Welcome to our new research screen. You can't conquer the solar system efficiently if you can't upgrade your equipment, so this screen will allow you to research new technology and items based off of tech you already have or based off of items you've salvaged or liberated from your rivals. One feature that I particularly like is that if you find yourself in desperate need of a particular upgrade, you'll be able to assign multiple research centers to it, driving the time to development down with each research center you add. (Up to a point, of course; there's a falloff in how much extra research each research center adds, for the sake of game balance.)
