An Idea for SE V

[Spyder]

This idea grew from my comment on one of the "What would you like to see in the next Space Empires" threads. I stated there that it would be cool to see a more complex research tree, and, even better, research trees that defined your civilization.

Now, this is fledgling and I am expanding it even as I write. Feel free to throw in more ideas.

The Basic idea is that you get so many Research points which is based upon the size of your empire...lets call them Lab Points. Primary points come from total population with bonus points for Planets & Systems. You may expend those points in any way you want, but, must choose carefully because you have a limited amount of points at your current point of development.

Each successive level of research on any given topic costs more Lab Points than the Last...say double, for the sake of argument. This would require you to carefully consider which areas you want to research, and would limit you to the number of areas in which you want to excel.

These points are separate from the game's current RP's. The Current RP's would decide on HOW LONG it will take to research. The new Lab Points would decide if you COULD research it or not.

Sooo....

You could end up with a race that excelled in propulsion & Missile weapons, but is only average in mining & Energy Weapons. His ships move fast, and he has hellacious missle attacks, but, he has problems with enemies that have lots of missile defense.

To make this work well, you'd have to interlink the research tree (like Civ, sort of) so that certain 'required' techs could be gotten to by everyone.

Ok, listening....