Rough tech tree progression guideline

[Meridian]

It is annoying that you often don't know what kind of new research possibilities you got, but I know it is an engine thing. And the "mark as seen" button really helps in that regard.

You've earned yourself two silver meridian points for this comment
You have enough to ask for two small game engine improvements; or equivalent of two thirds of a golden point for a medium sized improvement

[sabrecat]

I'll second the comment about actually liking the filler tech. If you want a relatively small number of topics to research that pay off immediately, a less modded X-Com game fits that bill much better. Research in XPiratez is messy, scattered, and voluminous, and that's part of what I enjoy about it.

Obscure bottlenecks are more problematic because they present a roadblock that tends to require outside spoilers to figure out how to get around--but those keep getting fixed, version by version. (Recent examples include the Pillow Book and laser tech requiring a specific faction's engineer.) But "I researched this topic and all I got was this lousy T-shirt, I mean Bootypedia entry"? That's not in itself a bad thing. Read and appreciate the lore, accept the end-of-month score you get from the completed research, and send your Brainers on to something else!

[Hazard]

I also really enjoy the all the lore research, and wouldn't mind if there was even more of it.

[Arthanor]

@Arthanor: I really love that vision! Indeed, Pigeon does lack character. And indeed some of the discoveries ought to give more info about further progress. The truth however is, early part of the tree is still in tatters, basically. Your current starting point is way above the point of usefulness of half of the starting tech; you get a lot of stuff without any character or at wrong time, since it is needed to support the current, all-ready-to-go starting point. You get tier-3 items and weapons from get-go, along with tier-1 and tier-2 stuff which is mostly obsolete on day 1. This is not a finished game, after all, just incomplete WIP. So for now all is on hold, until I'll roll the starting clock back and make the progression more logical (and better described).

Ha! I'm glad you like it! Then it was worth spending the fair amount of time to put that vision into words.

I feel like removing a lot of the early stuff from the market and gating it with the "contact: local market" or something project that has an article already in the Bootypedia would reduce the clutter and overwhelming factor of day 1, so would be an actual improvement for new players. Keeping just a few basic things (Kalashnikov, handle, fistycuffs, dagger, axe, hammer, hunting bow, etc. The kind of "out in the badlands" stuff) in the early market and wiki, which would make equipping your starting gals simpler since you need to think about fewer weapons. Then you research "countact: local market", followed by "Joe's Gunshop" for some starting rifles and "Billy's Buzzy Birds" for a few basic crafts. The reality of things is that you don't really need a lot of rifles, or Fuso knives/ninja stars, and especially not extra crafts at the beginning.

The only risk I see with that is that giving more time at the beginning is also more time for the player to get super-gals (since the early game risk is lower, especially now with the "easy" factions, an extended early game means an extended time of lower risk to grow the gals). I'm only in March now, at the difficulty just under superhuman, and by keeping deaths to a minimum, I have some crazy, powerful gals already.

[Eddie]

I just noticed: The healing items ufopaedia pages could benefit from info about how much TU it costs to use them.

[Dioxine]

I already asked Meridian for exactly that kind of improvement

Also, I'm not too concerned about player getting super-gals. It will happen eventually, especially with the Gym being a quite early thing. No point in pretending that the player has no access to maxed out soldiers. The balance of the game is generally assuming he does. Also I think fighting with maxed-out soldiers is the only civilized way of doing it (although the game does indeed force you to use armed civilians in the beginning - such a bad world it is!).