You CAN control Research, sort of ...

[Zanman]

I have noticed a few people frustrated that they can't control the Tech tree.
I’m just a newbie so this may not be news to anyone who has played the game for any length of time. But it might help beginners like myself.
If you put 100 percent of your funding into one school for a few turns you force the program to research that school more or less exclusively. However, the designers have chosen to limit your research so that you can’t get too far ahead in one school at the expense of the others, which makes a lot of sense I think.
Don't forget that the Viceroy will fiddle about with your funding unless you keep an eye on him.
I have not found a way to control the building of DEA’s on planets.

[Daz]

Research sucks. Let me elaborate:

You can play the whole game, and never actualy check what a tech exactly does. The whole research thing has become totally uninteresting. Even if you bother to read what the techs do, you dont choose to build 95% of them anyway.

I miss that feeling I got when I first researched Plasma Cannon, or Achilles TU....

[IceCube]

To me the Tech Tree in MOO3 is much like the 'Blind Research' Option in Alpha Centuri which I thought was great becasue you no longer could just race for the powerful military techs and trash all your opponents.

I agree with Zan that you can generally direct your research efforts via the slider and this is a touch of authenticity to the concept of research.

But I will also agree that you can go whole games not knowing what specific techs do (this is because the player chooses not to look at them however)

But each tech hypohetically does have an impact on the complex game mechanics.

It is odd that you can't choose what DEA enhancements are built however...but your Viceroys seem to do this OK.

ZAN...when you say about controling the construction of DEA's are you refering to the set up of planatery dev plans or actually micromanaging (placing them yourself)the DEA's?

I have little idea about the first but the second can be done via the planatary infrastructure menu (get there by double clicking on a planet in the system view).

You can then build or scrap or replace DEA's on that planet as you wish. Tedious but important to do when your people are starving!

[Fosse]

I think he means that he can't control the creation of the buildings WITHIN the DEAs, like the soil enrichers inside of Biological DEAs. I don't think that there is a way, because I want one and I've been searching for it.

Also, what about things like Spaceports and hydroponics, they seem like a hybrid of DEAs and buildings, and I have no control over them (though viceroys don't behave terribly with them)

[Nirvana_CN]

I love the blind research idea =)

I use Grey's Agressive AI and slow Tech mod, once you only get techs at a 1/5 of the speed you appreciate them more. And no more rushing to gain the "uber" techs as in most other games of this type

[vmxa1]

There is a mod that lets you queue up Soil/Space Ports and Hydroframs and the like.

[Fosse]

But otherwise, we aren't intended to be able to do that within the game, right?

[vmxa1]

You are correct.