Picked up GC4 yesterday just before the release price bump and while it took me a bit of time to get used to some of the new systems, there's one main UI issue I have with the game, and that's how hard it now is to browse the tech tree.

GalCiv3 had 4 buttons down the left side of the tech tree. Nice and easy, lets you switch between the expansion, engineering, warfare and diplomacy trees so you could check out other techs you aren't researching. Want to browse out the weapon choices available? Just select the warfare tech tree and you can scroll through them, no issue.

The problem with GC4 is that the only way to switch tech tree views is that you have to start researching something from that tech tree. Meaning that once you've finished browsing, you have to remember to switch back to your original research subject or you're going to be wasting turns on a tech you might not immeditaely want. I'm not a UI designer, but it seems like there's room for some buttons either in the blue bar at the bottom of the tech navigator screen, or maybe even in the gap between the bottom 'available technology' and the search bar on the same screen, though I guess the size of this gap may change depending on what resolution and UI scaling the player is using.

But regardless, having a one-click method to easily switch between the various tech trees without affecting your current research would be extremely useful.

And while we're at it, any chance of letting us zoom out of the tech tree a bit? You could zoom out to at least half the current size and everything should still be very readable.