Yeah I know. I know how to upgrade and build and whatnot. But I want MORE! The bigger the better I always say.

Yep. I agree more is better. This is especially so for the tech-tree. It needs to be increased about three times its current size to work well on multi-star games.

I think the current size should be increased one order of magnitude for every two stars in the game to keep things interesting.

Assuming I can get the code to co-operate, the very first thing I'm going to do (once we get the released "build" ) is rebuild the technology trees to an "infinite standard". Instead of having an array of finite technologies, I'm going to rebuild it to have finite "ability" technologies (e. g. adding units to your available construction and adding abilities) and infinite "increase" technologies (more HP, sure -- 10,000 levels, with a linear increase in cost and build time -- that'll hold you forever! ).

I'm thinking about making the abilities cost cash, while the infinites cost time -- but not much, if any, cash. What I'd really like to do, but don't forsee code support for, is make research "free", but with time reduced by the number of technology labs. Of course, some abilities will still be required as pre-req for other abilities, for example you can't have the LRM frigate without missile tech, and this lets me play around with it more. Range based abilities are the real kicker, of course -- we know its possible to increase missile range, and that technology will have to be strictly limited along with any similar technologies implimented. I may even have to move any range based upgrades into their own tree, on some kind of diminishing returns system if I can figure it out (will probably require a change in the code to allow me to input a formula, rather than a linear value, into the system -- ergo, I'm not betting on it ).

1Spartan, I actually disagree with you on the extension of the Tech tree. I like the tech tree as it is now, as each tech seems useful and the techs that are just incremental upgrade techs have creative names, and there isn't too much intermediate techs. If the tech tree is increased a lot, the techs added will mostly be intermediate techs like "Armor Upgrade 4", "Armor Upgrade 5", or something similar, much like GalCiv2. The addition of those intermediate techs made them kind of pointless, and merely a stepping stone for other techs. Also, the more intermediate techs added, the less creative their names will be (Devs can only thing of so many names).

The later games should be more focused on larger fleets and perhaps cultural influence victories. In my opinion

@Ron - cool. I was thinking along similar lines although not some extreme.

@Shalom - yes that is an issue to be sure. We have been told already that the real AI handles situational awareness much better then the beta so I guess we all are hoping at this point. Thus you dont see any threads on the topic of fighter/bomber AI or any the AI in general anymore.

Shouldn't research time factor in the size of the map you are playing? Smaller maps mean quicker research and larger maps mean slower research? Depending on what sort of game you are looking for. I get worried when someone says they played for three hours but didn't even come close to finishing the game but then again wheresmysnack might have deliberately set the game up with a huge map and made the options so it would take a long time to play.

Carakanz

Well, assuming I can get formulas included (consider this the beginning of my "modability campaign!", one of the things I'll do with research is make the time increase by the following forumula: Time = Constant * (Second Constant ^ X) -- make the first constant the base value, and the second constant the scaling value, probably somewhere around 1.1, or 1.414 (square root of 2) would work too for a much slower tree.