Tech trees in board games

This is a good way to introduce the whole so many options so little actions aspect people seem to like so much in games. If you give someone like 3 different trees to advance in with like 4-5 levels each, a really dynamic situation could arise.

It also makes for variable gameplay as you could try something different next time.

The pitfalls are that invariably, there will be a certain path players will find most effective and efficient and the game will become a mechanical excercise. You'd need to make some random game states or conditions which either change each time the game is played or throughout the game and you'd probably want to make some sort of forced/random progress so as to prevent the superpath from being readily followed.

Nevertheless, this is a very rich idea for a central mechanic for a game as it is relatively novel and really rich with potential.

This can be accomplished by having different upgrades require different kinds of payment -- for faster engines you pay with Dilithium, for greater cargo capacity you pay with Cavorite, etc. Then the path a player follows will depend in part on which resources he can most readily obtain; also he may be faced with trade-off decisions concerning whether to spend resources for a score or for an upgrade.

Also, as onewOrd implied, different game situations should arise to make upgrades more or less valuable. In Twilight Imperium III, I might want an upgrade that lets me fly through an Asteroid Belt if an important goal was on the other side; but I might prefer a defensive armament upgrade if I have a threatening neighbor. TI3 accomplishes these varying situations with a randomized board and with "private objectives" given randomly to each player during setup.

I think Terra Prime is already in a good position to use a tech tree successfully. You've made specific upgrades available only in specific locations, which (like my pay-with-different-resources suggestion) will vary the expense and difficulty for a particular player trying to obtain a particular upgrade. And your random board layout should have the same effect as in TI3, of making different upgrades more or less desirable each time the game is played, and (also important!) for each different player in a single game.

I am working on a 4 player game with a building tree with some interesting nuances. I am not sure exactly how it helps you, but it may give you some ideas.

There are basically 4 building lines with 4 buildings in each line. You must build the first in a line to be able to build the second, and so on. As you move further up the line, the buildings naturally cost more and have a better benefit (in my case it's income). Each player works on their own "tree" independantly, with some interaction.

It is possible to take over an opponents building on the board, effectively hijacking their progress on their tree and advancing yours. Example: Bob has building A1, A2, and A3, while you have none in the A line. If you take over Bob's A2 building, you can now build an A3. Bob can now build an A2 or and A4. If you took his A3, he could not build an A4, while you now are able to.

Another interaction is that the benefit (income) from each building varies based on how many opponents have built the same building. If you have the only ice cream shop in town, you sell more. If everyone owns one, the sales are barely enough to stay in business. Going back to the previous example, if you and Bob both own ice cream shops, you can take over his shop (and you must raze it or your previous one) and now have the only shop in town again.

The third interaction is that every time anyone builds a building in the A line, they place one of their colored cards in the A pile. They can pay double the development cost to not leave a card in the pile. Whenever the A pile reaches 7 cards, whomever has the most of their color in the stack loses all of their buildings in the A line (it actually fits into the theme when it is played). Their cards are returned to them and the remaining cards stay for the pile to reach 7 again. This dynamic means you can build to intentionally push the card total to 7, hoping you kept accurate count and are not the majority holder. Now the income of your A buildings go up. Or you can advance your A line knowing full well that you are in the majority, hoping your opponents cannot push the card count to 7 before you reap the rewards of you sole A4 building (extremely high income).

It promotes strategies of both diversity and specialization,a measured pace and sprints.

I am late for an appointment so I have to finish quick. Hope it helped a little.

My game is a Prohibition era gangster game. The building lines are what I am refering to as "vice related". Gambling: You can start with a bookie, work your way up to a card room, off-track betting, and finally a casino. Another building line would be Alcohol: speak-easy, night club, distillery, and finally a distribution network.

I was trying to create a mechanism for whomever advances the fastest gets a penalty. I wanted some incentive for measured or diversified growth. There are usually plenty of benefits to being the person out in front. What about a tech tree where the costs are greater for the first person to reach a specific ability, but they had some "patent" period of exclusivity?

How do I find your Terra Prime thread? I look forward to reading it.