Right so I'm the research guy for the legion.. To get our rank 3 to rank 4 base going I just put in 100k research.. and am about to put in 100k more. During my early game, I didn't know about the damage cap increase with hull size and had a noticeable high disadvantage with the increase in damage.

Basically it works out to slow ranking without the investment in research. My guess (as there is no level cap) that re-distributing points to get the damage cap back would only have one drawback and that is a loss in npc combat ratios. I think this is right, am I missing anything?

if you put all 5 rank points per level into decks, then defense and hull are high priority... drop your sensors and cloak and cut back on weapons a bit if you have to.... tweak your design until the average damage you take is down to what you consider acceptable