the 4 research criteria requires user to spend not only research time on those 4 techs but cost as well.  Gives the opponent  more time to disable titan research

I think that you should have to have built the titan up to the last stage before you can research the next titan tech.

SO you can research tech 1 to unlock the foundry and 25% construction

tech 2 can only be purchased at 25% construction

tech 3 at 50%

tech 4 at 75%

As each tech is purchased a warning is sent out to all players.

This will drag out the construction of Titan 1 and give players mroe time to harass it.

I am sorry John James but that was totally not the point of my question sir.

if you look at the time for each tech, ie level 1, 4 or 8, each requires the same time if on the same tier.  Having it all in one level say tech 4 would decrease the time to build a titan and having it at level 6 would require more labs.

Not sure if its a game limitation that requires all tech to be the same research time per level.

I think putting it as one tech will mean that you'll get an extremely long and expensive research going. Instead, they split it to provide flexibility in the titan research such as:

If Titan needs 4 Research: You can research the first level, then, research for better shields and get carriers. After that you do the second level of titan research to get Titan and so on.

If titans need only 1 Research: You need to put every other research, such a Carrier Unlock, better weapons and shields research on hold while you research for Titans.

Splitting Titans to 4 levels is fine.

GRR guess I need to word things more clearly, ahem, why is it necessary to have four buttons? Just have one button with four tiers; I am talking about aesthetics here people not changing the functionality.

The fact that just initializing the construction ties up so much resources seems to act as a major barrier against building the Titan too early. The research points at that point are superficial. I've never felt they prevented me from getting a titan too early, possibly because they are such a low tier.I usually click on them all at the same time once I have enough resources for the other requirements.

If I can afford the massive drain of having a high enough ship capacity, I can afford four quick researches. The researching is purely supplementary. Maybe if they split the 4 researches into different portions of the military tech tree it might stunt the progress of a titan if the devs are so sure of having them at such a low level.

As it stands now, I'm a bit surprised how fast the AI has a Titan. I'm also surprised why having different victory conditions are even remotely needed with a Titan added to the game play.

Capitol Ship Victory= Build a titan and send it to the enemy's homeworld

Diplomatic Victory= Build a titan and send it to the enemy's homeworld

Occupation= Build a titan and send it to the enemy's homeworld

What was once a moderately complex game has been reduced to a simple algebraic equation, and having the research so accessible contributes to this. I can understand the Dev's (supposed) desire to make the Titan accessible so everyone has a chance to use one. But I think that has more to do with Titan being a major selling point of Rebellion than consideration of the effect on gameplay.

Thats a pretty serious charge sir and I hope your wrong.

Not entirely clear on what this means... are you saying that the power of sieging a Capital World with a Titan renders the listed victory conditions superfluous?

The extra victory conditions are mostly useful for breaking stalemates and forcing confrontations, they aren't meant to supersede the normal course of the game.

If you were already in a dominant enough position to push to their capital with your Titan and win, you were already going to win anyways. The victory conditions aren't really meant to let your beaten down opponent pull a surprise upset and beat you, although Flagship Victory might be a bit vulnerable to this.

I answered that question on my previous post. Answer is, more time, and more research.  Each tier research has the same cost and time per level.

You hit the nail on the head plus karma

I would really like to hear from the devs on this one as to whether the titan techs were made so low tier for the beta (ie so we can test them easier), or if this is actually want they want.  Right now the game revolves around titans, and that's not a good thing.  These things needs to be move to, IMO, at least tier 3-6 techs or even further back.  1-4 is far to easy to rush out.

I think they want the Titans to be a mid-game unit, hence why it's low-tier.

I still think it should be bumped up one tech level though.

On the note of a titan being insta-win for capital ship/capital planet victory conditions, I've found the titans to be quite pathetic against structures and planets(Working as intended!), and the flagship can easily outrun the titan.

So unless the player/AI is terrible, there's plenty of time to either kill or force the titan to retreat.

Yes, that's what I'm saying. As an example in Occupation Victory, it (the map configurations) forces one player to essentially split their force in two: one half defending the essential home network and another defending the Occupation Planet. The concept is "divide and conquer". I've seen it encouraged in many a strategy game, but never before have I see a game that encouraged a player to do it to themselves. To be clear I think this has more to do with the map's layout which forces a player to significantly weak their position.

Other victory options? Rinse and repeat.

I think the Titan should have other techs as requirements instead of being a standalone path. 

I would have the initial titan's cost lower, equal or a bit bigger than a capital ship. A button like the capital ship's, which lets you buy up to 4 levels would exist, but it would be to upgrade the Titan to a full-blown one once the new technologies are unlocked.

For instance, it should at least depend on having starbase tech developed, following the logic that once you master massive hulls for starbases, you improve on adding massive engines to make a massive hull mobile. 

In fact, I think there shouldn't be a Titan hangar, it should be a second option for the starbase builder ship.

The initial hull would have only weapons and move, but no hangars, skills or shields. It would get XP, but it would only level up to level 4-5, and would not be able to spend points on skills.

At least the first tier of each weapon type, hull and shields, as well as carriers and/or hangars, would have to be a requirement for the second Titan tech, which would enable upgrading the Titan to its full power, namely unlocking skills, shields and leveling up to the max. level.

There would be only 2 Titan research levels, but tied with several other tech requirements, either on tech 3-4, 4-5, or 3-5. 

Or, and this is pretty complex.  Get 4 Military Tech Centers, research them all at once and build the Titan when you get the money.  Even on Unfair its still a slam dunk in my opinion.

Justmy2cents

I love it.

I wholeheartedly agree with the OP. Due to the overwhelming cost of the Titan I just wait until my economy can afford to buy the other three levels within a quick amount of time.

I have no problem with the idea of "spreading out" the purchase but you need to have the money to buy the factory which is unlocked by level one of the titan project. No problem there, the costs are too heavy to start that project. Then you need to actually start the first tier of building the Titan and here is where the whole process gets kind of mired down by poor implementation. The initial cost of the Titan is HUGE. Not just the actual "start building now" button in the factory but you need two capital ship officer slots AND 200 supply. And those are tied up for the entire duration of the project. In order for me to justify tying up those costs I need to have a solid economy (which I generally do as I always trend toward an economy based game plan in every RTS) and in order to defend my solid economy I need to be able to have a fleet. I also tend less toward actualy micromanaging my fleet (which I realise is poor RTS play but hey I'm in this for empire building); I have way more fun just watching my generals make a mess of things and having to restock his fleets. Due to all of that I'd really really moch rather use all of those resources for having two REALLY potent and diverse fleets. This means the Titan is usually an after thought for me and falls into the late game play where I all but have the win in my hands. I just don't find the Titans as that big of "game changers" as others here do (though I also don't play on the higher difficulties).

Another approach to making the Titan a bit more "balanced" in terms of justifying tying up those kinds of resources would be to put multiple Titan level buttons into the factory.

Inside Titan Factory: Level one - 50 supply and a quarter the current total Titan cost

                              Level two - 50 supply and one capital ship officer plus one quarter the total Titan cost

                              Level three - 50 supply and one quarter the total Titan cost

                              Level four - 50 supply and one capital ship officer plus one quarter the total Titan cost

Titans can be out in 22mins or less. I think rush is around 20 mins.

What about this, we make the titan have its own research tree, and require a little more researching and building to get a full fledged titan out of the works. Still give it the requirement to level since that would make it harder to hunker down and just research a death machine. Make it to where the titan has its own weapons research  Armor, AM, special abilities and so forth, maybe make it level just like a cap ship with 1 ability point per level and make its upgrades research.

Having the four right now is nice and works for what its meant to do but I think it allows for titan rushing which if a titan is supposed to be the "game ender" then the first one to make one and rush to the pirate base for some munchies is going to be the victor. I have friends to can get a lvl 4 titan within the first hour of the match, if not quicker. And a titan that early is just going to eat a fleet and get stronger

I'd like to see it require a little more micro managing then just 4 buttons and a couple fleet upgrades, still viable as a tactic but not to easy that you can shoot one out and into the enemies face in the first hour.

who let the resurrection ship loose?  Tons of necros popping up.