Oh ye of little faith Joystiq interview Ironclad talks 4X strategy with Sins of a Solar Empire The research tree in Sins approaches the size and quality of a 4X research tree and dwarfs pretty much any RTS game I can think of You may also like the same article s How does Sins work in diplomacy and espionage two elements that usually play a fundamental role in 4X titles I found it by Googling for strategy game 4x tech technology tree I ve edited that para to remove the game specific comparisons since we have such an explicit ref Since that makes the 2nd and 3rd paras 1 2 sentences each I ve combined them I also think thet fit together reasonably well as the high cost of high tech implies a need for intermediate productivity enhancers What do you think Re the last para of Tech tree as I said I m happy to remove it provided the refs get transferred to Technology tree first Done I ve re ordered the sub sections as discussed above If you re happy with all that intro and clean up are next