Discovering a wormhole

Look, I'm the Emperor and I say if they are going to discover a new ship hull, laser or nanobots to massage my foot. And scientists are going to deliever. I'm not intertesting in their excuses "like if they see some wormhole or whatever", I they can't deliever they will be reassigned to scrubbing nuclear reactors (there are billions loyal citizens in my domain eager to take their place).

Scientists are on *my* payroll, not on some wormhole/alien artifact payroll and they are going to do what *I* say. It can't work any other way, absolutely.

On map discoveries can be a nice addition, but the core research must be player driven. The choice is player's, we can't take it away from the player. Deciding what to research is a strategic decision, it must be in player's hands.

Why though?

Discovering a wormhole

Look, I'm the Emperor and I say if they are going to discover a new ship hull, laser or nanobots to massage my foot. And scientists are going to deliever. I'm not intertesting in their excuses "like if they see some wormhole or whatever", I they can't deliever they will be reassigned to scrubbing nuclear reactors (there are billions loyal citizens in my domain eager to take their place).

Scientists are on *my* payroll, not on some wormhole/alien artifact payroll and they are going to do what *I* say. It can't work any other way, absolutely.

It doesn't matter how powerful you as a emperor are. How can you demand something you don't even know exists or which requires information no one possesses. When you get into contact with advanced technology the player can start demanding this technology, or not. So the player still has his choice.

OK, nevermind :) The need for the player to choose a direction of the research is so natural to me I'm unable to debate this :) It's the core of any research system to me.

What's your favourite research system you have played so far (in 4X space games)?

I did a quick play and surprisingly Endless Space was the most to my liking (4 separate tech trees). Note it was the most boring one (the one from Beyond Earth was the most intiriguing to me as a player, but...), yet somehow I found it the most natural and clear. Also, traditionally, I can't get out of my mind the mutually exclusive choices inside catagories in MoO2 :)

your favourite research system

Without the shadow of a doubt: VGA Planet's ;) Binding research with physical location is just SO MUCH better imo.

Of course, you might argue that it does not fit your definition of a research system, but it was actually one of the precursors so it would be a moot point.

Hmmm, I was thinking of the tech tree and how messy it is. How about making a big list of techs and then assign each tech a category: construction/computers/energy/etc. Researching a tech of certain category adds you +1 to the category skill (like +1 construction). Then, all techs except the first ones have requirements ("shields III" - require 5 energy research).

Would it be better than traditional tech trees?

As for alien artifacts/ruins, how about making an "alien tech tree" and then each tech there require certain number of artifacts to be discovered before that tech is unlocked (and be ready to be researched - you don't get these techs after ruins discovery, just unlock)?

your favourite research system

Without the shadow of a doubt: VGA Planet's ;) Binding research with physical location is just SO MUCH better imo.

Of course, you might argue that it does not fit your definition of a research system, but it was actually one of the precursors so it would be a moot point.

But they don't even list "Research" in the manual! :) If they don't list it in the manual it does not exist :D

It never made sense to me how an advanced space civ would only work on 1 tech at a time. Many moons ago I played Pax Imperia: Eminent Domain. I loved the game, it had lots of great things in my opinion. One of these things was the research system. It was still a tree type system, but it used 5 tree categories, Weapons, Shields, Ship, Colonial, and Space. Here is the best part, my civ could research 5 different techs, one in each category at the same time. Each tech category has a percentage applied to it, and that's how much of my civ's research total it got. So it starts at 20% each one, but if I want to really focus on Weapons I can bump that to 60%, and put the rest at 10% each and bam my weapons tech catapults forward. See this screenshot.

It never made sense to me how an advanced space civ would only work on 1 tech at a time. Many moons ago I played Pax Imperia: Eminent Domain. I loved the game, it had lots of great things in my opinion. One of these things was the research system. It was still a tree type system, but it used 5 tree categories, Weapons, Shields, Ship, Colonial, and Space. Here is the best part, my civ could research 5 different techs, one in each category at the same time. Each tech category has a percentage applied to it, and that's how much of my civ's research total it got. So it starts at 20% each one, but if I want to really focus on Weapons I can bump that to 60%, and put the rest at 10% each and bam my weapons tech catapults forward. See this screenshot.

Do you like it as a player?

I know what you mean, I felt the same way. But then I played it (MOO1 IIRC) and... didn't like it as a player. After a while it turned out it's ALWAYS (without a single exception) optimal to have exactly one research at 100%, then after it was finished I was switching 100% to another research (half finished research brings no benefit, it's simply frozen research points). In the end it was just a needless chore to clcik severalk times to bring exactly one to 100% when I was to research it.

I think it might make sense only if there are artificial limits imposed (the player can't change these freely, like min 10% is obligatory). Or if the player was investing in separate research labs (build research lab that increases Energy only).

Anyway, I find more interesting how the techs selection the worked? It seems like there were no "levels" of fields but instead you could choose a specific field within a field? Was it some sort of "hidden tech tree" (a tech unlocks a new tech)?