How the **** do yu keep up in tech

[primitive]

Where to begin
- Race design, a 20 % bonus to research is well used points.
- Make sure "Distribute points evenly" is turned off !! This wastes all excess points when a tech is reached.
- Make sure your guys are Jubilant (for the bonuses).
- Make T/R alliances with everybody who will let you.
- You can trade tech with the friendly AI's, but this is kinda cheating as the AI's has no sense of tech value.
- Steal tech. Use ship capture and analyse ships. Pretty easy against the AI.
- Learn the tech tree. Do the essentials first, there are plenty of stuff that can wait until later.
- Build more research facilities. I usually build more research facilities than miners, trying to get the research output up to 75 - 80 % of my mineral output until I have done the essentials. Save minerals by using units as your prefered weapons early.

And finally (but unrelated to research). Never ever play on anything else than High Difficulty. On the other settings the AI will be totally moronic, and unless your planets and ships are unlucky enough to be in the path of the (more or less) random movement of their fleets, nothing will happen.