not much has been discussed about the research options, so I as I have some points I think it makes sense.

1. I'm not so sure whether it makes sense to have the envoys' abilities all sequential, especially for tec. why do you need to have settlers to research trade boost? it should require trading in general and the envoy and the could be it. at least for me I think this could allow to tailor them about more and set priorities how you want to go on with.

2. same thing perhaps with pacts. is a strictly sequential order that good and necessary? it's less here, but still.

3. maybe stupid, but what about some research for how many pacts you can conclude? doesn't have to be that high or that expensive, but could interesting to force a bit more choice what you want most. of course, the base research for pacts isn't all that cheap now, so maybe not such a brilliant idea.

4. I thought about having research items that increase envoy bonus cap of currently 1.5 per planet but a bit. would certainly be helpful later on.

that's it for now.