I noticed that in the FAQ it was mentioned that the division of Civic and Military research has been removed and replaced by a single structure instead. Is there any reason for this? To me this added a layer of complexity because sometimes going for civic research instead of military one early game was an active choice of strategy. Enemies could scout how many structures you have and determine what tech the might have researched or not. If there is any good reason for this decision, please tell me as I do not quite get it...will there be more major changes to the core gameplay like that?
I wouldn't like research to be simplified, but at the same time I found just spamming civic/military research stations to be boring in and of itself. It'd be nice if there was some new mechanics associated with research.
It is not that I particularly liked building research stations, but it gave the game another dimension of strategy. For example, if you open with military tech, you will fall back quickly when it comes to economy so you need to put pressure on your enemy early on. If you went civic, you were vulnerable for attack but you could colonize valuable planets earlier than your enemy. Basically, if the enemy left this unpunished, you had an early game advantage.
I am now afraid that the whole tech tree might turn into something like in "unlimited upgrades possible" scenario like in Ashes of the Singularity where in theory your ships can just get better and better with no limit, which does not make sense to me. It may be good for scaling but I am quite conservative when it comes to my favorite game here. Every deviation from the original makes me suspicious as it might ruin what made the game great.
Of course, if they find an elegant solution, it might pay off but often those things backfired big time in the past (Remember CnC 4 anyone?) I am dreading that they will implement some kind of "research point" system over the "over time" research... but let's see.
The Military Labs and Civic Labs and where specifically to locate them (both what planet and where exactly in the gravity well) were core components of the game's strategy and resource management (Logistics slots). I would hate to see them removed. I also think the multiple tech trees make the game more accessible since it breaks down what would otherwise be one large and complicated tech tree.
My advice to the Devs is, "Don't overthink this and don't outsmart yourselves. When in doubt go with tried-and-proven winning game play. It's OK to copy the original game and just give it improved graphics on a better engine if needed. For the overwhelming number of Sins-2 purchasers it will be a brand new game anyway and many of the Sins-1 players liked Sins-1 as it was."
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