[thorfrog]

How about a way to have an empire lose technology. Like for instance when you have a certain amount of research facilities distroyed there is a chance you lose a random technology type. You would then be forced to either scrap research one of your own ships or research again on a topic.

Example: In Babylon5 Earth Alliance was pretty high tech with Vorlon and Shadow tech. Then a civil war broke out that put Earth back to the Dark Ages. This way very brutal wars can set very large empires back.