The Tech System

In the game tech is broken up into fields. A field is a combination of triggers, projects and fields which are collectively referred to as research options. And each field of tech has an associated resource called raw data. When raw data is converted into research, it's applied to one of the research options inside of the field of research. As research accumulates it increases the chance of the research project procing. The player cannot control what research option researching will unlock beyond controlling which field they wish to research in.

Fields can exist in other fields in order to provide the sense of a "tech tree". It is possible for a field to be accessible from multiple fields. It is also possible to use raw data from any field on another field inside of it, but at a reduced effectiveness. This means that more overarching fields, like electromagnetics, can be used to accomplish a more specific research, like lasers or energy shielding. When researching, if a field is chosen to gain the research, than that research is simply rolled into the field in the same way. It's the one way that raw data can be spent in the wrong field without losing efficiency.

Projects are the typical tech people think of in games, while triggers take effect immediately regardless of what the player does. A project players can assign research to until it finishes. The project is treated as being another field for the sake of calculating efficiency. Each of them gives some sort of effect, be it new units, building or some static bonus. Most projects or triggers in the game will change the weighting of other research options. So a laser weapon module project may increase the weighting of the heavy or lighter versions of that laser tech. Making it more likely and less spending to unlock and pursue those other projects. This also allows players some control over their researching, because the research projects they pursue will impact what research options researching will proc. Research projects also have a chance to be created simply by the existence of raw data. The more raw data in a given field, the higher the chance of a spontaneous project being discovered in that field. I'm thinking the player should be able to turn off, or at least reduce the weighting of research projects if they want to avoid them.

Application projects are projects that change the functionality of something that's already been unlocked rather than unlocking something new. Like making nuclear power plants/reactors more productive or reducing their chance for meltdown. Application projects could be a good place to allow players more direct control of research by letting them make the projects themselves, with some strict limitations. This would allow a player that really needs more production right now to force their scientists/engineers to make the factories more efficient or to try and get their shielding more efficient against a new type of weaponry.

I had an idea of vague concepts as well. A sort of teaser about what research options the player is likely to get. So when they go into a field, there would be a few vague concepts there. The exact number based on how much raw data the player has. These concepts are the various research options the player could get, or some slightly vaguer version of that. Such as "lasers" rather than "medium laser ship module" or "laser rifle". This would let the player know the general results of what researching will do. If I include this than raw data won't proc projects, just concepts. I would also want a way for the player to be able to target concepts at the lose of efficiency. I like this idea but it may end up being needless complexity better served by properly chaining fields of research within each other in a clever and effective way.

As I think about this idea, I realize it should just be a teaser and not mechanically involved in the game. The pachinko board is unaffected by the existence of these vague ideas, the ideas simply give the player an idea of what research projects they are getting close to. So to start, use them purely as a cosmetic way of letting the player peek behind the curtain, once I have established that fully, I may add in some gentle ways for vague ideas to be used to guide research. Aka pachinko board weighting dictates what vague ideas the player sees, vague ideas dictate jack squat.