Newbie questions at turn ~50 of a PBW game

[MegaTrain]

Hmm... Let's figure this out.

Approx. cost of a current attack vessel: 6400
(buildable in 2 turns at a big shipyard)
Cost of my warp closer ship: 85000

So I'd need to come up with intermediate designs of the same ship size that cost no more than:

(2 turns to build the original ship)
Turn Cost
---- ------
1: (building)
2: 6400
3: 9600 - added 3200
4: 14400 - added 4800
5: 21600 - added 7200
6: 32400 - added 10800
7: 48600 - added 16200
8: 72900 - added 24300
9: 109350 - added 36450

DAMN!!! .9 years instead of 2.9 !!??!! Less if you start with an existing ship of the same size.

I like it. mooohahahahaha... An exponential curve, you could make outrageously expensive ships in a fraction of the time.

So can you upgrade a ship a second time before the just-upgraded components have been repaired? If not that would make it 1.6 years instead of .9. Still not too bad.

Another question: Does it actually COST me that amount (the difference in the design cost) per turn to upgrade it? I assume it would, and that would start eating away at your resource stockpile pretty quickly.

I like it. Is this a verified strategy? Does it work? Is it an "approved" strategy, or are they going to "fix" it?

------------------
-MegaTrain-
Athlon 1.3 GHz running at 1.6 GHz on an iWill KK266