TLs below 7 are basically pointless

[Watch TV, Do Nothing]

The WU output boost from going to TL7 and upgrading hab structures way outstrips the additional CG demand. Even if you have to build a biotech program and it's a desert world with no hab structure or trade I believe that it STILL makes sense to got to TL7. Am I right that the lower TLs only are meaningful for independent worlds, and for player empires it's always optimal to take everything to TL 7 or 8 (or higher, but only in order to be able to access specific units)? Is there some way TL could be made a more meaningful choice for players?

Examples:

Have planet cap under doctrines be affected by TL. 1 high tech world counts towards your cap the same amount as several low tech worlds.

Make some low tech units more compelling to build, or have longer siege timed or innate defensive advantages when part of an empire.

Have it take longer for worlds to gain TL.

Going further from fatedTl increases unrest.

Planets whose TLs are less like the capital's have more civil war unrest. If your capital is TL10 capturing a TL1 world means a guaranteed civil war for days, but not so if your capital is TL7.

[Wayward Device]

It's nice to have you back WatchTV, I've missed your analysis. Looking at your graphs I have to admit that Minotaurs are far better than Gorgos. Not only do you have the massively better production but they also have an important role in their own right - fastest ships than can go anywhere in clearspace without a beacon. As tugboats for a jumpfleet or just in their own right, they are vital to any long range war that wants to avoid relying on beacons. If someone wipes the RoR I and I respawn in the big clearspace pocket I would likely split my production something like this: 1 seraph transport world per cluster, remaining production split into 1/3 Minotaur, 1/3 Megathere, 1/3 Exotroops.

I do disagree about never building low tech ships for any reason though. There are two edge cases. First, I heavily favour Reliants over Warphants because you can get so many for so little investment and I don't mind that they go a bit slower. I have one cluster making them and it's currently churning out 1179 a minute, supporting a fleet of about 9 million, should cap at 10 million. That's far more transports than I will ever need for the investment of one cluster, not bad at all. If I was making Warphants I would be lucky to go much over 400/minute with that cluster.

The second is Adamants. They are basically half an Undine (again, a bit slower but it doesn't bother me that much) but much easier to make. Often you are limited by local Chronimium availability when making high TL jumpships or Minotaurs but this isn't a problem with Adamants, all you need is one abundant hexacarbide world. When I have some time I will convert two of my Helion clusters of about the same size to jumpcruisers to see if making Adamants or Undines gives the highest space power of jumpcruisers overall in a "real world" environment.

But mostly yes, high tech is the way to go. Personally, I always go to TL8 for consumer goods autofacs (best by far, more output than TL9&10, less trillum costs) and TL10 for everything else unless it's to make Adamants or Reliants.

I'm not sure how TL could be reformed. I would like to see some better purpose to low tech units if/when we get another Era but there are also a huge number of things I would like to see improved as well, like a proper message system, designated empire colours, a way to close all rebellion messages at once, gifting/giving up planets and a Mesophon I could buy more than 1000 units a time from. At least the siege system has seriously reduced the "your empire was destroyed when you were sleeping" issue.

I do agree that having higher attrition value for high TL units and lower for low makes sense, both as a mechanic and thematically.

[Watch TV, Do Nothing]

My initial decay calculations were wrong. I recalculated with different assumptions about how decay is calculated but results were very similar. I do wonder if I am using old/wrong attackValues for some units, I will need to revisit these. 23 AV seems too low for adamants, I think their armor and damage output are significantly higher than an Eldritch.

[starxplor]

there are also a huge number of things I would like to see improved as well, like a proper message system, designated empire colours, a way to close all rebellion messages at once, gifting/giving up planets and a Mesophon I could buy more than 1000 units a time from.

You already can buy any number of units at a time, well, I have only tested with higher than 1000, not sure if you can buy lower but I see no reason why such a min would be required.