It's a little bit more straightforward if:Geoff the Medio wrote:Limited-access techs have been repeatedly suggested, but I'm still not clear on why they are necessary, rather than making all techs always available (or equally available), but making the things that some techs unlock, or the effects of techs, only function for some species. Having techs be unlocked by species or similar would be like having a strategic resource that unlocks a tech, rather than having the tech always be available, but the ship part or building requiring access to the resource. The latter is standard in recent Civ games... Is there a reason to prefer tech unlocking in for species differentiation?
A) you can't research "Psi-Ops Corps" without a telepathic species, rather than
B) you can research "Psi-Ops Corps", but can't actually build, it without a telepathic species, or
C) you can research & build "Psi-Ops Corps", but it doesn't do anything without telepaths in your empire.
Still, weather one or the other is preferable (and to what degree) probably depends on exactly what picks there are and what kind of limited-access effects we want to add.
My main point works either way: don't tie in special stuff to specific species, but instead tie them into groups of species that share a relevant pick.