Researchable Crystal Plating

Makes it possible to research crystal plating without needing to find and kill crystal elites. The basic blue plating is a tier 2 tech that requires blue crystal capacitors and tier 2 ship armor. The red crystal plating is a tier 3 rare tech that requires red crystal capacitors and the basic blue crystal plating. Having a materials specialist leading your engineering research or being a militarist increases the chance of getting the red plating tech as a research option. Spark of genius and manaical also provide small weighting bonuses. Without any modifiers the red plating tech is unlikely to come up as a research option, just like any other rare tech. You can still get both techs from killing crystal elites as before. The weight modifiers are: Not materials specialist: -70% Materials specialist level 4 or higher: +25% Militarist: +25% Spark of Geius: +10% Manaical: +5%