RIGHT. Here's my ideas.
There is a lot of resistance to giving Science any kind of powerful stuff in R&D. Sometimes this is valid, sometimes not, but here's my totally terrible thoughts to think -
I'm not a science player, so numbers will not be accurate.
Let's say all tech levels go from 1 - 10. 10 is max it can go. The issue with things being added is that it is no issue to max R&D in 15 minutes, if that. My idea is based around the Phazon.
Now, the Phazon requires an anomaly core to be constructed. This isn't an item that spawns, it requires successful completion of a random event to happen; thus you do not see Phazons every round. What if we extrapolated this idea and linked it to antagonists/events? Examples could be -
Brain of a changeling needed to go to the next Bio Level;
Some rare ore that only spawns in meteors to get to Electromagnetic Level;
An organ from a Xeno Queen for Plasma Level;
Vampire ashes for Bluespace Level; ERP logs for Illegal Level;
Something that drops from the Rogue Drone event for Combat Level;
The possibilities are endless.
What this would mean is... You could have powerful things at the top end of science because they won't always appear in the round.
But yeah, this is based off of the current method of obtaining a Phazon, which I haven't heard anyone complain about much.