Need some direction on what to focus on next. Recently maxed out hull and finished heavy thetas, but upkeep is approaching an amount that's weighing on my daily income.

Size Class: Heavy Star Destroyer
Space: 2289 / 2320
Attack: 5021
Defense: 5127
Scan: 521
Cloak: 260
Cargo: 5222 / 6015
Upkeep: 2.4B
Konqul: Attack +20%
Fixer: Hull +30%

Minerals 4950 units / hour
Artifacts 4065 points / hour

Research tree:



Build:

Weapons Heavy Thetacron Cannon x2, Light Thetacron Cannon, Light Null Ray x5, Dominion Cannon - Mark III x2, Korteth Twin-Blaster x3, Vortul Blast Phaser, Ion Pulse Ballistae x3, Psionic Amplifier, Lazuli Mind Controller x3, Drone Cluster, Prototype Mech XV, Combat Analyzer
Energy Supernova Generator - Mark IV, Supernova Generator - Mark II x2, Surge Plexus x3, XRP Battery Pack x4, Drannik Power Core x4, Q-Pedd Logic Servo x2, HyperChannel Relay x4, Silthion T-Plasma Hub x3, F.A.T.H.E.R., Exotic Dynamo, Omicron Injector, Dark Mutagen Battery, Chron-Transistor
Sensors Tetra-Seek Targeter x3, Datastream Compiler, Stryll Prey Tracker x2, Sha'din Hypergrid Core x2, Voliir Modulator - Mark II, Tachyon Router, AI Supercomputer
Hull Perfect Syncopated Plating x5, Kalvium Fortified Plating x2, BioMimetic Sealer II x4, Mylarai Plasma Lance x4, Korteth Plating x2, Protean Armory, Impact Absorber
Shields T.O. Phase Barrier x2, T.O. Harmonic GigaPulser x4, Q-Phase Battery Array, Field Balancer, Harmonic Resonator
Cloaking Kronyn Anomaly Engine x2, Zolazin Jammer x2, Gamma Channeler
Defenses Trans-Temporal Nacelle - Mark III x4, Energy Nullifier - Mark III x2, Sha'din Forcevoider, Silthion T-Phase Utricle x2, BM50 Convoy Shuttle x3, Dark Phase Engine x4, Scruuge X-Deflector x4, Octafari Deflector, Prejoran Power-Diffuser x2, Trinity-Core Drive, Subspace Compressor, Thrust Stabilizer

I'll have my first velox shortly, so that will help my defense.

Quick Critique:

Your about average for our range bracket [rank 300-400], 5k / 5k with a slight deviation in either direction tends to be about the norm for what I see on my BT. I personally think that your production is on the low side, and that your arti / hour should be around 5k or higher. That being said, your not doing bad.

On to answering the research question:

It depends on your playstyle, i'll assume that since your konquol that you are pvp centerd - no evidance to proclaim otherwise - so here is my recommendation:

1. do 1 completion of force obviation fields to get teh planetary defenses
2. finish Exergonic Inversion
3. finish Continuum Analysis [ if you are preparing for a scan run you can bump this to #2 ]
4. whatever else you want, you've covered the major bases that will carry you for a while.

General advice third in a tier is generally alot better.

Switch to 8 heavy nulls way lighter on upkeep and you wont lose much attack.

464 attack is the difference betwen 8 heavy nulls and 8 heavy thetas, deffinatly not needed if you have a good arti turnover

Less Research, more Artifact!

yeah but it can be worth it once you have excess mining. in his current setup i think he would only lose 14 attack though. and should save about .3B a day

also just noticed. Get the rest of your npc mods.

Something like that. Either way you will do youself a favor by dropping the thetas for hvy nulls.

I did that....cost about 5b to get the 8x heavy nulls, but it did help the upkeep a little bit. I'm currently finishing up the mylari chain so i'll be able to boost my mineral output. The attack drop will hurt a bit though.

why not try to do the taltherian chain(3 times the eng but if you buy eng refills in one day) and make a nice 15x vl planet to sell for a few toxics?

That's probably my next thing. I just finished the mission exotic as well so that's helping quite a bit. I plan to irradiate the toxic i've been stuffing purifiers on eventually too.

So much...energy...

the kalvium hulls are deffinately worth it, by far one of the best mods IMO, and the Mylarai booster is nice. If your a hard slow / freeze ranker Mylarai makes a great choice early game because it allows you to grow your mining to where it should be later on. Im almost done building my second 16x demon.