Sector Siege needs improvement

Hi all.

I could use some help. I have spent some time thinking about the progression, especially the ideas of permanently unlocking research and perhaps upgrades to turrets too. While I was thinking about it more and more, it seems to me that it is very hard to solve this with the suggested methods.

Like joe said, this system was built to be like classical RTS games, where you do have to research and upgrade better weapons in maps, get better units with time by building certain buildings etc. It's like Starcraft, Warcraft etc. It's built on the same principle.

The whole game difficulty is balanced on this principle. It is also balanced on how fast the player can research and upgrade.

I feel there are big problems even if I do allow the player to unlock a few techs in a campaign. I feel new players would then ask:

"Why does not all of my researched techs stay unlocked to next sector?"

My idea with this system was to try to create different strategies, where the player can choose which 2 or 3 research trees to focus on during a game, and try to win a sector using those trees. The idea was never that the player would unlock all research trees during one sector play. I realize the player might not have to try anything different once a good combination is found, but trying to balance that is extremely difficult.

Moving the research tree to star map could result in a solution, but it is such a huge task and would require a complete re-balancing of the game, that it is not a viable option. The upgrade menu should then be moved as well.

Perhaps giving some opportunities to unlock a few research items permanently would be better, but how many players do you think would understand this, and not be asking:

"Why does not all of my researched techs stay unlocked to next sector?"

And:

"Why does not all of my turret item upgrades stay upgraded to next sector?"

I will try to think of ways to enhance progression, but if you have ideas that would not require a complete re-balancing of the game, let me hear it!