[Suicide Junkie]

The key thing you've missed, Thubar, is that you need to be able to research deeper than one level in a tech.

Given the research system in SE4, you cannot have excess research spill over into the next tech level.

IE: in SE3, you could dump 100,000 research points into propulsion on turn 1, then add nothing more. On turn 2, you would get tech level two, and your progress bar would be full. On turn 3, you'd get level 3, and your bar would still be full.

In SE4, any excess points are lost, so players would all get tech level 1 or 2 in everything, and there'd be no variety.