Good to know. I've done poorly before using a strategy like what you're saying because i didn't get the key set of planets to build that research engine. So i've generally backed off the super focused strategy.
However that's probably been a mistake, as on gigantic/abundant/abundant it should always be there. One game i had, my research cap ended up being in the system next to the dregin tech capitol. When i realized this, i quickly took them out. They were both PQ20+, and i had 8 starbases boosting them.
It's funny, for the longest time i felt i was mis-using my resources as i found that i always over-built my economy and really couldn't spend the money fast enough. So i changed to building more factories, less stock markets, and generally use industrialists grind the money up.
It's also funny you mention resources. My last game i nabbed 5 military resources very early. By the end of the game i had 6 or 7. The torians had a huge tec lead on me, but they had no chance against my boosted ships. It really took the steam out of the game when i stole black-hole guns off them, when i had only gone up to disruptors. What was amazing is the torian strategy, every planet had tons of invention matrix, no farms, few stock markets. I still don't know how they were funding it, but it's the 1st time i've really seen the AI take a successfull research strategy. (never seen the AI outpace me me so significantly)
Night.
