The technology tree is divided up into 6 categories: Computers, Construction, Force Fields, Planetology, Propulsion, and Weapons. Each of these has multiple different technologies within it. They range from level 1 to level 50. Each technology also has a grouping of what is called "advanced technologies" that allow a race to reach level 99 in each technological field. Each technology is assigned a specific level in its field and no two technologies are ever the same level in the same field.
The level your civilization has in a given field of research is derived by multiplying the highest level technology you have by 0.8 and then adding 1 for each technology level you have that is lower level than your highest technology. Every player starts with all of the level 1 technologies researched and thus starts at a technology level of 0.8 in all fields, which rounds up to 1. Additionally, the technology levels are broken up into sub-categories. You must research at least one tech in a sub-category to unlock technologies from the next higher category. There are 10 of these sub-categories encompassing 5 levels each.
If there is only one technology in a given sub-category, that is what you must research, you have no choice. It will be available and you must research it if you want to proceed. If there are multiple of a given level available available you don't necessarily have to research all of them to proceed, but your technological level must be high enough to continue on. It is important to note here the nature of Master of Orion researching. There are hundreds of techs present in the game and only a very small number of them are certain to be present in every single game.
Master of Orion researching is powered by random technological trees. No matter what race you are, you are subjected to this. Like it or not, your favorite technologies might not be present in every game you play. The way this works is that there are a given number that are always available and the computer takes the rest of them, randomly picks about half of them, and then throws them completely out, giving you the rest. What remains is what you get to try to use to create winning ships.
Each race isn't given the same tech tree, so often times you can steal, capture, or trade for technologies from other races that you cannot research yourself. These are all key means of accessing technologies you don't have access to and it is very important to learn the ins and outs of acquiring technologies through these other methods, and they will be discussed in more depth later.
What holds the system together is the large amounts of redundancy inherent in the system. Most of the technologies are not the only thing that can do what they do. The ones that are the only thing that can do what they do are usually the ones that must be present in the game such as High Energy Focus and Warp Dissipator.
Take the simple Battle Computers. These are used to target enemy ships, they are in the Computers research field and they both help you hit more often and to do more damage. Without them, weapons are largely useless beyond the very beginning of the game.
Battle Computers come in Mark levels. There are Battle Computers with the following Mark levels: I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, and XI. In any given game, you are likely to end up with about half of these. The thing is, though, that if you get, say, 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11 you probably really don't need 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10. The number 3 tech is probably good enough to tide you over till you get 5 or 6. It may not be optimal, but it is workable. The game is programmed to always give you something that you can at least try to work with. It won't give you just 8, 9, 10, and 11 and nothing before that because the game knows you won't live long enough to try to research them. It will spread them out reasonably well across the range and make sure you have at least a decent chance to stay in the game every step.
Almost all technologies follow this pattern. ECM computers that jam missile targeting systems fall under Computers and work the exact same way. Improved Robotics Controls govern how many factories a worker can control and they follow the same pattern. Every different major type of technology will give you at least a reasonable distribution to allow you to participate in a somewhat normal game but it will also be random enough that you can never develop a specific formula for how to win "any" game.
Racial skills[edit]
Each race has placed different priorities on developing technology in different areas. As a result, some races pay a lower Base Cost for developing technologies in their specialties, while areas of technology they are poor in cost more to research.
The table below summarizes each race’s strengths and weaknesses in research:
| Race | Computers | Construction | Force Fields | Planetology | Propulsion | Weapons |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Psilons | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good |
| Klackons | Average | Excellent | Average | Average | Poor | Average |
| Humans | Average | Average | Excellent | Good | Good | Average |
| Silicoids | Good | Poor | Poor | Poor | Poor | Poor |
| Meklar | Excellent | Average | Average | Poor | Average | Average |
| Sakkra | Average | Average | Average | Excellent | Average | Average |
| Alkari | Average | Average | Poor | Average | Excellent | Average |
| Darlok | Good | Average | Average | Average | Average | Average |
| Bulrathi | Poor | Good | Average | Average | Average | Good |
| Mrrshan | Average | Poor | Average | Average | Average | Excellent |
The Base Cost of developing a device is multiplied by the race’s multiplier:
- Poor = 125% of the standard Base Cost.
- Average = Standard Base Cost.
- Good = 80% of the standard Base Cost.
- Excellent = 60% of the standard Base Cost.
It is a common misconception that races that are Excellent in a field have a higher chance of more techs in that field, while races that are Poor in a field have fewer techs, but this is not actually correct. For all races other than the Psilons, every tech has a 50% chance of existing or not existing, unless it is the only tech in its rung that is left, regardless of your race's rating in the field of that technology. So a Propulsion-poor Klackon can, by random luck, have more Propulsion techs present in their research tree than Propulsion-excellent Alkari; the only advantage that the Alkari have is getting up the ladder twice as fast for the same RPs (and possibly getting to better replacements for missing techs later in the tree).
For Psilons, each tech has a 75% chance of existing in their tree rather than 50%, so that Psilons can often choose among a variety of techs.
This really only becomes obvious if you try to actually list down the available tech options offered to you in multiple games and multiple races. Once you have seen your umpteenth Human with a severe lack of Class V Planetary Shields or the umpteenth Klackon with Range 4, Range 5, Nuclear Engines, Range 6, and Intertial Stabilizers, you begin to realize that "Poor" does not mean you have fewer techs in your tree, it just means it's harder to actually research the options you do have.