This is game is going to be soo cool, thanks again for the update!

I agree with Denryu, I hope it works with spells too.

Seconded

Edit: Primarily as it would nudge it slightly closer to the system broadly agreed upon in this thread: https://forums.elementalgame.com/329572/page/4/#replies i.e. the more specific and focused your research (potentially in an effort to min max) the greater cost you pay for that focus.. and as a result you get some really interesting decisions to make

Looks and sounds great, I'm really looking forward to checking this out.  In terms of "future tech 1" type techs, I never did like those in Civilization IV.  I would have rather had the tech tree just end, but that is my own personal preference.

I def love never ending tech, as I feel bad when all the infrastructure I put into teching is made useless.  And I love a good turtle...

From the sound of it, you could always just make a tech tagged as a core technology until you're done debugging.

Although I wouldn't mind a game option to force all techs to be in the game.

Also why on earth would any one keep reloading in order to find a certain tech? Can you not just go with whatever the RNG provides? Is that not the point?

I think that Brad implied it could work either way, considering that we will have faction-specific tech trees: it seems like the RNG starts with a tree that has all of the techs in it, then removes some that are not marked as "always include". Whether the techs it "prunes" are faction-specific or not is up to chance. Given the paucity of information, however, this is only my best guess.

I like it! I hope the research is far more interesting than it was in GalCiv2.

The "few technologies, but with infinite levels" looks nice in my view. It makes me wonder how trading technologies would work though. Will we be able to trade directly the upper tech level we know, or will we simply give them a boost. Ex : I have Housing level 4, and I want to give it to someone with only Housing level 1. Will he goes straight to level 4, or will he either get a big research bonus until he reaches level 4, or either get midway between both, getting to level 2?

This will only be useful if there are bonuses for researching several things at once. In Dominions you can split research as you like but it's mostly less efficient than focusing on one path then the next. In MOO (1), splitting research could be beneficial as it gave you a slightly better research rate, but getting tech1 on turn 10 and tech 2 on turn 20 remained better than getting both techs on turn 19 in 99% of the cases.

I hope Elemental will feature something which really boosts multiple/parallel research, otherwise it will just be a waste of techs and UI space.

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.

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 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.