limit amount of tech breakthroughs per level / tech?

[Duedman]

Hi all

I very recently had it 2 times occur to me that I got 3(!) breakthroughs in major war techs until may 1940.
Right now I'm playing as Axis and on May 6 I click endturn and get the 3rd boost equalling lvl2 Fighters.
A few weeks ago I was trying a "Fortress France" and had 3 boosts on the British tanks.

Lagging behind in fighter tech is super crippling. And what was my opponent supposed to do?
One of the common ways to nag at Axis MPPs is the airwar in North Africa. Now this will go decisively against him.
Having lvl1 British tanks in France super fast does not need explanations either.

I know the chance for several breakthroughs in the same tech is pretty small. But does this chance has to exist at all?
Could that somehow be limited to like 1 breakthrough per techlevel or something similar?

Sorry for the rant but this really bugs me a bit

[archmache]

If the breakthroughs are limited per tech then it almost defeats the purpose of the breakthrough. It rewards always having a chit in a specific slot (10% chance). On the other hand, games where 1-2 breakthroughs occur can swing the game. The idea, I guess, is that breakthroughs can happen in any tech and breakthroughs on one side can also happen for the others - this creates a lopsided environment. One side may get fighters, the others IW, or tanks etc. This provides for a nice asymmetric battle.

The alternative would to be to have all research advance at a fixed percentage each turn, and, if you wanted an extra percentage each turn then you would pay more MPP each turn for an additional %. This would guarantee research but also have a fixed cost associated. Since both parties could do this it would remove any balance issues.

The problem with this is that advanced players would just boost Fighters, Tanks, and Industrial Tech in that order, meaning every game would basically end up having research hitting at the same time.

Considering that scenario, I think having fluctuating research - including breakthroughs - adds a nice differentiating factor to each game. To fix heavy swing - potentially there could only be one breakthrough per level (not per tech). Order just add an option at the beginning of the game that says "limit breakthroughs per research" or "disable breakthroughs."

I'm curious to know what the creator's thoughts were on this. Research is always tough to figure out