A. Suggestion
Add 1, maybe even 2 more rings on the outside of the tech web. Also, add tech "eras".
B. Explanation
Adding more techs is self-explanatory. The techs required for affinity victories would be moved to the new outer rings. Tech "eras" would be similar to the ages in civ5. Certain techs in a given ring would be prerequisites for each "era". When the player researches all the tech prerequisites, the player would get a pop up similar to advancing to the next age in civ5. The pop up would have nice art depicting what the era is about with some nice flavor text. In addition, each era would grant the player a special bonus.
C. Pros
This idea would try to accomplish several things:
1) By adding more outer rings and placing the victory conditions on the new outer rings, this would make the game longer and let players experience more of the scifi stuff before reaching the victory stage. This would seek to address the common complaint that the game is too short and players beeline for the affinity victories too quickly.
2) Adding more advanced techs would allow the game to have even more crazy scifi stuff in the end game to make it more interesting.
3) By making techs in a given ring prerequisites to advancing to the next era, this would encourage players to complete more of a ring rather than just beelining down a certain branch in the tech web. The tech eras would also add a lot of flavor and atmosphere to the game by giving the player visual art and text that describes the state of their society technologically. There would be a greater sense of progression for the player. Plus, the era bonus would be a nice incentive to the player to reach the next era.
D Cons
Implementing this idea would require time and effort. New tech ideas would have to be created. New buildings, new units etc would have to be created too. A lot of balance would be needed to place the new buildings and units in the right techs just like balancing the original tech web. A bigger tech web would be perhaps more difficult to balance too. Art and flavor text would have to be created too for each era and interesting era bonuses figured out.
That could definitely be an option, and Firaxis could probably make it work if they put it the extra time and effort. But personally, I believe in a very different path. (I'm actually overhauling the tech tree right now with what we have to work with so far in Rising Tide; it's a very tricky puzzle!)
I think the content within the technologies are already spread a bit thin, especially as you get to the outer ones (I assume this is because they're saving content for expansion 2). Besides the affinity (which sometimes isn't even needed any longer, there's plenty out there), some of these techs only reward a single, tiny perk. One of my favorites is Nanorobotics: 3860 science to grant +1 science to you manufactories later in the game -- what an investment!
I believe if there are going to be any additions, it may only be an extra tech or two; there's plenty of room in the outer ring. They may even add a few leaf techs here and there. They can devote a whole branch with leaves to psionics (I'm not giving up on it! haha); the social flavored portion of the tech tree is a bit weak right now too... it could fit right alongside Social Dynamics, branching out from Cognition. Maybe its leaves could contain some techs around the idea of cults/beliefs/orders and a new building could be the Temple, which is similar to what Jedi would train, learn, and live in. Maybe another branch tech on the other side could be dedicated to new spacecraft units.
There could be other ways to delay victory and affinity acquisition. Affinity could be lessened on techs and a much more elaborate quest system could have more and deeper quest lines. If you're reading them and immersing yourself, maybe in a small way it could help reinforce the feeling that you're really going down the path towards Supremacy, for example. Especially since you're making all the choices and actively completing the quests, not just grabbing techs that you need for certain content.
Also, with more emphasis on quests, pacing players ("softly", nothing too harsh and controlling) would be a breeze. You just create triggers within a certain turn range which unlocks the quests for all players when they're eligible -- players just have to keep on surviving and keeping pace to get to these points.
More crazy scifi stuff you say? Sounds good to me! Hopefully it includes a few NPC alien factions.
Stations for early/mid; NPC Aliens added in mid/late. Also, this could be a way to spawn more progenitor expedition sites, similar to the other two.
Regarding eras, I'm not a fan. I think the web should actually encourage some ring busting out to the outer techs; it should be very flexible and take advantage of the idea that it's a web. Eras would either hurt that if they're controlling, or they would be too fleeting and have less impact.
There are already affinity requirements in place which can control how soon you can utilize certain buildings/units, so "hard" beelining can be deterred. Plus, if there's still some affinity tied to techs, if you force players to complete a good portion of a ring before progressing, then you're only diluting their affinity. Another thing which supports tech ring busting is that buildings aren't tied to each other like in Civ 5, they are their own thing, you don't need to build a long line of prerequisite buildings to be eligible to construct the target building.
Also, to me, eras are more iconic and simply work for a historical game like Civ 5. Plus, the tech tree is linear there, so it forces you to linger in each era for a bit and taste it before moving forward. In BE, I think any eras might be a bit meaningless -- though, who knows, maybe they could grow on players, the same way other new things did. In Civ 5, unit evolution is pretty dramatic and again, iconic; while in BE I believe it's a bit less (which isn't bad, it just is what it is), besides the one upgrade period where your units actually take on their affinity. Same for buildings, the lines are a bit more blurred in some areas between pretty amazing buildings (lore-wise) to even more amazing buildings. (Off Topic: That's one of the issues with wonders in BE too, flavor/lore-wise, and why things need to be rethought and distanced from Civ 5 -- for another discussion.)
Regarding the benefit of eras when it comes to flavorful art and text, and improving the feeling of your current state and the sense of progression, I think that could simply be accomplished with affinity progression alone -- not only "could", I think it "should".
Again, just my own opinions. Maybe Firaxis "wants" to better control tech ring busting and has other plans to support it.
. I'd like (in both civ5 and BE) to see an option for maps about double the current largest sizes. For those of us who especially enjoy exploration, having even bigger maps increases our fun.
Well, we all have different tastes and playstyles.
