Secondary Tech Levels (long)

[Phoenix-D]

I've been trying to get high-equipment to need different techs than lower ones. Say I have 4 ships: Escort, Light Cruiser, Battleship, Dreadnaught. They're researched using Generic Ship Construction

Now, I want to BS and DN to require Construction I to build, but the ES and LC nothing other than their tech level. SE4 won't let you do what I want- that is, don't allow you to research Generic Ship Construction 3 until you've researched Construction I. I've experimented with breaking Generic Ship Construction up into two seperate areas, but when you're doing this for an entire tech tree it gets pretty messy.

Then I hit on something. The ES and LC require Generic Ship Construction 1, and 2, but I changed the BB and DN to require Construction 1 AND Generic Ship construction 3/4.

The problem is, SE4 still lets you research Generic Ship Construction 3/4, you just don't get anything until you research Construction I. So to the user, it can appear that Battleships and Dreadnaughts require Construction I.. then they try that next game and nothing happens until they research Generic Ship Construction II/III.

I'm calling these areas "Secondary Tech Areas" because unlike normal SE4 tech areas, they don't open new tech areas, and alone they don't do you any good.

Long-winded explanation aside, what do you think about using these? Too complicated? Better way around it? Just right? I've been thinking of making a "tech manual" that makes all these relationships clear, as well.

Phoenix-D