Talents tree, linear or exponential?

[Xaleph]

Hi all,

I`m trying to figure out what the best aproach is to a decision making tree. In my planned to-be game there`s going to be a focus on social and cultural development. However, i`m wondering whether the development of technology and/or culture should be linear or based on a binary tree style. Maybe a mixture of both?

Let`s say you start with something simple like farming. A next step would be something like communal farming ( in civ and other game styles ) However, since that stuff has already been invented, you can have many more aspects. Like fertilizer ( production ) or mechanic farming ( production ) which are both based for example on communal farming. Both are a child of this, however, should it be that fertilizer comes first, or both? And if both, should the be mutually exclusive?

Now, i know it`s a crappy example, mostly because I haven`t figured out the talent tree or what to follow. But I hope you get the idea. Personally, I`m more inclined to go with the binary tree. However, every tree has their own respective paths to follow.

[62896dude]

I think that an exponential tree is a better idea, it is much more interesting in my opinion! And, it is more individualized to what a certain player likes or doesnt like

[hallsofvallhalla]

Just don't make it too complicated. That is my biggest gripe about production tree type games. Other than that my input would not be that valuable.

[Xaleph]

Thanks, yeah I am trying to figure out what the best approach is. Regardless of the tree design itself. As you said, too complicated is no fun. I`m not going to let players down by forcing them in one tree. The way I see the tree is like this, it`s a huge single tree ( be it binary or linear, or what have you) So you don`t have to choose which branch you are going to learn and stick with it. No, everything will be accessible in due time, however, you can assign researchers/inventors to speed up certain branches. Either manually or by your playstyle. If you want to play the cultural aspect, it`s imperitive that all branches in that aspect should be tought first. However, if you are going to play the cultural side and still want to perform well in economics, you can assign your researchers to something more focussed on economics. So you are not forced to play one role.

However, the tree itself will be large. I`m thinking over 60 leafs. where, once you mastered i.e. economics, you can still grow bigger, by assigning researchers to economics. The only skill/leaf you can learn will be an increase in trade for example. Where every level gives a small bonus of 2% on all trade incomes.