point do all of these bonuses gain speed towards a science victory?

That's why the later technologies would need to have their starting research costs improved. Ideally, researching the entire tech tree should take around as long as it currently does (perhaps slightly less time, but not a lot).



I don't know... I doubt someone is going to cancel their research into terraforming planets just to get a small commerce bonus or something. By reducing further tech costs instead, players could choose to hold off on an important tech so that they could get techs cheaper/faster in the long run.

Ganpot wrote:
As I said, the individual raise of research time would need to vary. Starting techs would probably only go up like 15% in cost, whereas endgame techs would need to increase by much more than 50% (or else they'd get researched extremely quickly).



I thought about individual bonuses, but that would require the devs to think up hundreds of small potential bonuses. Plus some of those bonuses would still be near-useless in certain play-styles, which would mean they'd still get skipped. As far as I can tell, research speed is important in every situation.

Indeed, but at what point do all of these bonuses gain speed towards a science victory?



But while most of the boost would be kinda useless, your always going to need ships, you will always have colony's, and there will always be a guy who wants to knock over your sand castle, little boosts that are worthless one moment could end up changing the face of the entire galaxy....If strategically placed that is

Igncom1 wrote:
Well that sounds a little harsh, a 50% increase in cost would most likely strangle most Hissho and Craver empires.

As I said, the individual raise of research time would need to vary. Starting techs would probably only go up like 15% in cost, whereas endgame techs would need to increase by much more than 50% (or else they'd get researched extremely quickly).



I thought about individual bonuses, but that would require the devs to think up hundreds of small potential bonuses. Plus some of those bonuses would still be near-useless in certain play-styles, which would mean they'd still get skipped. As far as I can tell, research speed is important in every situation.

Well that sounds a little harsh, a 50% increase in cost would most likely strangle most Hissho and Craver empires.



I feel that the solution lies in passive boosts per technology, as in little reasons to spend a few turns back logging technology they didn't want.



I never go for the first right hand military technology due to the ease of getting better technology and due to its strategic cost, but a passive boost to say ship hp like 2-5% would give me enough incentive to research it anyway.



And my thoughts away!