[Suicide Junkie]

Originally posted by Demon:
I've also noticed that shields and armor seem to improve more significantly then weapons. The pay off to go beyond DUCs seems pretty small for the investment. Shouldn't there be weapons that are 10x more powerful, to make the techs feel more like your accomplishing something?

Well, with the shields and armor, you're starting from zero, so the improvement covers a much wider range
The weapons start out fairly powerful already, and when you're researching a new one, you get to use the old weapon until the new one becomes practical in battle.