Disappointed ...

IceFrog, I agree that most of the higher tier research items are rather lacking. I whined about the worthless midtier ships that you get as a reward for tier 4 research many times. The photon bombers are very bad relative to their tier. Megalaser and the entire tree other than Orb is near useless.
That said, Gatling fighters are very strong. Missile bombers are solid. Nukes are game changers and Plasma Eclipse is pretty decent. The various shield/armor/speed/vision upgrades are worthwhile. So I do see a point in having the research system.

I like your ideas about possibly being able to unlock a few of them permanently with XP. That does give a nice sense of progression and more to do with your XP. Good idea!

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I am very curious about Farwest comments though. Can anyone name ANY Realtime Strategy game ever, that does not have you "reinvent the wheel" on each map? Lots of games have permanent unlocks, but they always have "upgrades" or "tech" or combining, or gathering orbs, or whatever. Some kind of scheme where one must start with basic troops/tower/etc and then tech up over time. I just cannot think of a single relatively popular such game without such a mechanic.

Heck, I agreed with 6 out of 7 of his points. I guess he is a very important Marketing Exec and isn't used to anyone disagreeing. :-)