here's a concern:

what advantage is there in the system right now, where you'd want to split your resereach 3 ways, instead of researching each one at a time and getting the benefit quicker?  Is there different types of research?

Something else needs to be said in order for this to make sense to me as it is described right now.

I was wondering about that myself...... but then, Brad did say that you have to gain the ability to research three techs at once, so maybe it's some sort of over-unity system where it actually takes less time to research techs together than to research them in sequence..... like if in GC2 you could get the ability to put your military, social, and tech sliders ALL at 50%....

more good news. interesting option to be able to research multiple techs simultaneously. and of course  slightly randomised tech trees are also a plus. it really does increasingly look like a very good game.

I noticed a number of people are basing their assumptions on being able to research three techs simultaneously. It appears that you are not limited to three simultaneous projects. There appear to be scroll buttons above and below the technologies being researched. Additionally, there are “Add” and “Remove” buttons at the bottom of the screen, presumable to add and remove technologies from the active research list.

I think the multiple research system defiantly has its merits, but agree that there needs to be some incentive to a more natural, diversified research plan. Perhaps there could be a benefit for researching technologies in similar “fields” at the same time.

I have a suggestion that I haven't seen implemented in other games, which is prerequisite units or buildings for research. Well, I've seen prereq buildings, but not units.

In a PBM game I used to play your mages could either study a new level or do stuff in the field. The opportunity cost of advancing your magic was not using the magician himself while you were doing that research. I'd love to see a little of that in the Spell research tree (or Tech as well, if it makes sense). You can't research how to enchant weapons, or brew potions without having trained an alchemist or enchanter and stuffed him to work in the building.

I like the idea of tying people to the research rather than having advancements being more abstractly researched. This actually dovetails to some extent with the concept of heroes, but more like key personnel. Does that blacksmith stay at home and churn out stuff, does he team up with the alchemist to help research how to enchant weapons, or does he go off with the army to give an advantage there (maybe better weapons maintenance or some such).

That might create a usability issue though if you've got too many key personnel to handle, but it was quite a bit of fun in the PBM game to agonize over whether I needed that wizard's power now or to let him study to get even more powerful for later.

Oh, a second thought , sort of related to the last. Every game I've seen has research performed kingdom wide. In reality, research is done at a location. Even in today's world of easy information flow, you don't just have your entire R&D research one thing. Usually it's one thing here, another there, etc.

The multiple paths of research had me thinking that it might be cool if the number of different things you could do depended on the number of separate labs you've got to do that research. And a lab would live at a particular location. If you go and take a town where a lab was researching something, then that research is halted and even if you take it up again, you suffer some amount of set back as only portions of the research escaped the occupation.

And/Or perhaps that's how research is stolen, you capture a lab or infiltrate it. You could have two labs work on the same thing only if they were in the same town. Maybe a technology or spell (like wind-speech) could enable remote labs to work together.

Again, it adds some complication, but it's always bugged me that things are build concretely at one location, but research is this abstract thing that somehow every researcher in your empire can contribute to simultaneously.

So i guess this means no SMAC research then? I was really hoping to see, since such a drastic change to the economy was being made that we would see something different in research as well, and I sincerely feel that an upgraded SMAC research is the best way to go.

Please, hear me out, research may or may not be done at one location, it could be nationwide. The problem is, is that research, especially considering the era (and the fantasy genre) is made up of accidents or major breakthroughs that no one was really aiming for in the first place. What I truly want to see is a nation that develops its technologies based on its location and its values. Values are taken care of when you pick your faction, those remain with you. But tell me, why would i need to research horseback riding, if my people dont even have horses to ride?

I want to be able to focus my research on domestic, military, magical studies, etc. and have the computer decide what my people research. Ex- within my nations borders there is iron (i dont know that yet as it is hidden bc im in my comfy little fortress) but my people, behind the scenes, have found this ore and are researching and figuring out that, "hey! we can use this stuff" So at first this 'iron mining' technology could be considered domestic or military and if that is my focus it will be researched for me (after which iron will appear on the map). If i switch my focus to purely military i can hope to see 'iron smelting', and other forging technologies to make iron a very powerful part of my nation, even more powerful then it may be to others.

I know i can not change the direction of the devs ideas, i just merely wanted to give my two cents. Thanks for reading

So...... an RNG? I'm reasonably sure we won't get that, due to the irreconcileable balance issues.

I like the idea of each site researching it's own thing. It doesn't look like that is the direction they are going, but that is a very cool and fresh idea. I'd love to see it in the game.

It's all cool until you lose the site your researching at. In addition to the huge loss of an entire city you'd also lose a research tech that could have taken a very long time. There's no need for further penalties that are just going to make players hit the load button or quit even more.

Seconding both posts!

Infinite Research (IR) & Randomized spells (RS) probably means a different thing for different people.  But the following is what I want, or act as material for discussion.

For IR, the number of techs in the tech tree is finite X, but there are many levels of Y for each spells.   Higher level of the spells either improves the spell effectiveness, or reduce casting cost.   For some spells, there will be a gradual & constant rate of increase in its effectiveness.   For other spells, upon reaching say level 10, 20, 30, there will be extra & powerful benefits added to the original spell.   
The tech tree is infinite in a sense that it takes forever to be able to research all X * Y level of spells.

Rgds to RS, non-core spells has only a certain % chance of showing up in your tech trees.   Modder can decide this percentage.  And this % can also be determined by whether you have coastal cities, or have access to iron, Pegasus or some kind of resource.  The more available they are to you, the higher % they appears in your personal tech tree.

Fraction spells.  Some fraction has its fraction specific spells, AND do not have access to some spells, including Core spells. When designed carefully, this will allow sharp differences btn fractions.

Fraction spell example: Destroy 3/16 of enemy troops .

That's a pretty serious kneejerk reaction.

How is losing the research towards one item any different than losing any other thing produced in a game, like a Wonder or major expensive unit? As for penalties, it's hard to believe a research hit is the straw that breaks the camel's back if you lose a large city. 

"Hmm, I've lost a big city, big production center, 2 Wonders, and my most elite units. But damn it, I was fine with that until I lost that 70% completion to Dragon Scale Armor! That tears it, I'm quitting!"

Also, I wasn't thinking that research, once completed, would be lost. Once completed, the team moves on and the knowledge is already in place out in the world (or in the King's library, whatever). Even if the lab is destroyed, it doesn't have to be a binary "lost it all" event. It could be some % of setback as the project has to be reestablished at a new lab.

My main proposal is that research is a produced commodity like anything else. Unlike a physical commodity, once researched it's sort of universally available like any classic tech research, but while in process there's some team/lab/alchemist/wizard physically somewhere actively doing the research.

I've played enough multiplayer matches to know that half the players tend to quit once they lose their first city. I can't blame them, because in many games, losing even a single city early enough in the game means you've already lost. When you're playing a very long hundred turn + long strategy game your not going to want to keep investing many more hours into a game you've lost hours ago.

I don't see why it is so hard to see that it could be the breaking straw. We don't know how long some of the research could take to complete. Some could be dozens of turns. We don't know. I also expect that my cities will be able to research before  they become massive and there could likely be situations where the research they are doing is worth as much as the city itself. Earlier in the game this is probably even more likely and more devastating.

All I'm saying is it better not be a situation where all the research is lost and I would prefer any loss to be minimal. Losing the site itself is enough. This could probably be continued in the steamroller thread.