I would also like to see a Alpha Centari style, area of reseach effort. I really enjoyed adapting my play to account for what techs were discovered. If you emphisized warfare you could still get ecology techs, just less likely. It also helped when playing AI, since we were working under similar conditions and I wasn't tempted down a preset path of research each game.

Even with SMAC, this method was still only an option, since some people wanted absolute control over the process, but I'd like to see this sort of option available in Elemental as well. It takes some of the micro out of research and gives it a more natural feel.

I've also liked the idea of splitting the difference - offer two techs to choose from (based on your emphisis). The one you didn't choose may pop up later, so you're never locked out of a particular tech.

Thank you, good to see some of us can agree on one thing here.. 

He is talking about overall, not just on the tech currently being researched.

Well I don't have the "answer" on exactly how research should work but I do have some things I would like to see.

1) Some randomness, but don't go crazy with it.  Also the randomness should be smart.  Some techs are more valuable then others and you don't want pure luck to give potential great advantages/disadvantages to players.  What I would suggest is giving each tech a value and determining at the start of the game which random techs a player gets (but don't tell the player).  The value of each nations techs should be roughly equivilent (maybe +-2% or something).  Don't just say that you have a 1% chance of getting this rare tech.

2) Each nation has core techs it will always get every game but these techs are not necessarily the same for each civilization.  For example a nation that has advantages in farming would have "some advanced farming tech" in it's tree every game.  For other nations this would be a random tech they might get.  This will make each nation more unique and interesting.

3) Would like to be able to research more than one thing at a time.

4) Would like to see techs that have multiple prerequisites.

5) I like your current idea of infinite technologies. Definitely try and make that work.

6) New interface, the current one is pretty cumbersome.

MOO system was fun. Even if some techs ddidn't show up in your tech tree, they might appear in someone else's. So you could manage to trade/steal techs from others if you were unable to find it yourself. The problem is these were often uber-techs (black hole generators...)

As for the current tech GUI, it's not easy to read.

Maybe bars a la MOO which provide information on the current tech level in each domain would be more readable, but then you'd lack details. Why not allow zooming in on the tech tree? You'd have bars when looking from afar, saying Military 75, Social 42, Magic 18, and if you zoom in on the tech tree, you can see the details, like Military 75 is actually a lstring of pearls: A bar with rounds here and there giving detailed techs that you know, and maybe techs that you could research but bypassed would appear when zooming closer, but greyed out.

I suppose it would end up looking ugly but that's just a suggestion.

rocket surgery! open that shit up! (awesome center redux)

I loved MoO2 Tech system. It meant that not everyone could get every tech available (unless the race had the creative trait) and diplomacy, subterfuge  and conquest was needed to get techs you didn't have.

Instead of random techs, i thinking more of special techs or secret techs. These are 'one off' techs that dont lie on the path of normal techs. If you spend time researching this tech it meant you would be delaying the progress of your normal tech tree. The player would then have to determine wether it is worth the effort investing in research of the special tech.

Special techs could be techs unique to each race/sovereign. The specials could have certain prerequisite normal techs to unlock them.

Other specials could be unlocked to whoever is the first to research a key milestone tech.

Secret techs could be techs that are unlocked via completing certain important quests or game events. Secret techs could also be unlocked randomly by exploring ancient ruins etc.

While specials can be known beforehand on the tree, secret techs will be hidden from the tech tree.

How about an hybrid between fixed tech and random tech?

While we're at it, we could even make certain techs dependant on acquired ressources. After all, how can one learn to "farm" bees when none are around?