Do higher levels of the tech increase anything in anyway? I guess it's not really that expensive to do so, but I don't wanna waste resources this early in the game for little/no reward.

And btw, this game is addicting as hell and the community is great. Can't wait to be rolling with the big dogs.

certain tech things do compuatr 1 new fleet can be launched
wepon-10% increase in defense and ships wepons per lvl
armor-increase 10% in ship and defenses amor
combustion engine-10% increase in ship speed

so almost and every tech has an upside

The only techs that have benefit after you research all the requirements are:

Weapons tech
Shield tech
Armor tech
Computer tech
Espionage tech
Combustion engine
Impulse engine
Hyperspace engine
Intergalactic research network - up to lvl 21. XD
Expedition
Energy tech- Still not working with the fusion reactor.
Graviton- Rumored to increase *******

The amount of expiditions you can send at 1 time=expidition tech level.

what exactly does an expedition do?

Thatguyeric wrote:The amount of expiditions you can send at 1 time=expidition tech level.

I think not. This was discussed before. The closest theory we had was : [EXPEDITION SLOT] = [EXPEDITION TECH LVL] / 2
2.5 is rounded to 2 ; 3.5 is rounded to 3 ; etc... But with the expedition tech lvl 1 as exception (Lvl 1 gives you 1 slot)
It is rumored that you get a better chance of getting good results from expeditions if you have a higher expedition tech lvl.