For what it's worth, you haven't let me down yet. I know a lot of people haven't liked one game or another in your catalog - and that's fine - but I've gotten a lot of enjoyment out of each of your games. Some to a higher degree than others, maybe, but I've not regretted a single purchase.
It really does mean a lot.
I don't expect everyone to have the same taste as me, and we do a lot of eclectic things, so I'm always actually kind of shocked when I run into someone like you, heh. Like I said, it means a lot.
I don't think I can beat how hyped Sounds is... Not to say that I'm not excited, of course. Regardless, I'll be around to help with testing, if you'll have me.
Haha -- yeah, extreme excitement is not a prereq for the alpha. You've been super helpful in the past, also -- I've got you marked down!
I'm excited to be sure, though I know what to expect of the alpha/beta process. Arcen's testing process is one hell of a rollercoaster and I just love the ride. It's also pretty fun being able to help shape up a game as a fan... I (we) want the game to be just as good as you do!
I appreciate it.
Hopefully this alpha will be smoother than a lot of our past ones, or at least that's the goal. More about refinement and honing than finding out "oh let's redo the combat model 3 times" like in TLF. If we wind up in that territory, then I've already seriously misjudged something.
Whee! Hey, if I wave my arms hard enough, will you add me to the list of interested testers? 
Added you!
Nutritionist Training
Great! I always wanted to know what haute Skylaxian cuisine tastes like. (And it's a prerequisite tech for "beer" too!)
Haha, yeah. In this case, one thing to remember is that these guys are figuring out an awful lot of stuff all at once, and the order doesn't really follow from historical sources. They have a hugely rich amount of data to work from about much more advanced stuff, and so to some extent it's a matter of priorities, and also a matter of figuring out each piece of the process. Fermentation isn't necessarily something you'd figure out from scratch on an alien world super fast -- and frankly, the process might be different since the microbes et al are different there. Anyway, that's my BS explanation for all that.
Oil Power
I like how figuring out how to burn this "petroleum" thing is in the last third of the tech tree.
One thing that is misleading about the visual of the tech tree is how exactly the relationships work out. If you look at the oil power tech, it is far to the right, sure. But it doesn't take a super long amount of time to get there, at least if you're doing anything underground at all (which you should be). One of the biggest barriers to learning oil power is actually GETTING any oil at first, and then you figure out what to do with it.
But this does highlight one way in which the horizontal position of items in the tech tree can be unfortunately a bit misleading. You can get very far horizontally on one track within a couple of dozen turns (or less, if you really pimp your science to the detriment of all else). However, that doesn't mean you're all the way done at all. Civ V and similar have a very interconnected tech tree where you really have to do everything from left to right, and can't leave much behind to the left by the time you get an age or two to the right.
Here that isn't really true, because you can go way deeper on one branch before circling back. And in this portion of the tech tree, that's not an exploit at all, because it's no like you're just unlocking better military or whatever. You're focusing on one part of your empire-building over another, and that may be a Really Bad Idea or a clever way of dealing with the situation at hand.
There are also some cases where something had to really jump horizontally over a bunch just to fit, and it's not really a representation of how advanced it is. It's just what could visually fit and make sense grouping-wise. It feels really different from other tech trees, and in practice I think it feels fine. It was super overwhelming to me before I introduced the gating by social progress level, though. That was a huge part of the reason for that.
The latter portion of the tech tree may be more traditional, I'm not sure. The first part of the tech tree is really unusual because of the nature of unlocking techs for a citybuilder instead of a traditional 4x type game. But once you get past the bulk of what is shown thus far in the tech tree, you're really done with all the basics of a citybuilder. Maybe 10 of the techs aren't even needed for that. You're then getting into the territory where you are well beyond the basics and you're starting to specialize, or choosing to very heavily specialize. That will probably have a pretty different feel from the first part of the tech tree, but we'll see.
