Technology Choices

[gmsh1964]

Is the Tech Tree totally Random, or does it follow a progression like regular tech trees. In other words, if I keep going for only the high dollar techs, will that prevent me from getting other techs, or is it that each time you get a tech, you have a chance of getting ANY of the techs you do not have.

[Regularity]

The tech tree is initially randomized, but odds of each tech are influence by your scientist (they generally get double the odds of getting a tech choice in their expertise) and your ethics (e.g., militarists have higher chances of combat techs, pacifists a lower chance)

[Peter]

Techs have both prerequisites as well as weighting. You'll have to research W to unlock X, Y, and Z. However Z's weighting is higher than X and Y so you'll have it come up more often.

[Demon of Razgriz]

The tech tree is like a deck of cards. You choose which one you want and the others go back into the deck. It gets reshuffled and then next time you choose a tech to research, it picks more cards out of the deck. Now, there are weights (Based on empire ethics, government type, early-mid or late game, etc) and stuff for different techs so they are more likely to appear and some techs won't appear until you research a prereq tech.

[Doomvora]

From my understanding the tech is RNG oriented but some later techs require prerequisites in order to appear. These "cards" as they call them, can be influenced via the scientist you have employed for that slot, for example if you have a new worlds scientist in your society slot then new world tech is more likely to appear (however due to the nature of rng this may not always seem to be the case).

tldr; no researching higher tech should not lock you out of getting older tech.

[MrGowdy]

As others have said, some things are almost completely random and others rely on previous techs. You won't randomly get better armor untill you've researched lower armor. You can discover it by destroying higher tech (armor) enemies and scanning them.

I've played games where I didn't discover strat resources until WAY late game while other games you'll get them really early on.

[JErosion]

its both, certain techs wont appear until you have researched their precursors. ei, Gamma-Ray Lasers wont show up until you have researched Red Laser, Blue Lasers, UV Laser and then Finally X-Ray Lasers. Some tech will repeat, but get more expensive each time. Other techs are basic and are drawn at random. and Rare and Red Techs well you either research them or you dont

[Mansen]

Not entirely true, Erosion. Sometimes you will get lucky with debris or events that will unlock (partially sometimes) techs that lets you skip previous steps.

Like getting Tier III shields while you still only have Tier I unlocked, and would normally have to do Tier II first.

[exosolar]

I have enjoyed the limited tech selection so far. It forces you make a choice then live with it. Maybe you only see some kinds of weapons so you end you going a direction you may not have if it was wide open.
I had one start where the colonize tech came up on the first selection, but at the very start I don't need it so I went with something else. I ended up not seeing colonization tech for a long after, so was stuck on one planet. Again, it forced a different play style.