[DirkHowitzer]

Good point TicToc....perhaps you could make it that after a certain period of time techs would become available to the new guys so they wouldn't start to far back. You could do this by having a universal Tech Level that advanced at it's own pace seperately from empires. This way it would still be possible to gain technological superiority, but you would never fall so far in the hole as to actually be in the dark ages. I also believe that this would mirror reality as even the poorest nations on Earth have some forms of modern technology. Or mabye you could do like in Imperium Galactica where you could buy ships and such on the open market. That way even while their tech was small you could purchase some newer ships. Or, new races could start with a certain amount of research point allowing them to get caught up with the rest quicker...