Wreckage Auto-Salvage worth it?

That's the tech that lets capitalships collect resources from kills, right? It's hard to say, as it is difficult to measure just how many resources it is bring in, but in general techs like that are luxuries in MP. The tier 1 techs like the TECs structure cost reduction or the Vasari's scuttling tech can be worth it if you scuttle a lot, but the higher up the tech tree they are the better they have to be to justify their cost.

Interesting. I've watched some replays and it seems like nobody even thinks about researching this. It's a bit sad how some of those technologies that make the game really interesting are simply ignored. I've been thinking about how a split would look and play like..

That's just how competitive play is in any game. Only the best strategies can be used, otherwise you will lose because you invested resources in something that could have given you better return elsewhere. 

depending what's the stage of the game you are playing but in my experience i try to research it as soon as possible...i rely heavily on scuttling and raiding planets, and also you get ressource from any capital ship or titan that you kill...

yes it is worth it

What exactly do you get out of that research?  I've never used it.  As far as I know you only get resources from when enemy capital ships (and now titans?) are killed.  How many of those do you take down in a game?  How often would you need to knock one down to make it worthwhile?  Maybe it would make sense in games against AI where you're going to end up killing many AI capital ships, but in real games it's probably not worth it.

Gives a % of structures killed too.

It gives research_level * 5% credits and resources. I suppose you gotta destroy 30 or so structures (depending on what you hit) before it pays back, unless you kill a capital ship which is probably very hard to plan. I read in an old thread it would only pay back in games you would be winning anyway

edit: Fixed numbers. It's just 5%, I shouldn't have trusted the wiki!

Average research cost per rank: 900 credits or so.

Salvage % per rank: 5%.

Meaning for it to pay back the initial investment:  18000 credits worth of structures/capitalships. 

Which is a pretty tall order to be fair- 6 capitalships or 18 "large" buildings such as research labs, trade posts, culture structures, or hanger bays.

It is worth noting the first rank is a bit more effficient requiring only 16000 creidts in destruction.  Certainly no something to grab all that often, butI could see a few uses:

1).  A successful orky rush(accompanied by a capship for autosalvage to work) to homeworld could easily result in 4000-5000 of the 18000 needed.  Moreover does anyone knwo for sure whether it works for structures?  If so, skuttling the orky when the opponent eventually manages to marshal a force capable of destroying it could result in another 5000-7000 towards your goal

2).  Wiping out the Pirate base with a low level titan.  That's easily 5000-7000 in structures that won't be defended by a player controlled fleet

3).  Again, depending on whether or not the tech works on destroyed starbases, researching it before assaulting a heavily upgraded starbase coul very quickly put you a long way towards paying back the investment

Allt hings considered it may be mroe risk then the benefit is really worth, but I could imagine a few situations in which it would likely take large leaps towards paying back the investment, even without having to kill enemy player's capitalships & orbital structures en masse.

Realistically probably not usually worth it- but i's been and enjoyable mental game trying to think of times when it would pay off faster.

It depends on the length of the game or whether you are on offense or not.  Long games while you are on offense it is a great investment once you start taking systems.

I have to agree it is good to use.