Lo-Fi Games

At fist I want to say, that I appreciate the introduction of books as an addition to the research-management. However I don't like the fact, that these books are just a single-use resource like iron plates or food, etc.
So what I would suggest is, that books should be far less in numbers, but much more specialized (for example in terms of "Topic" and "Quality"). You would have to gather these books and store them in a library inside the research bench in order to research a appropriate technology. Of course these books wouldn't be consumed during the research process.

Example:
Topics: Physics, Chemistry, Biology, ...
Grades: Basic, Advanced and Special (like a book about metallurgy as a very special and rare one in the Physics-section)

Practical example: Weapon smiting
* for level 1 and 2 you need a Basic physics book in your library.
* for level 3 you need a Basic physics book and a Advanced physics book in your library.
* for level 4 you need two Advanced physics books (Now the Basic physics book doesn't matter anymore for the Weapon smiting tech-tree, but the very same book can still be of use for the first levels of other physics-related technologies.)
* for level 5 you need one Advanced physics book and one Basic chemistry book.
* and a really high level of weapon smiting would require a Special book about Metallurgy.

I think, the challenge to complete your library could be a nice addition to players experience. These books could lay in abandoned ruins ore be locked away inside the temples of Orkan (because Knowledge is the natural enemy of Faith ). So you would have an actual reason to visit these places and search for hidden treasures.

I think the problem with this is it would take away from the hunt for books in many ways. Going out and collecting books can be a major objective if one wants to research quickly and efficiently. As it sits, it takes dozens and dozens of these books to meet the needs of researching everything.

I kind of like that.

If we took that away, research would again become a simple matter of time. I would just passively watch out for the necessary books, and when I found them I'd bring them back while I'm doing whatever else. If I knew where they would load I would just go around and collect all I need, then sit my researcher at the table and forget about it for the rest of the game.

I kind of feel the same about books. Right now it´s like: meh, more books. just drop them in that machine and try to learn something. It would be nice to give them a little more importance with cool bookshelfs and organized in different categories