SEV question - new design tech levels?

[se5a]

while I would personaly like to have the option of using older tech, I probibly wouldn't do it enough to warrent bugging aaron to code the option.
there's too much other stuff I would rather him spend time on.

[AMF]

While I would agree that there are a whole lot of other bugs that need to be fixed first, the fix to this may be easy and, perhaps more importantly, if no one tells Aaron that it's a problem then there is zero chance of him fixing it. I say tell him and let him make the call.

[RonGianti]

Cant this be done another way in game? For example, if you want to have an outdated design kicking around, just leave an outdated design kicking around. You designed Destroyer III, then its been updated to Destroyer VI and now you want III back, just:

1. Dont make it obsolete
2. Uncheck the filter so you can see obsolete ships.

Sure its slightly clunky but it should work and without programing.

It seems to me that we're all pushing ourselves up against a wall trying to make SEv do exactly what SEiv did, and ignoring all our new options...

[arthurtuxedo]

One thing I've noticed is that cost does not increase with each level nearly as much as it did in SE4, so there's a lot less reason to want older, cheaper components. I think people are mostly upset because they can't think of a way to have a mod where someone might knowingly design ships with cheaper, but less capable components. But I've never liked the idea of older tech remaining viable, anyway. If older tech is still viable, why waste the research on the new stuff?

This just means people have to come up with new (and in my opinion, better) ideas of accomplishing this type of situation. SJ's idea is a good one, here's another:

You have two entries for a component. One is the standard model where it gets better and more expensive as the levels go up. The other is the "inferior" model that doesn't improve as fast, but the cost doesn't go up. Maybe it even goes down with each level. So you can still have the "quality vs. quantity" dichotomy without decreasing the value of research.

Personally, I don't see any good reason to spend a lot of effort making older tech levels selectable. I think most of the complaints are simply because people haven't thought up ideas to fit the new system yet.