quote:
The organics come up with their own Version of armor, they wouldn't even think of developing any other type as the one they have within their frame of reference works just fine. They shouldn't have ability to research the general tech armor as they would have no cause to until such a time as they encountered other races and some other armor proven more effective. It wouldn't have to prevent you from capturing the tech.
Sounds to me like increasing the tech level costs for low level stuff by 10x would just about do that for you.
-"I've got Organic Armor, should we really spend 10 million research points and three decades to get something almost the same, or get something new, like better engines instead?"
That would give you a longer build-up and a longer sweep of tubulent tech changes for more variety.