How to figure stuff out
what are we doing anyway?
Technology levels are represented by a single number (ie, this ship is technology 15, and would kick a technology 14 ship's butt). Research is produced by population.
Medium:
Research produced per turn is directly related to population (or optionally to general "production"). Highly populated planets produce more research, new colonies less.
Technologies are linear, in a few categories (like physics, biology, etc.) meaning that you put some research points into a category, and at a prespecified amount of research, you get a result (this is like Stars! or Master of Orion 2).
Complex:
Creativity is the devotion of creative thought process to a research goal. Creativity represents the act of coming up with fundamentally new ideas. Creativity can normally only be provided by sentient beings (depending on whether advanced AI is available in the scenario). Without the exactly correct creative thought occuring, certain advancements will never occur. It is sometimes possible to substitute observation for creativity (for example observing a warp drive in action rather than conceiving of it independently) but such observation is never enough on its own.
Computation is the devotion of raw computational power to a research goal. A mechanical calculator, for example, can provide some calculation, but can provide no creativity at all. Building up a large computation infrastructure (usually through researching one or more computer technology categories) adds much to a civilization's research capability. If no computation technologies exist, human labor (essentially light manufacturing effort) can serve the purpose. This represents large numbers of people carrying out computations by hand. Obviously while this may suffice for easier technologies, others are simply not feasible. For example, it would take thousands of years to map the human genome using only hand calculations and manual technologies (whereas in the real world, using computerised methods, it can probably now be done in under a decade).
Experimental Data is information gleaned from nature about a topic. The source of experimental data varies widely depending on the field of study. For understanding the functioning of stars, observations of various kinds of stars is good experimental data. For improving a warp drive, good experimental data could be obtained by placing sensors and recording devices to observe the warp drives of space ships while functioning. In general, however, the diminishing returns factor is important for experimental data. If a civilization already has 50 years of observations of one particular warp drive ship, another year's observations will add little. If experimental data consists of observations of the functioning of a piece of technology, observations of your bright and shiniest newest-developed example of the technology are far more valuable than observations of a clunker you figured out how to build long ago.
Unless Probabilistic Research is selected, technologies will be discovered once a (prespecified if Dynamic Tech Tree is unselected) amount of creativity has been applied.
Once a technology has been discovered, it is not instantly perfected. Effort must be expended to advance the available level of a discovered technology. Generally, the limit to how much development can be done is set by the amount of experimental data collected. It would be hard to improve a spaceship's warp drive without seeing how the drive works, but simply seeing how it works is no guarantee of improvement. The actual development, however, requires the expendature of computation and creativity. Sometimes computation can substitute for creativity, or vice versa, (for example rather than figuring out the best way to do a task, a computer could try and evaluate every available way of doing the task). The most efficient results, however, will be obtained if the correct amount of each creativity and computation are applied to the problem.
The technology tree used is the list of technologies along with the way they go together. One technology's discovery is often necessary (or merely helpful) before another can be discovered.
Option: Non-Instantaneous Communications Research
Non-Instantaneous Communications Research is the idea of independent research happening on different stars with the possibility of work being repeated because it hasn't been spread around yet. Obviously, the level of work required must be lower (since most must be done by a single star). This creates the role of technology transfer ships. If computer ships are included in the scenario, they are the obvious choice of tech transfer ships.
Option: Dynamic Technology Tree
A dynamic technology tree is one in which not all of the technologies are available in a particular scenario. Worse yet, the identities of the unavailable ones are not revealed ahead of time. This means that civilizations can spend decades trying to discover a technology that turns out to be pseudoscience.
Option: Probabilistic Research
Technologies are discovered by a probabilistic approach. Once you've discovered all precursor technologies, you can devote some creativity to attempting to discover the technology in question. Each turn, there will be a certain probability of the discovery occuring (never disclosed to the players) based on the creativity and computation devoted to the technology and sometimes on the development level of precursor developments. New technology discoveries require almost entirely creativity. Computation may be handy in developing precursors, but it adds little to the discovery process.