I know this may sound sadistic for people who want the most powerful ships in the galaxy, but how would you feel to a technology block or limit to how far the game will allow you to research, for all AI players too.

You could have a game where only missiles are used or no rail guns and primary guns, maybe no shields or only weak armor or small ships.

Just wanted to get your thoughts on that.

The idea is fine as long as it configurable. However, everything needs to be balanced first, and we are quite far from it yet.

I think it would be nice to have a "game speed" map settings option that slows tech advancement. I already have it on my list of suggestions.

Variable starting era would also be nice, though it's a little bit more complicated. Although the techs are designed with an era in mind, I don't think there's currently any in-game era designation, so that would have to be added. Having a cap on tech progression I think would entail just removing all the techs above a certain era. Seems like a bit of a niche play option, but I suppose it's not hard if there is era designation added to techs.