I'm a bit ... confused on how this would work. Your empire would generate lab points each turn? And you can only research, what? Only tech areas you have spent x lab points on? Only tech areas you are _currently_ spending lab points on?
quote:
Each successive level of research on any given topic costs more Lab Points than the Last...say double, for the sake of argument. This would require you to carefully consider which areas you want to research, and would limit you to the number of areas in which you want to excel
If I understand this right, let's say for example, that your empire has ...7 lab points to spend this turn. I'll use your cost doubleing per tech level for this. Cost doubling gives the following tech level costs:
Lev 1 = 1
Lev 2 = 3 (1 + 1x2 = 3)
Lev 3 = 7 (1 + 1x2 + 1x2x2 = 7)
You have several possible coarses of action:
a) spend them on 7 seperate level 1 techs, which would allow you to research these techs to level 1 at a later date. The "Jack of all trades" approach.
b) spend them on a couple of higher level techs (two level 2 tech, one level 1 tech), so that you can research them to these higher levels later. the "sorta-specialized" approach.
c)spend all 7 points on one level 3 tech, so that you can research it to level 3 later. The "very speciallized" approach.
Is that correct? Personally, I kind of like the "You can research what you are currently spending the points on" approach. As long as you are spending the required lab points on that tech level, you can pump research points into that tech level. If you divert those lab points to something else (say you need minesweepers to get thru that minefield that just wiped out your attack fleet), then you can't continue to research that tech.
Oh, wait. Never mind. I specifically _DON'T_ like the "research only what you're currently spending lab points on"! It effectively places an artificial max on tech level based on empire size. In the above example, If your empire only generates 6 lab points per turn, then you CANNOT research anything to level 3!!! No, no, no, that is definately not a good thing!
Yet I don't really see any benefit to the "accumulated spending" approach to lab points. It is basically just a hinderance to what you research when. If you want to create speciallized empires, just choose the tech cost as High under the current system. And if that isn't enough, just mod the research compounds to produce half as much research points, as well! That will slow things down a bit!
Just my overpriced $0.02.