I must say that I was not very specific. The orange triangular things are the artifacts.
I dont see a point for the devs to put artifacts into a game for no reason. Extra game content that serves no purpose would be a waste of time. The fourth tech tree when presented in the 5 page write-up was written as special. By them making the 4th tech tree a specail one, it only stands to reason that it is there for a unique purpose. One way to bring in special technology to a game is through the "Ancient Artifact" model. This would serve to bring each race additional tech.
Now, that could be a possible option, but that brings up another point. Mr. Fraiser did say that there would only be 4 tech trees, 3 unique trees( one per race) and one special one.
If there is one special tech and it isn't related to a common Ancient technology that each race would have access to just by exploring, then what could it be? Keep in mind that it is just one tree, that means that if one race was just to have access to it, then that would be an advantage which rules that out. It is possible that it can be a common tech. tree availible to all three races, however if that is the case, then the tree isn't special because all races share it in the same manner. It could be a tech. tree that availible to an NPC faction but nothing has been mentioned in any form or fashion( not that has been relayed to myself anyway), so this means that a tree availible to an NPC faction that may or may not be availible to players through some as of yet unexplained means is highly unlikely and not player friendly since it has been stated that there wont be ship capturing and things of that nature.
The long and the short of it is that the most plausible option at this point would be that the 4th "special" tech. tree would be one that is in some way influenced by the artifacts that are floating in space. THere hasnt been anything( to my knowledge) that has been presented that would fit the pieces together better that that senario.
One last point is that it seemed taht the 3 unique techs and hte special one were related in some form since they were stated within the same sentence. It doesnt make sense to me that the 4th tech would be mentioned at all if it were a pirate tech tree or anything of that nature since there isnt anyway that the player would be able to gain access to the tech tree( since there is no ship capturing). The only possible option for getting tech like that would be if there were epionage options but that would open up a whole new can of worms.
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