"petition" for MM to add starting techs

[Suicide Junkie]

Yeah, but as I said You would need to allow someone to research two levels on tech X in one turn.

Otherwise, you don't get much specialization. Everybody will do one ship con, one weapon tech, etc.

[Krakenup]

I would rather see the ability to carry over unused research points. That way, you could still specialize and use all 100k points on ship construction, for example, but you could only research one level per turn. It would also remove some awkwardness in selecting a research topic for spillover, and it would allow you to save up some points for an emergency.

[Suicide Junkie]

If it was like SE3, where you could dump 100,000 points into one area, and then you'd get all those points put into the area.
The actual levels would only kick in one per turn, (as your scientists spread the knowledge to companies & parts factories, I figure).

The X percentage per area was the best.

[Nitram Draw]

Yeah it would be nice to research the same tree multiple times in one turn. I think that is not modable though.

[dmm]

A program to edit the SaveGame file would give players this ability plus so much more!

You could set up any beginning scenario that you wanted. For a game with multiple (human, real world) players, you'd need to get a "Galaxy Master" to do this.

Speaking of GMs, they could even set up cooperative scenarios that would allow two or more players to act as allies, with victory criteria limited only by the GMs' imaginations.

I'd rather press MM for that. The community could have an AWFUL lot of fun with it, and would be kept so busy that MM could then concentrate on improving the AI or putting in TCP/IP.

[Windborne]

I cast my vote for everyone choosing different starting techs at the beginning. I may be an extremist but I think even colonization tech should be optional.

Maybe we could operate on a point system, first tech level of each type being cheapest to buy at the games start, and higher levels costing more once you've bought the prerequisites.

[Will]

In my opinion, choosing your starting techs was one of the major strategic elements of SEIII, and as someone who played SEIII (as opposed to SEIV being first exposure to the series) I have always seen this as a glaring omission since the beginning of beta tests.

Yes there are ways to modify the data files to get a semi-similar effect, but it's just not the same, and as someone has already said, it's a pain in the @$$.

Plus I never did like the options of no tech, 10 turns of tech, and all tech... just seems to be a bit lopsided.