Another kind of tech grid

[Ed Kolis]

I'm thinking in terms of weapons here, but I suppose this could be applied to other techs as well... what if you could make any type of weapon (beam, projectile, missile, etc.) out of any type of underlying physics (ion, fusion, antimatter, etc.)? So you research the theoretical tech area "Polaron Physics", and if you have the applied area "Shields" you get Phased Shields; if you have Beam Weapons you get Phased-Polaron Beams, if you have Explosive Warheads you get Polaron Saturation Charge (might be useless - do warheads automatically penetrate shields?), if you have Missiles you get Phased Energy Missiles, etc. Each type of weapon would have its own advantages and disadvantages, and so would each physics type, much as in regular SE4, the difference being that you can now mix and match them as you see fit, instead of polaron weapons always being beams and such.