Chasm wrote:Shipyards don't really help this much, the main issue is actually the improved solar panels tech advance. At that point, you can house 2 science labs (no need for a power plant) for a + 21 research orbital that only costs 254 hammers and 30 metal. Then when you get heavy hulls, and can put 2 in orbit of every world, even the marginal ones. When the time comes you can replace certain ones with shipyards (1 construction yard, 1 science lab and 1 nuclear reactor) for + 21 also, but they cost about 400 hammers and 500 metal.
Hadn't even thought of that; you wouldn't need a plant at all and its available quicker.
Woke up this morning and my first thought was that maybe the module should be a turret slot item that gives 1 or 2 research per point of turret or something? You could put some on starbases, but those at least cost maintenance and they could still be mounted on (every?) races scout ships and multiple kinds of military vessel, so only the 'cheap orbital labs' part would be seriously impacted.
Plus, on military ships system slots are mostly about defense and turrets are mostly about offense, so thematically it seems better to sacrifice weapons for science vs sacrificing shields.