Make research Half-Linear

Hi Stardock, I think it's boring to make the research completely linear again. So everyone applies their cookie-cutter research path again, and it's again a pretty linear path in every game. Sure, you may have to adjust your strategy fitting to the current enemy, but in general it's all pretty obvious and without any interesting discoveries.

I would love it so much more if you have more like general directions you give, like in Ship-Research, the next option you can research comes up by random and may either be weapons or shields or drive speed on level 1. If you researched weapons level 1 the next research option may be something like weapons level 2 or shields, drive level 1 or you have some rare luck and it's some rare (but expensive, for balance) technology which gives you a mighty power boost, which you are rarely allowed to research. This would make single game sessions so much more unique.

I like how each game in Stellaris plays different, because the research options you are able to research come up by random. Not completely random, they build up on each other, but the structure behind that is still very opaque - which I absolutely hate. It's all too random and too invisible.

I would totally love, love a research system which is a hybrid between this system and theirs. Every game plays different, research is not always the same old same old, but you can easily target directions in which you want to go. It should still be strategic, but not boringly foreseeable in each tiny step.