http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/534848/225 ResearchTree+Armor.rar I put together a new research tree. It is as simple and straightforward as it can get. Some people on irc suggested the idea (deif maybe someone else) and I had something similar in mind. Anyways, here are pics: Research costs for armors and engines have been standardized somewhat. Reflective and absorbant are a bit cheaper and faster to research. 3phase and coolant cost more and take longer than the rest of the engines. The standardized values are the averages of the former armor and engine costs. From this point on future changes can be done. Weapon research costs have been made almost equal. (Railguns and HIT Missiles are the exception) Everything that is not weapon-armor-engine is put into "Logistics". (yea upgraded grenades is there too, who cares ) You might notice something fishy with the armor researches, this is not to be discussed in this thread. Discuss.
I like this. It offers sort of spoke-like research instead of the horrible and unbalanced tree. Easier to balance.
Chassis in another tree? e.g. Tanks (I know it doesn't really make much difference). Keep Personnel deployment in logistics though.
yeah this looks awesome so far will this have the multiple weapons per research thing we've heard about? how will the weapons research work?
I don't know yet, I would like to combine both but multiple weapons per research means more weapons, because quite frankly we have.. what 4 cannons, 5 missiles, 5 vehicle mgs. How are you going to group these in a fitting way
Very straight forwards, but kinda blan. I think for research to be moved to a more simple form like this, we need to have multiple research trees that can all be researched at the same time, as well as a new style for the gui. Perhaps have it more vertical like the side bar that shows the current research path. That thing on the left, that would look better IMO with this than having the honeycomb. I also prefered the idea you guys were running with that had weapons, armors, and engines grouped by their physical properties. I'm not saying it isn't good, but giving some criticism. TBH I think that a major change in it's look would really help with a transition to something so simple.
My idea of a research format utilizing the new specific damage type resists would work like this: Research Primary (currently phyics, Chem, etc) | | -----Armor | | | -----Engine (either in a sub tree or with longer than armor research time.) | | -----Tier I weapons (would give access to an weapon with improved handling, like a chem slot 1 cannon with more explosive radius. 1 slot ML and Cannon) *****| *****| *****| *****-----Tier II weapons (2 slot weapons, Including MG, ML, Cannon. Possibly use 2-3 different researches in this section to research them all.) *********| *********| *********| *********-----Tier III weapons (3 slot weapons, 2 of them with 2 different researches.) and have that for different damage types. Going on what we have already, I would stick with Kinetic damage, Explosive damage, AP damage, Biological Damage. Here's my idea for a tech tree called "Kinetics". i haven't changed the times or hardly any of the descriptions, just read the first couple for the style of descriptions I was going for. remember that this is an alternate universe, so I thought using terms that were somewhat accurate but not commonly used would work well for the feel of empires. [Continued Below due to Character limit] Idea is to do a few things: Armor, as the item that is not visible, is the least expensive and easiest to get at. Armors need to be rebalanced with specific weapon resists, and a touch of their special modifiers in. Also, those resist should be for the same tree that they are in. This kenetics, for example, should resist the kenetic forces of the weapons in it's tree, because it has deflective armor. (reflective is sorta a bad term here tbh, but whatever). This way, you know what armor an enemy has by the tree they are in. Or at least, you'll know their probably armor. It being the fastest also means you could open up the enemies most probable armor and grab that as first. for the first tier weapons, they should be 1 slot improvements on the base weapons. They will be right on the way to the tier II weapons, and in the same research for opening the tree. These weapons shouldn't get a bonus to damage per say, but rather get added effects from the tree they are in. For physics, Missiles that dont spread as is one, or cannons that arc less. Tier II weapons receive the full fledged bonuses of it's tree, Preferable each Tier II will give a 2 slot MG, ML, and Cannon. Tier II weapons will be more or less what weapons are now, except with less of a damage difference. I think if you applied damage resistance properly, you could have them all do the same damage tbh. Tier III weapons are 3 slot weapons. They would be your rails and such. I would like to say try to keep it to 2 weapons, 1 cannon and 1 MG. The example below would be like 3 slot DU, and 3 slot ML with nuke. Also, i put the research parent of the nukes to be Fission reactor, which is in a different tree and opens then engines. This should work out I think, but it would be better there was an available way to make something require 2 researches. Lastly, i think engines should remain mostly as they are. I would prefer to see them in a sub tree, and following the example of having something to do with slot 3 weapons. Currently, the 3 phase engine research would be used in current EE in the same fashion as the nuclear fission research is used in the tree stuff below. if that doesn't make sense, sry . thoughts?
Yeah we talked about the research tree in IRC and it would be superawesome if you could research in every tree at the same time.
Though this may make things more complicated, why not have some techs that require other techs in other trees to be researched? Only for the higher-end things, such as nukes, artillery, heavy tanks, etcetera. This'll help diversify research and, as I heard was wanted, promote different combinations.
Yea I'll try to wrestle that feature from CB for 2.25. Currently there can only be one... prerequisite to every research. @HSM: Something like that? http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/534848/Weapon Icon List.txt You would research those weapons as batches. The research would take increasinly long though with tier 3 stuff being game enders.
