I was playing a long game yesterday. Awesome game!! I can see where this will be alot of fun.

At any rate, will the technology rate be customizable??? In the game I was playing yesterday, I stayed in my solar system and didn't travel to a distant star, but I had practically maxed out the tech tree. I think to make this game truly feel epic, technology needs to be slowed down, or have more techs in the tree to make the game feel epic. I think the best solution would be to have the tech rate in terms of costs of each tech and the time to research each tech customizable. That way, by the time you have explored your own solar system and journeyed to the next one (taking several minutes of game time to phase jump to that star) you and your opponenet won't already be maxed in the tech tree. I think in this game, technology would loose its meaning if by the time you finally journeyed to another system, you and whoever was in that system was already maxed out. By making it cost more, you also have to take gambles to reserach tech which could mean less ships to defend yourself with for many many minutes.

The last truly epic feeling real time game I played was empire earth (the first one). That game truly felt epic, because I remember it took so many resources to advanced to the next epic. I mean just to go from cavemen to bows and arrows and sling shots took alot. To play a game where you started in the stone age and wanted to advanced to the last era (where you have walking mechs, laser rifles, etc.) would take hours and hours even if you were really fast in advancing through the epics.

What is everyone's thoughts on this? At any rate, I hope the tech rate will be customizable.