SEV question - new design tech levels?

[arthurtuxedo]

One thing I've noticed is that cost does not increase with each level nearly as much as it did in SE4, so there's a lot less reason to want older, cheaper components. I think people are mostly upset because they can't think of a way to have a mod where someone might knowingly design ships with cheaper, but less capable components. But I've never liked the idea of older tech remaining viable, anyway. If older tech is still viable, why waste the research on the new stuff?

This just means people have to come up with new (and in my opinion, better) ideas of accomplishing this type of situation. SJ's idea is a good one, here's another:

You have two entries for a component. One is the standard model where it gets better and more expensive as the levels go up. The other is the "inferior" model that doesn't improve as fast, but the cost doesn't go up. Maybe it even goes down with each level. So you can still have the "quality vs. quantity" dichotomy without decreasing the value of research.

Personally, I don't see any good reason to spend a lot of effort making older tech levels selectable. I think most of the complaints are simply because people haven't thought up ideas to fit the new system yet.