One complaint I have seen about the tech trees atm is that alot of players feel like they end up picking the same techs every game with little thought (early on at least). I have a suggestion that would allow for some interesting choices yet keep the same basic structure for the tech trees.

What if once a tech was unlocked you had the option of doing some further research to unlock a specialisation for that tech. For example after unlocking mining I could spend 5 more seasons doing research and then have a choice of different upgrades related to mining, It would be like perks for techs.

This would allow for some interesting choices as

1) You have the question of is it worth spending the 5 seasons or so to get a tech perk or could that research time be better spent going for the next main tech

2) It would allow a small amount of customisation for the player as they could choose tech perks that suit their play style.

Going back to mining example again....

I have a game where my city is near both a gold mine and iron, as a result I decide it is worth the time to reseach the tech perk for mining. I do the extra research time and get an option of three tech perks (could be more).

  1) increase in gold from gold mines

  2) increase in iron from iron mines

  3) % chance each season of finding rare items burried in your mines

I choose the iron tech perk as I know i will be pumping out a lot of troops with my choosen play style. The tech has now been specialised and I am stuck with my choice for the rest of the game.

I know this would involve changeing the existing tech tree ui abit but I feel in the long run it would add another layer of depth and choice for the player.