TL;DR
Change a significant number of techs to require a specific amount of in-game actions or uses before being researchable with science packs, ensuring progression is linked to what the player is actually doing.What?
The Problem: Several items and tech tiers have extremely short periods of function before obsolescence due to progression in the tech tree. Too often in my playthroughs, before I've even had the chance or opportunity to use something (burner inserters, firearm magazines, basic oil processing, etc), I'm provided with or have researched something that makes it either entirely obsolete or decidedly inferior. Bottom Line: I'm researching solutions to problems I haven't even had yet.I'd love to see a more directed approach to progression through use cases becoming requirements for techs to unlock and be researched. Example: After X number of items have been moved by yellow inserters, letting the player have a more expanded season of solving logistical problems with just those available, this experience with actually using them leads to the idea for innovation (tech unlock) towards fast or long handed inserters. Similarly, after X number of rounds of regular yellow Firearm Magazine have been used, the innovation towards improved armor piercing rounds is unlocked. Why this also matters, is that I shouldn't be researching into things like improved flammables when I've never made a flamethrower, or improving the carry capacity and speed of logistics bots I haven't even built yet. It would make far more sense that after X number of items have been delivered by logistics or construction bots, I (the player) have ideas about improving their carry capacity. This concept can be applied in some metric or another to a significant number of the technologies in the tree, but wouldn't be necessary on all of them as some of them are fundamentally new ideas or tech branches.
Why?
There's an incredible amount of content in the base game, but a large portion of it is very quickly rendered obsolete, and the logistical solutions required at that level are rarely given a chance to be appreciated (i.e. I'm going straight from tier 1 to tier 3 belts or something similar where a generation is either short or entirely leapt). Additionally, this makes the upgrades themselves less appreciated as big impactful changes to logistical limitations up until that point (the obvious exception to this being bots, always being a complete paradigm shift in logistics solutions and always feeling like a huge progression). My hopes for why this could deepen the Factorio experience are twofold:1. I hate to see ANY content in this game (or any game really, as this problem is not limited to Factorio alone) be perceived only as a passthrough or annoying intermediary to what are obviously bigger and better solutions farther down the tech tree. By having to actually USE an item or tech level in order to progress to a better version of it, you have to actually appreciate that item or tech for what it CAN do, and making it work for your current needs. Additionally this makes the upgrade to that structure, weapon, or process a much more appreciated and significant change, germane to what the player is actually doing.
2. The tech tree begins to reflect the sandbox nature of the default core game. While I'm very aware this suggestion would require some rework and de-tangling of the tech tree, it could simultaneously allow focus on what areas the player deems important to their play-style, as well as slow down the overwhelming explosion of new structures/items/weapons etc. that sometimes happens, desensitizing the player to what they've actually unlocked and why it is important. Many times when I'm taking my time with a base, well over half my crafting window is new unlocks (highlighted with the little yellow ! symbol) that I'm either nowhere near using anytime soon, or not going to use at all in that particular playthrough. If I'm intentionally pouring everything into a train based logistics system with steam power as my sole power source and laser turrets as my primary defense, why would my labs be busy developing nuclear power, logistics bot speed improvements, and uranium ammo, flooding my crafting window with weapons and structures I'll not be using? I'd instead love to see improvements and efficiencies being researched based on my then extensive firsthand experiences with those related technologies (rail, steam power, and laser damage or efficiency in this example case).
Caveats
I'm fine with this being merged at the moderators' discretion to the Research Overhauls link collection, but despite much searching I didn't come across any suggestions or mods that seem to be directly in line with making techs dependent on actions the player is actually taking. I'm absolutely happy to be proven wrong on either of those cases though. Additionally, were this ever to be implemented, I'd entirely understand if this manifested as an optional element or just a mod, as it does pretty drastically change how the current tech tree plays and flows. It could even be on a slider to determine the overall game-speed, akin to the Civilization series having options like Quick, Standard, Epic, and Marathon by simply scaling cost values. Higher numbers for use cases would lead to a longer period of the game spent in the distinct technological phases.I'd love to hear thoughts from you all (like, dislike, it's all good)!