I have two adaptions to the current research mechanism in mind.

The first one is to add a little more depth to the research.

Currently the technologies you can select just depend on the number of breakthroughs in one area and from there on it is pure luck.

So how about giving each technology a modificator for the probability of other technologies.

For example:

If you research a water spell, the research of other water spells gets easier.

As a second modificator here the research of earth spells good get harder (as water and eartch are complimentary).

OR you research mines and the research of iron weapons gets easier.

I think the positive modificators are quite easy to put in and just give you a trend to specialize more in some areas.

The negative modificators are probably are more complicated as those can have a larger impact on the game, e.g. you are in need of an earth spell, but completely focused on water magic and now you have a long way to get to this spell. Any how this good add a lot of depth to the research and give the player a little more influence about the currently completely random technology selection.

The second one is straight forward (probably also mentioned many times) and just a guy thing:

- show the technology rating (green, yellow, red) on the technology selection screen. So that you know before choosing which technologies are rare ones.

Please let me know aht you think of those two changes