In a rare moment for me I will admit to actually really liking something about the game... the technology tree, at least the Kingdom tree.  The Empire tree feels a little bit thrown together and incomplete, but I like the mechanics of how the thing works.

I think the randomized system reflects more accurately the spontaneous nature of scientific discoveries... the administration sets agendas, but the actual breakthroughs can be pretty unpredictable.

No, there was time in beta where all was filled with dungeons and it was totally confusing and for me boring because you have to check every time can i enter or not.

The system now just give you a few things and it definitly a better way of a game!

I honestly can say that I enjoy the technology tree. I have some minor problems with it, like everyone. I don't like how all the armor is linked to the weapons, that should be separate so you can focus on either offense or defense (like GalCiv2). I also think that Adventure and Diplomacy technologies need to be buffed. Hell, the damn Adventure technology is downright dangerous to research because it increases monster spawn rating significantly and just isn't worth the risks, at least not initially.

I also enjoy unlocking stuff as I progress further into the tech tree. However, I completely agree with you that diplomacy needs some work.

Regardless, things get better with time (most cases) and Elemental will certainly be one of them.

I dunno, I actually like techs. It needs more variety (I can never have enough techs in my 4X), but otherwise its actually one of few parts of the game which DO work.

Adventure techs seem unnatural at first, but putting realism aside, I like this "get more goodies, but more nasties too" thing.

I thought the war branch was too bloated. Armor, swords, maces, bows, walls, barracks, squads, sieging, packs, etc. You could go the whole game without discovering something as simple as walls or bows since you're too busy leveling up in swords and maces just to get to the next armor upgrade. While diplomacy, magic, and adventuring were heavily lacking... not many choices or any branching.

Takes far too long to get bows.

As for random techs, who are you kidding, everything always appears eventually. The problem is, will I care when it does?

My biggest gripe is with the lost library resource, it's the game's most unbalancing resource - a nation which doesn't get one is a crippled beast.

I like the empire tree more than the civic tree, as it's tree-shaped and not a bunch of separate, parallel systems. Similarly, I think conquest is better than warfare. On the other hand, I think both trees need to be streamlined so that it isn't possible to cherry-pick technologies - going for squads and training improvements is a bit too dominant a strategy right now, those techs need to come into play later.

In the magic tree the branches are far too short and some of the techs are rather worthless.

The diplomacy tree should make trading and treaties more effective, your gain from treaties ought to scale with the target's nations income and not to your own - a treaty should be more beneficial for a weak nation. Diplomatic capital needs to be more useful and you should be able to spend it as an actual resource - one idea is to have the recruitable monsters bought with diplomatic capital, another is being able to use it to perform forced actions against enemy nations like stealing technology, getting treaties and/or peace deals.

I find it takes some getting used to, but fundamentally I'd rather that instead of seeing what should and might be available next, I would rather be surprised by what appears than disappointed when what I want fails to appear.

I'd also like to see more content and variety and even double paths, and the game sets certain paths as denied or available each time. For example in one game swords might be on a path up 'bladed weapons', in the next is only on 'metal weapon' path. With some tweaking to keep it as balanced as possible this would give a little surprise and deny 'This research and this tactic always wins' mentality. The best player adapts his tactics to his resources and technologies rather than seek the same combo.

If anything stumbles me on the research tree it is that magical research is as reliable as sunrise where the tech is more erratic. It adds to the undermining blandness of magic that it is so mass produced.

See this link below, I made it during either beta 3 or beta 4, I think three. 

https://forums.elementalgame.com/387267

Sadly, I think there are actually less techs now, and less varied techs now, than there was when I made that post. The whole system of research is just bizarre and agreeably detached. 

A game should work whether or not you want to roleplay it. A game should be based at the level of a gamer and also cater for the roleplayer, not the other way around. Whilst your roleplaying ideal is great, and an even greater way to see unrealistic game mechanics as logical, it is very biased from your gaming standpoint. 

Also, your scholars toiling away in your tech lab built on a city with a workshop and a farm, are in no way going to be capable of somehow unearthing gigantic ancient towers from the earth. I'm reasonably sure researching adventure is also superfluous and in no way roleplay friendly. 

Anyway, back to my original point, the research is largely just silly, which is unfortunate.

Adventuring should be improved by adventuring, not by folk in a lab.

Diplomacy largely involves things that are just common sense. Bartering, should not need research, things such as treaties and pacts are more logical.

Combat is probably the one which makes sense, but it is inherently stupid that a place doesn't need an armory to produce advanced kit, or specialised buildings to produce advanced units. When a shoddy marketplace area starts spamming plate-clad knights, it's not very representative.

Magic research is just bleh, really really bland and no variation whatsoever. For one of the parts of the land that should be the most mysterious and difficult to master, I believe it has the weakest tech 'tree'. 

Civ stuff is pretty bleh as well. 

All in all, this game does not have a tech tree, and anyone who says otherwise should go and find any half decent 4x game (see civ for instance) and check out that tree. One of the things I hate is when an issue is raised where someone is saying there isn't enough of something, and the devs cut it. VARIATION is what is lacking from this game.

Great post by the OP, I completely agree ,

Paradoxical

I think you are missing my point.  The scholars toiling away in the 'Tech Labs' (Mind you, I think thats a bad name for them) don't 'unearth' anything.  They re-discover the location and then pass that knowledge in to you the Soveriegn incarnate.  At that point it appears on the map. 

Perhaps you went by that area/square before .. perhaps not .. doesn't matter.  You didnt see it because, well the grid square represents a large area.  At the scope of a continent sized map one square could be literally hundreds of miles across.  It doesnt matter how big a tower is if a square area is that big you wont see it unless you get within about 3-7 miles of it.  Unless maybe it's on top of a mountain.  Or it really is as big to the square as you see it and its base is miles and miles of area and the tower top reaches into the sky above the clouds.

So the scholars are not unearthing the tower they are researching and discovering its exact location so that it at that point becomes something you can interact with. 

If you want to literally find the tower by moving your leader figure around perhaps they should give us a scale for the maps and make the squares represent much smaller areas so it is logical that you could see it in the squares.  I've been out in the real world .. hiking, camping, flown across the country a couple times, Ive been in the redwood forests, now those tress are f-ing tall but you can't see them or realize they are there until you get within them.  I am telling you a tower CAN easily go unnoticed in the countryside unless you KNOW what to look for and where.  You have to be within miles .. MILES ...single digit miles to be able to make out what something is in the distance.  Square grids representing hundreds or even tens of miles across can hide things you would not believe they are hiding. 

I know you are going to disagree, that's ok.  Part's of the tech tree needs improvment.  Some of the concepts aren't represented well .. Kind of like the devs had a vision they could not quite explain very well.  I think I get it ...maybe I am way off.  I also agree that the variety is lacking and some of the implementation is poor.  As duplicate notable locations pop up all over the map ...

How many mad morrigans towers did morrigan build anyway .. Was it a franchise?  Do they sell fries? 

You do actually make a very valid point, and had I not realised that there is no real scaling standard in the game I would likely have continued to disagree. As such, a more definitive scaling system would definitely help with the whole sense of discovery and such. 

On another note, it might also be worth exploring the idea of putting some lairs on the mini-tiles used for many city buildings. This would largely just be an aesthetic thing, as some of the ancient hidden towers that are popping up are just flat out ridiculous. In addition, the fact that, as you mentioned, fifty such towers appear from nowhere is very mysterious. My sovereign cannot be that ignorant. 

I do feel that the whole system is underwhelming, but I can see where you're coming from, 

Paradoxical

You'd think the tech names would give it away. "Morrigan's Notes" for example. Do we think a) Morrigan wrote a spell in the margins used to raise weird basalt architecture complete with guardians and mysterious treasure at a whim, or Morrigan being a powerful sorceress/titan/goddess type of gal went looking for the ultimate gubbins of doom, and was kind enough to annotate her discoveries and helpfully note down the interesting locations and clues she found?

Though of course, complaining about things not making sense in a fantasy world is kinda missing the point entirely.