[Taera]

Grandpakim: brilliant idea!

The randomness of research would realy benefit the game life expectancy. Should this option ever be implimented, it of course should be possible to turn it on/off. But it would add a realy new dimension to PBW.
Moreover Races Characteristics & Traits of the area could be added to control some of the randomization.

This wont, though, solve the PPB problem.

Miniaturization of weapons? No way!
You seem to misunderstand the real meaning of those "tech levels".
I dont remember MoO too well. I only remember there were plenty of weapons.
Have anyone played Pax Imperia? This game is a better example.

Still.
Both of those games (which are great) do not have "tech levels" for weapons. Instead they have twice or thrice the weapon types. Meaning?
SE has APB. If you want, consider APB to have all sorts of beams - beginning from simple laser cannon and ending with, say, Singularity Beam.
The idea is still the same - progressive weapons of the same type with increasing costs & power.
If you feel like it, a mod can be done to rename all the weapon tech levels to interesting and varied names. Still the idea is similar.
Also miniaturization of weapons would render smal vessels (smaller than BB i think) realy but realy obsolete. Why? What is the strenght of frigates against dreadnought? right! their small size. Dreadnought doesnt have so much weapons to just shoot them all in one turn - most likely most of the shots will be much over the frigate's defenses.
Another problemful dimension will be the multi-tracking. WIth miniaturized weapons this would become a real problem and five-targets-at-once will be not enough. I am strongly against the model because it does cause too much problems.

And same, it could not possibly solve the PPB weapon. It doesnt matter how much - 30 of 4 or 3 of 40, they will most likely have the same power. Or even more - PPB when massed is much more powerful than most other weapons in the game.

We do not have any solution to the PPB. I feel we should just leave the topic. So bad, i realy dont like the overpowering of the weapon.