Ahh, I see.  I guess, it would still be worth researching for some players, like those players dedicated to holding GC for eor jumps.  To make it more worthwhile researching, it could, as stated, lower the other costs associated with empire size (expo costs, construction costs, etc.), so that players who know they'll have a high NW and size and thus high costs associated with such might want to devote research to to it.  It would have to be called something other than bureaucracy, though, maybe 'administration'?

"administration (lessens cost of bureaucracy and costs associated with empire size and net-worth)"

Also, to clarify,

Researching prosperity would provide more income per pop, so, potentially, if one were to research a lot into this, they could have good pop income without the associated NW, and thereby allow pop-income-based players who research this more morale for attacking / opping.

Lastly, for clarity, I should edit this:

"logistics (lowers construction costs associated with empire size and net-worth)"

education (improves research rating)
spirituality (improves magic rating)

How and how much exactly research rating and magic rating can be improved by researching these is what I'm thinking about.  Should they be tied to population, such that the more population, the more effective the research?

Or should the effectiveness of researching into these areas not be tied to pop at all?

In one sense, it is realistic that the greater the population the more likely are advancements in technology.  Also, it just seems to make sense that the greater the population the more 'spiritual force' such an empire should have.

And the whole point to this research is to provide a bit of balance to game which the pop-banker and pop-SSer have been suffering from for a while.  Not only is their research less effective because of their higher NW, but they are less effective at defending and attacking as well as more susceptible to and less effective at ops and magic because of their higher NW.  And so to help them cope, there should be a way for them to lower the negative effects placed on them due to their higher NW.

And so, if researching education and spirituality is tied to pop such that higher the pop, the more effective the research, they essentially get some respite from the negative effects of their higher NW.  Note that even if the effectiveness is tied to pop, having their pop temporarily diminished by ops against them wouldn't affect their research capability too badly, as their research capability is temporarily effectively raised as their NW is temporarily diminished.  It's the same for magic: even though their magic rating would be temporarily diminished as their pop is temporarily diminished, they are less susceptible to and more effective at magic and ops as their NW is temporarily lowered. Lastly, if the effectiveness of researching into these areas isn't tied to pop, there might be too great an advantage provided the non-pop-based banker, opper, or attacker who might research these areas.

Personally, if I were playing a pop-income-based SSer as partaxian (already with decent science and magic, and good pop growth rate) I might want to focus my research in the following way:

Military:
ground defense (improves attack strength for ground forces when defending)
ground offense (improves attack strength for ground forces when attacking)
armaments (improves attack strength for fighters, bombers, and lasers)
engines (improves fleet speed)

Income:
production (improves cash factory income)
*10%administration (lowers cost of bureaucracy and other costs associated with empire size and net-worth)
*10%infra maintenance (lowers cost of building upkeep)
*10%unit maintenance (lowers cost of unit upkeep)

Welfare:
*5%longevity (improves population growth rate)
*15%prosperity (improves income per capita)
*5%education (improves research per capita)
*5%spirituality (improves magic per capita)

Resources:
*5%storage (lowers food, iron, oct, and end decay rates)
*5%mining (improves iron, oct, and end yields)
*5%agriculture (improves food yields)
*5%exchange (lowers market fees)

Construction:
labor relations (faster building)
*5%engineering (build more with available resources)
*10%architecture (lowers overbuild penalty)
*10%logistics (lowers construction costs associated with empire size and net-worth)

If I were pure resource-based SSer, making all my GC from market, I might want to research in these areas:

Military:
*5%ground defense (improves attack strength for ground forces when defending)
*5%ground offense (improves attack strength for ground forces when attacking)
armaments (improves attack strength for fighters, bombers, and lasers)
engines (improves fleet speed)

Income:
production (improves cash factory income)
administration (lowers cost of bureaucracy and other costs associated with empire size and net-worth)
infra maintenance (lowers cost of building upkeep)
*20%unit maintenance (lowers cost of unit upkeep)

Welfare:
longevity (improves population growth rate)
prosperity (improves income per capita)
education (improves research per capita)
spirituality (improves magic per capita)

Resources:
*30%storage (lowers food, iron, oct, and end decay rates)
*5%mining (improves iron, oct, and end yields)
*5%agriculture (improves food yields)
*30%exchange (lowers market fees)

Construction:
labor relations (faster building)
engineering (build more with available resources)
architecture (lowers overbuild penalty)
logistics (lowers construction costs associated with empire size and net-worth)

A fam or team's main attacker:

Military:
ground defense (improves attack strength for ground forces when defending)
*10%ground offense (improves attack strength for ground forces when attacking)
armaments (improves attack strength for fighters, bombers, and lasers)
*10%engines (improves fleet speed)

Income:
production (improves cash factory income)
administration (lowers cost of bureaucracy and other costs associated with empire size and net-worth)
infra maintenance (lowers cost of building upkeep)
*20%unit maintenance (lowers cost of unit upkeep)

Welfare:
longevity (improves population growth rate)
prosperity (improves income per capita)
education (improves research per capita)
spirituality (improves magic per capita)

Resources:
storage (lowers food, iron, oct, and end decay rates)
mining (improves iron, oct, and end yields)
agriculture (improves food yields)
exchange (lowers market fees)

Construction:
*20% labor relations (faster building)
*40% engineering (build more with available resources)
architecture (lowers overbuild penalty)
logistics (lowers construction costs associated with empire size and net-worth)

A fam's CF-banker

Military:
*10% ground defense (improves attack strength for ground forces when defending)
ground offense (improves attack strength for ground forces when attacking)
*10% armaments (improves attack strength for fighters, bombers, and lasers)
engines (improves fleet speed)

Income:
*65% production (improves cash factory income)
administration (lowers cost of bureaucracy and other costs associated with empire size and net-worth)
*10% infra maintenance (lowers cost of building upkeep)
*5% unit maintenance (lowers cost of unit upkeep)

Welfare:
longevity (improves population growth rate)
prosperity (improves income per capita)
education (improves research per capita)
spirituality (improves magic per capita)

Resources:
storage (lowers food, iron, oct, and end decay rates)
mining (improves iron, oct, and end yields)
agriculture (improves food yields)
exchange (lowers market fees)

Construction:
labor relations (faster building)
engineering (build more with available resources)
architecture (lowers overbuild penalty)
logistics (lowers construction costs associated with empire size and net-worth)

An empire dedicated to building planets for fam members:

Military:
ground defense (improves attack strength for ground forces when defending)
ground offense (improves attack strength for ground forces when attacking)
armaments (improves attack strength for fighters, bombers, and lasers)
engines (improves fleet speed)

Income:
production (improves cash factory income)
administration (lowers cost of bureaucracy and other costs associated with empire size and net-worth)
infra maintenance (lowers cost of building upkeep)
unit maintenance (lowers cost of unit upkeep)

Welfare:
longevity (improves population growth rate)
prosperity (improves income per capita)
education (improves research per capita)
spirituality (improves magic per capita)

Resources:
storage (lowers food, iron, oct, and end decay rates)
mining (improves iron, oct, and end yields)
agriculture (improves food yields)
exchange (lowers market fees)

Construction:
labor relations (faster building)
50% engineering (build more with available resources)
50% architecture (lowers overbuild penalty)
logistics (lowers construction costs associated with empire size and net-worth)

A fam's dedicated fam bank / investor, war fund saver:

Military:
ground defense (improves attack strength for ground forces when defending)
ground offense (improves attack strength for ground forces when attacking)
armaments (improves attack strength for fighters, bombers, and lasers)
engines (improves fleet speed)

Income:
production (improves cash factory income)
34% administration (lowers cost of bureaucracy and other costs associated with empire size and net-worth)
infra maintenance (lowers cost of building upkeep)
unit maintenance (lowers cost of unit upkeep)

Welfare:
longevity (improves population growth rate)
prosperity (improves income per capita)
education (improves research per capita)
spirituality (improves magic per capita)

Resources:
*33% storage (lowers food, iron, oct, and end decay rates)
mining (improves iron, oct, and end yields)
agriculture (improves food yields)
*33% exchange (lowers market fees)

Construction:
labor relations (faster building)
engineering (build more with available resources)
architecture (lowers overbuild penalty)
logistics (lowers construction costs associated with empire size and net-worth)

Anyway, I hope people get the idea that a lot is possible with this.

This:

Construction worker isn't really a new strat.

And, I would hope the idea would be to ensure this is good for both SSers and fam / team players.

As for your research model, I would think even the pop banker would want to research administration, as the benefits of associated cost savings should be worth doing so.  For instance, overbuilding with a high NW is very expensive when you have high NW / empire size, and it's not as if you can call in your construction worker to take over your planet to O-build your lqs (pop would get killed).

So, I would think the pop banker would want to research quite a lot in administration and logistics, especially since the modifiers would stack.

There will still be players who invest in administration because they are building their own infra, like SSers.  And it's not always easy to coordinate who's building what infra for whom, so fam members might want to invest in it, too.

Other sorts of players would research administration if it were set up so you could 'lower cost of bureaucracy' to the point where you are actually making money from it.

You could have a pure HC SSer, having used his starting GC and res to invest in market.  Say all he's researched is administration, storage, and exchange.  Whose to say mid round  when he wants to jump fleet and start sending out his expos that he doesn't have millions of res and hundreds of millions of GC on hand?

Think about it.

If you set up administration research so that you can make money from bureaucracy every tick, and storage research so that you can have near 0 decay, and exchange research so that you can have near 0 market fees, you could make tens of millions of res and hundreds of millions of GC by mid round, and, thanks to researching administration, have a decent income to boot from just bureaucracy, and have done so having built nothing but expos and RCs on your home planet.

Say by mid-round, such a player had 500M GC on hand.   Times that by 0.5% = 2.5M GC per tick INCOME, not loss, because we set-up research into administration to allow someone who researches enough into it to gain 0.5% of GC on hand in income from bureaucracy rather than loss.

By mid round, then, such a player jumps his fleet, sends expos en-mass, and takes-over half the galaxy by eor, and all the infra he'd built to do it was a few hundred RCs.

Firstly, there are counters, as you said, destroy cash and destroy iron ops. There's also kill scientists.  Additionally, an enemy fam could have a tiny opper of their own to land these ops relatively successfully against an SS-player using aforementioned strat.   Also, in hardcore rounds, you can't have one planet without risking getting killed-off.  And so a player using the above strat would have to have at least a few planets, thereby requiring them to have at least some NW. And don't forget we're talking about an SS player doing this.  Even when successful, a enemy fam (which would also have the capability to use this strat) should be able to jump their fleet comparably high enough to 'counter' the SSer's fleet. 

Also, consider that fams / teams already have dedicated fambank holders / investors, and they usually use low NW players to do so, for the very reason you mentioned: op defense. 

And so, the only thing that changes for fams, really, if you allow for research in administration to provide 0 income loss or even positive income gain from bureaucracy and if you allow for research in storage to provide for next to 0 decay rates for res and research in exchange to provide for next to 0 market fees is that the fams / teams (who, again, are already using the aforementioned strat) would be able to do so a little bit better.

The bigger change is for the SSer, who, thus far, generally hasn't been able do this strat all that well.  But with research in the aforementioned areas, he is suddenly able to do so almost just as well as fams currently can, which makes the game MORE balanced, not less.  Presently, SSers generally have to have good income, either from LQs or CFs, as well as produce their own res.  This requires them to have many planets and thus carry a large NW.  They have to pay for their own fleet upkeep to protect all these planets.  In the unlikely event there is an HC SSer or pure resource SSer playing this game presently, they have to pay ridiculous amounts in market fees, which makes the HC SSer or pure resourcer SS strat really quite untenable.  And so, for the most part, SSers don't use those strats and stick to the mixed or balanced SS strats.  Consequently, having to play with large NW, they are nerfed by the new morale system, forced to be more susceptible to ops and less able to attack or op, all the while NOT able to save for jumps, while fams can continue to do so.  Presently, there's no way an SSers' war or eor jump can compete with those fams or teams who have a dedicated low-NW fambank investor / saver with good op defense.

But if there were an ability to research administration, storage, and exchange as mentioned, SSers would have the same capability that fams are already enjoying. 

(And don't forget, if they are going to invest in administration, storage, and exchange, they can't really invest so much elsewhere, leaving them not as strong, for instance, in military.) 

Overall, allowing research into administration to provide for positive rather than negative income from bureaucracy, and allowing for research into storage and exchange to provide next to 0 decay rates and 0 market fees, more balance is created, not less.

As for whether such a change would increase or decrease activity, I contend it would have no effect on activity levels. In fact, it was always a false assumption that bureaucracy or decay rates had any effect on saving or activity levels.  My proof: the whole point of bureaucracy and res decay rates was to prevent people from saving and thereby increase activity levels, right?  Well, we've seen many years of fams saving for wars or eor jumps in spite of the bureaucracy and decay rates.  In fact, the fambank system formed in part because players wanted to avoid the bureaucracy and decay rates.  On the one hand, this was good, because the incentive to form fam bank would bind players together in interdependent relationships.  But on the other hand, it was negative, because it actually caused for a decrease in activity.  Players just started logging in to aid-in, because that was all they COULD do.  Also, as mentioned, it didn't stop players from saving, all it did was get them to start saving as a collective.  Overall, due to bureaucracy and decay, activity rates have stayed more or less the same (if not lower because of the prevalence of resulting fam banks).   And saving for wars and eor jumps has continued unabated by bureaucracy or decay rates.  In this sense, introducing decay rates and bureaucracy was pointless from the get-go (aside from its 'unintended' effect of promoting the use of fam banks).  Instead of scrapping bureaucracy and decay rates altogether (as they probably should be), just allow players to conduct research into areas that would mitigate their effects, and thus provide for economic advantages worth researching.

(The mystery of lack of activity is a totally different matter of discussion).

To sum up, then, allowing players to research administration, storage, and exchange to the extents I've mentioned would:

1. not allow for strategies that couldn't be countered 
2. provide for more balance to the game rather than less
3. have no effect on the tendency for players to save
4. have no effect on activity

Players will save for wars and eor jumps just as they did before, albeit a bit more efficiently.  Fams / teams would benefit from it, and it wouldn't affect their activity levels.  And as for activity levels of SSers using administration, storage, and exchange, well, they are SSers.  They have to be active. An SSer can't be successful without being super active.

As balanced or mixed SSer ( who use both GC banking and resourcing) you have to constantly micromanage your empire to succeed.  As an HC SSer or pure resource SSer who might use the strat in question, they would be doing high-frequency trading, which means they'd have to be active. 

The idea that we need to force players to spend their GC and res or lose it as a means to stimulate activity has always been the wrong approach.  But instead of scrapping decay rates and bureaucracy altogether, let's make use of them by allowing the proposed administration, storage, and exchange research areas as mentioned.

Edit: typos and such (wrote it earlier today in a rush)

ZARRRFY??

Okayz, so you're angry because I didn't read all your post.  Okay, I admit it.  I only read first half.

This is a good point:

But, as I said above, the idea isn't to provide benefits for either SSers or fam /team members only, but to show how everyone can benefit, and perhaps with the SS player benefiting more so, with the aim of re-balancing things in favor of the SSers who have been nerfed by recent changes.   At the very least, I would aim to keep things balanced. 

Showing how SS players would use a particular research AND how fam or team members would use a particular research, is simply to explore how things would change, become more fun, and yet be favorably re-balanced / stay balanced.

Again, the purpose isn't really to re-balance things in favor of SSers (although I think they should be).  Really, all I want is to provide for more roles or ways of playing, and thus make the game more fun.

In that light, all I am doing is showing how SSers AND fam or team members could use the research tools I'm presenting in various ways.  I haven't thought-out ALL the various ways they could use them.  I would hope we ALL could do that.  The idea here is that everyone, mods and players (fam bank system players, team players, SS players - all sorts of players) could work together and imagine the various ways they would use the aforementioned research areas to pursue various in-game strategies. 

By doing this, we could arrive at the re-balancing that I think is necessary / keep things balanced.

Consequently, when you made the claim that the research areas I mentioned would change the game in favor of fam or teams, I countered by presenting how an HC or pure resource SSer might use administration, storage, and exchange in a particular strategy (building very few planets initially and saving / trading until a mid-round mass-expo and fleet jump, which is essentially a strat that fams / teams already use while SSers can't).

In a sense, it is a concrete example of what you're asking for, one that shows not only that both fams and teams could use it, but also shows how the SSer (who presently can't use it very well if at all) could and thereby benefit more from it than fams / teams would, and, therefore, how it would allow for a bit of re-balancing of game dynamics in SSers' favor.

Now, to carry-on in this light, I propose that if IC does incorporate the aforementioned 'administration' sub-research area, we are essentially tying bureaucracy to NW (as I initially thought it might be), whereby the higher the NW the higher the cost of bureaucracy.

Compare a tiny empire with a lot of research into administration with a large NW empire with big fleet and / infra and the same amount of research points in administration.  While the small NW empire might make enough GC per tick just on bureaucracy to fund an effective but small fleet, the high NW banker or attacker with big fleet might lose the same amount of GC, simply because of their respective costs of bureaucracy as a result of their respective NWs.

And so, how would this affect fam / team-play? Well, firstly, there would be an incentive for the high NW banker to dump his GC more often on attacker empires, who themselves would have the incentive to have smaller fleets and / not jump their fleets unnecessarily high.

And so incorporating an administration research area would incentivize a fam to have many little attackers / oppers with good research levels in administration, not only to hold GC on hand so they can get good income from administration, but also to build and maintain just the right amount of fleet.  It would incentivize fams to predict the likelihood of wars, and better able them to cope with such eventualities. 

It would incentivize holding GC where it should be held: in the hands of the attackers / oppers who will be the ones who'll need to jump fleet / ops quickly in the event of a surpise war.  As we've already discussed, it's better a low NW player holds a fam's savings anyway, as low NW acts as protection against GC and res from getting opped.  Besides, we all know that the first to fall during war is bankers' income, due to ops they can't really defend.  With attackers and oppers having GCon hand and incentivized to have smaller, more efficient fleets as necessary,  they are better able to keep up the fight while their bankers are down and out, giving their bankers time to recover.

All this helps the smaller fam.

But I also think this stimulates activity; it stimulates and empowers keeping up the fight rather than giving up (which is why people go inactive BTW).  It stimulates efficiency, tactics, and incentivizes attackers to make careful use of their fam GC / resources and not build too much fleet and not  blow it.

It brings hope to the smaller, efficient fams who make use of administration.

/me yawns.

Don't know why I bother.  Am I being listened to or not?

If these subsliders would each work with the current reasearch formula, research would become 4 times harder, due to the 4 added subcategories (more things to research). This would make research a real NW burdon. Already I quit research when I have 750k NW in research points to keep in range of targets.

To fix this one could have the subcategories grow four times faster than the main categories would do at this moment. As a consequence players can reach extreme research bonusses on a sub slider fairly simple. This will be most benificial to fams that are already playing well. When Jumping an attacker one would only jump engineering, armaments and ground offense. With just 3 of the 8 sub categories this attacker will now be over twice as effective as with the current research scheme, when researching contruction and militairy.
At the same time it will be harder for SS players, as they also have to research some things that affect econ additionally.

Some additional focus in research could be fun. I would love to see Camaar with 100% on engines, 500% speed .

My point. to implement this we also have to think about the maths behind it. You don't want to make research too hard, but defintately not to easy.