completely agree on this point as it stands right now the tech tree is almost an after thought. there are a few must have tech like cap. ships and trade ports and some others, however the rest do not seem to impact gameplay on a huge level. yes someone that is way ahead on the tree is going to have a decided advantage but some of the tech are hardly noticeable.

i think the best thing to do is eliminate some of the repeats and add some more decisive tech possibly make it so you have to research for the individual cap ships. that way you have to make more important decisions, should i buy those 3 frigs now or research the battleship.

I agree. It would be cool if the game started with small skirmishes of small ships, than went on to big ships with big guns.

yeah this is my biggest hang up if it is a 4x game it should feel like a lot of time is going by as the game is being played right now it feel like maybe only a few months are going by. i agree with what startrekdork said earlier about moving up to bigger and more powerful vessels.

When I first saw the technology tree I thought it looked really confusing. Like, I had to reach five level one techs before I could begin researching level two? On top of that, now I have to build more then one research laboratory to get to higher levels?

I like the idea that you can build on research laboratory, and then upgrade that laboratory by adding on module after module to it. The more modules the higher the tech tree allows, maybe even give each module a snazzy name like Zero Gravity test chamber, or Holographic Imaging room. Then, with laboratories that have modules, if the whole thing gets destroyed you've just lost a lot of your labor. The more laboratories you have and the more modules, the quicker research can occur.

I was also surprised when I built my first capital ship factory and it allowed me to build all of the capital ships right off the bat.

It should be a big deal when a race builds it's first capital ship, and each ship after that should be progressively more advanced, as demonstrated in the technology.

I don't like that at all, i've got bigger things to do then worry about my research lab. I like the way it's done now,


That's true, I think that that capships should be unlockable to, instead of them saying, "hey, in adition to this big shipyard, we here at R&D thought you might like design for half a dozen capital ships to"

I'm not asking for a techtree like this one (from the above "starships unlimited") but it would be nice if progress along the tree was represented by actaul bigger ship. SotS had this quite well, bigger ships and bigger guns the further you get in the tree.

That's chart is misleading on the amount of technology that is utilized. Half of it is weapons technology, and you usually only research one branch of weapons technology.

But it is a fun trip down memory lane!

Some of the technology you had in Starships Unlimited:

Teleporters: In the game you explore planets and they have weird aliens around them that you have to kill, once they're killed a shuttle flies to the planet to pick up artifacts on the surface. With teleporters, you just beam the artifact up saving five seconds. Later on, you can have a technology that allows you to beam over to enemy ships to capture them.

Federation: This is the only thing you have to research for diplomacy. Once researched, it allows you the offer to form a Federation with another race, depending on your diplomatic standings. You can trade with them, give them gifts, demand things, trade money for technologies or ships etc. If they like you, a lot, then you can ask them to form a federation with you. Once you form a Federation, all of their planets and ships are yours, making your force one giant cohesive group. You can then have other races join your Federation and even others. I once had four or five races teamed together.


As for the ships in TEC. It feels like all the ships are evenly priced and even deal out equal damage. It doesn't feel like each ship is it's own component. When I build a fleet I just click each ship once repeatedly not really caring or knowing what I'm assembling. Dreadnoughts vs Carriers don't feel like there is that much of a difference.

I would like a more involved tech tree. I'd like technology that had an impact on the game play or visual appearance of the game.

Like, why is it that all of your capital ships just start with the ability to have fighters? And for that matter, how come over the course of a war new fighters are never developed? The special abilities for each ship are cool, that doesn't feel like something that needs researching, but the weapons on ships feel like they could be more unique. I still think that what this game is missing is some type of super death weapons, be it a nuke or biological weapon that wipes out a planet's population, or a "Death Star" that just blows the planet up. Or, some type of ship that fires a powerful laser that cuts enemy ships in half. Maybe truly tactical missiles that can blow up an entire fleet like in Nexus.

Whoa whoa...

You never used a nuke in Nexus that not only wiped out all your ships but also the enemies?

You had five or six ships and the enemies ships and one nuke goes off right in the middle and bam game over. It was like a super nova going off! That or the missiles that took out shields, that would ruin your day.

You had missiles.....and you had torpedoes. I think torpedoes were the ones that took shields in three hits.

I'm talking about Battlestar Galactica/Supreme Commander/Starcraft nukes.

Two fleets in a system and someone fires a nuclear missile devastating the other fleet. Or vice versa. In BSG whenever they deploy nuclear missiles they make it a really big deal. Supere Commander's nuclear missiles are like crowd control. Enemy swarms are so huge you have to deal with them in nuke ordinance.

I think tactical ordinance involving nukes or super powerful disabling missiles would add some strategy to the game.

I believe they were called something along the lines of "energy bomb", it could take a shield in one hit, but took a load of energy to charge, they didn't deplete though. The torpedo's (or missles, whichever one you got only a handfull of) could deal massive damage, but were vulnerable to PD, it was worth it though.

I think such weapons would fit in Sins, which IS about big fleets, but maybe only as a special ability, or as the main gun for one ship, which should not have other weapons.

Also, you overestimate the effect of a nuke in space. A nuclear blast is pressure and heat. Without an atmosphere, both have far smaller effect and significatly less range then here on earth. Add to that the lack of the ground, the blast doesn't reflect of of it, so the energy gets distributed along a full sphere, and you've got a not-so-area-of-effect weapon.

With the sheer numbers of frigates in Sins, upgrading them all individually would just be tiresome. It's just too much micromanaging for this game.

Ok, what if there was an player option on the toolbar for toggling automatic upgrades on and off? That way players like me who like to design special purpose craft can still do it, and players who hate excessive micro-managing don't have to. I was really hoping that the idea of upgrade limits would get implimented, but it won't be much good if the entire fleet ends up with the same configuration.  

Parts of my tech tree seem to be useless...and I mean totally useless. I can't get the damage buffs for the laser and autocannon to actually increase the damage done by these weapons The artifact that is supposed to reduce all research costs doesn't work for me either. The issue remains even after uninstalling and reinstalling...is anyone else also having this problem?

One example of a great tech tree I like to use is Warzone 2100, an older RTS title that most people missed. The tech tree is very deep, and composed of small logical upgrade steps.

You can browse the whole tech tree here.

Here's the link to the technologies necessary for the best projectile weapon, the Gauss Cannon.

Oops, it wasn't my intention to come across as all angry and what not (was it b/c of the frowning face?) Have you noticed any other research items not having their intended affect? I'm not sure but it seems that none of the researchable weapon damage buffs do anything. =\ Has this always been the case or did these upgrades work in previous versions?