I have an idea... haven't tested it yet, but this MIGHT let us actually implement *research proficiencies* as racial traits!
Say you have some tech, call it "Physics", that you want to make a race proficient in, so that it costs less points to research. Well I wonder what happens if you add a racial tech called "Physics" that is identical to the normal Physics tech, but costs fewer points? Will it replace the normal Physics tech for that player? I'd think that there would be SOME way to make it do that - probably either place it before or after the regular Physics tech. And then will he still be able to trade it - since the game indexes techs by name, wouldn't it look for any other Physics in the tech file anyway? And even if that doesn't work, there's always the "dummy non-racial prerequisite" that lets you trade away racial techs...
But since I'm too lazy I probably won't get around to trying it out... anyone with a little time on their hands want to give it a shot? Or do I have to, even though I did all the hard, grueling work of coming up with the idea?
Research Proficiencies
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