IMO Beta4 is starting to get really playable. But I'm starting to wonder about the way upgrades work.
If I'm in a large or huge game the colonization phase lasts long enough so that the starting planets have already built the basic improvements and, given appropriate research choices, are working on upgrades while new planets are still being colonized. The problem I see is that the upgraded improvements (the Extreme Stadium, for example), are so expensive to build that while they are fine for a planet that already has one or more factories (perhaps enhanced), they take ridiculous amount of time to build on newly colonized planets.
So what I'm thinking is that for newly colonized planets, the basic improvements such as basic factory, entertainment network, etc, should remain available even though more advanced versions (like enhanced factory or multimedia center) are available.
After all, if you colonize a new world, wouldn't you bootstrap yourself by building a basic factory first (and fast), then move on to more advanced structures taking advantage of the productivity benefits of the basic improvement while you advance?
