Tech Tree Update: 11 April 2017

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Today's Tech Tree Update adds a tree view and improved functionality for the Research screen. Our ongoing effort to improve the game continues, so your feedback and suggestions are important to us. Keep them coming!



For starters, the behavior of the "Set Research" and "Queue Research" buttons has changed. "Set Research" will now automatically queue any needed prerequisites to the selected tech. "Queue Research" can now be used to queue any number of techs in any order, regardless of prerequisites.

To enter the tree view, click on the tree icon at the top of the technology list in the Research Screen.



In addition to the familiar Queue Research and Set Research buttons, which work the same way as in the List View, the Tree View presents a scrollable pane displaying the technology tree. The tree view pane can be scrolled by using the scrollbars on bottom and right, or with the arrow or WASD keys, or by clicking and dragging within the pane. Left-clicking on a technology node will select it and activate the Info pane for that technology. Clicking "Set Research" or right-clicking on the node will begin research on that tech (or any required prerequisites, which will be automatically queued). You can manually queue techs by selecting a tech node and clicking "Queue Research", or by shift-left-clicking on a node.



Each technology node displays the name of the technology, an icon for the field of research (Physics, Construction, etc.), and icons representing any hulls, components, or special abilities unlocked by that technology. The number of turns to research the technology at current research rates is listed in blue. If the tech is locked (it has unresearched prerequisites), the title will be blue and there will be a lock icon at right. If the technology has additional prerequisites that are not represented by the visible lines, you will be able to see a small icon overlay at the upper left of the node. All elements can be investigated with a mouseover tooltip.

You can return to the List View at any time by clicking the list icon at the upper left, and you can close the Research Screen by clicking the X in the upper right, or the testube icon at the top bar. If you exit Research while still in the Tree View, you will still be in the Tree View whenever you return to the Research screen.



Changes and Additions

• The tree view of the research screen is now available and can be viewed by clicking on the tree view icon shown at the top of the technology list. You can return to the list view by clicking on the list icon at the top left of the tree view.
  
• Clicking "Set Research" in either view will now queue any necessary prerequisite techs.
  
• You can now queue techs in any order using either view by selecting techs and clicking "Queue Tech" (or shift-left-clicking in the tree view).
  
• The portion of the 'Primary Beams' prerequisite that included 'Turbolasers' now instead includes 'Advanced Turbolasers'.
  
• 'Hyperspace Cloud Computing' has been renamed to 'Hyperspace Cloud'.
  
• The Yoral Frigate hull is now unlocked by 'Interstellar Expeditions', rather than 'Titanium Construction'.
  

Fixes

• Opening the dropdown menu in the embark population dialog should no longer trigger an exception.
  

(Click here to view the complete development changelogs, and here to view the development roadmap post.)

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