Yes, I have had similar thoughts, but discussion here has only covered half of the problem so far.
Besides research being to predictable, the technologies themselves - weapons, shields, etc. - are also too predictable. Who says that EVERY race would research the exact same kind of armor or shields that are just as effective in every way? Who says that type or armor or a particular beam weapon - anti-proton beam, phaser, whatever - would improve in clear increments as you researched further? We need a much finer-grained simulation with differences in technologies. One race's shields might stop beam weapons really well but not solid projectiles. Another race's shields might be great at stopping physical objects but not so good against radiation weapons. We need a world with "virtual laws of physics" and these theoretical sciences you are discussing would be required research to be able to learn those laws and then apply them to technology research. And the technologies themselves should be both more static and more flexible. More static in that you should not have to "upgrade/refit" your ships every time a tiny little improvement is found in the given technology that it is equipped with. More flexible in that they should not improve in these large, sharply defined steps but gradually in small increments. If you have researched 'Phasers' for example, the possible damage could increase a little bit because of a research breakthrough, and any of your ships that returned to a shipyard could be automatically upgraded. It's just a matter of "fine tuning" not totally ripping out the old beams and putting new ones in. But if you research a NEW weapon type, then you'd need the refit.
This would solve a lot of logistical headaches in SE. Like having to wait and wait for a new level in a given tech field to be researched, and getting NOTHING for your efforts until the magical break point is reached. And when you've got the new tech it can be a major pain to work out how to rotate all your fleets back to shipyards and give them upgrades. And since it's such a hassle you also tend to wait until you've researched several levels of a given technology - increasing the "delayed effects of efforts" problem with techs. With incremental improvements in technology, both of these problems would be much reduced. You could install 'Phasor I' or "Anti-proton beam I' of whatever in your ships and not have to worry about the hassles of upgrading to the same tech with slight improvements. The upgrades of a given tech would be automatic. Only totally NEW techs would require a refit.
What I'm talking about is a sort of blend of the MOO style of handling technology and the SE style. In MOO the technology remained the same, but got smaller and cheaper as you researched further but you didn't have to re-install it to get the benefits. In SE the technology gets more expensive, but more effective as you research further and you have to reinstall it to get the improvements.
[This message has been edited by Baron Munchausen (edited 16 August 2000).]