Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares/Engineering

The Engineering techs appear in the top left part of the Research menu.

0 RP: starting techs
Enables a colony to colonize another planet in the same system. A satellite of a colony, which: Building which: Feudal governments if there is no other types of Barracks.
 * Colony Base (200 PP; no maintenance)
 * Star Base (400 PP; maintenance 2 BC)
 * helps to defend the colony (but ships and ground-based defenses are more effective).
 * provides improved scanners which can detect ships of other empires at longer range.
 * provides 1 Command Point (can be increased by some mid- to late-game techs).
 * enables the colony to build ships larger than Destroyers.
 * Marine Barracks (60 PP; maintenance 1 BC)
 * makes Marines for ground defense.
 * improves the colony's morale by 20% for Dictatorships and
 * enables the colony to build Troop Transports in order to invade enemy colonies.

80 RP: Advanced Engineering
Ship defensive weapon which has an 85% chance to destroy enemy missiles, decreasing by 5% with each square from launched position. The best early-game anti-missile weapon, when PD weapons are weak and inaccurate.
 * Anti-Missile Rockets

Miniaturization: Decrease in space space and cost. Modifications: none. Ship component which launches four "Interceptors", each of which carries one of your best PD weapon and can fire four times before needing to go back to re-charge. Very effective in the early game, because Anti-Missile Rockets can't target fighters and PD weapons are weak and inaccurate in the early game. Miniaturization: Decrease in space space and cost. Modifications: none. Ship component that triples its structural strength.
 * Fighter Bays
 * Reinforced Hull

Miniaturization: none. Modifications: none.

Recommended choice for non-Creatives: most prefer Reinforced Hull, which is useful throughout the game; but blitzers may prefer Anti-Missile Rockets or Fighter Bays.

150 RP: Advanced Construction
Colony building that increases production by a flat 5 PP (regardless of workers; not subject to pollution) + 1 per worker (subject to pollution). Ground-based missile launcher (2 sets of missiles that can be given different targets) with almost unlimited ammunition. Perhaps the best early defense. Ship and Starbase component that triples its armor strength and negates the AP effect of some weapons, but is expensive and bulky.
 * Automated Factory (60 PP; 1 BC maintenance)
 * Missile Base (120 PP; maintenance 2 BC)
 * Heavy Armor

Recommended choice for non-Creatives: Automated Factory is a must-have for most races; a few races with extreme production bonuses may prefer either of the others; Cybernetic races (which can repair ships during combat) sometimes choose Heavy Armor as this combination produces ships that are very hard to destroy.

This is one of the first 2 levels at which Creatives get really useful extra techs (Automated Factory and Missile Base; and Heavy Armor is quite useful for Starbases) - the other is at the corresponding level in Computers.

250 RP: Capsule Construction
Ship Special System that increases available space in the ship by 50%. Ship Special System that doubles the number Marines it carries. Useful for performing or defending against boarding attacks; but becomes less important when moderately good shields appear, as shields block boarding raids. Achievement (no construction or ship component required) that saves any Ship Leader whose ship is destroyed, provided if at least one of your ships is present at the end of the battle (i.e. you must win for Survival Pods to work; if all your surviving ships retreat, the stranded Leaders die).
 * Battle Pods
 * Troop Pods
 * Survival Pods

Recommended choice for non-Creatives: Battle Pods

400 RP: Astro Engineering
Building that increases a colony's non-special income by 50% (does not affect income from gold or gem deposits). Building makes Tanks for ground defense and improves morale by 20% for Dictatorship and Feudal governments if no other Barracks is present. Marine Barracks is a cheaper way to get the morale boost, and is essential if you want to make Troop Transports (you can only use Marines for invasions, not armored units). Armor Barracks' defensive effect is of limited value as enemy ships can bomb your colony if you lose the space battle. Building that launches 10 Interceptors and/or Heavy Fighters (if you research Heavy Fighters) to defend the colony. New fighters are made every 10 turns to replace ones destroyed. Fighters carry 1 each of you best PD weapon and fire at zero range. They are slower than missiles but do more damage when they arrive. Their greatest weakness is that, if a ship's drive explodes, they may all be destroyed and you have to wait for up to 10 combat turns for replacements.
 * Space Port (80 PP; maintenance 1 BC)
 * Armor Barracks (150 PP; maintenance 2 BC)
 * Fighter Garrison (150 PP; maintenance 2 BC)

Recommended choice for non-Creatives: Space Port. Some players like Fighter Garrison a lot, but Fighters can be wiped out by a drive explosion, and a clever opponent may self-destruct a heavily damaged ship to eliminate fighters.

650 RP: Robotics
Colony building that increases production by a flat 10 PP (regardless of workers; not subject to pollution) + 2 per worker (subject to pollution). If pollution prevents you from getting the full increase in production, you can shift some workers into research and still have a reasonable increase in production. If the maintenance is a worry, make Trade Goods for a few turns - even with no workers the Robo-Miner will produce 10 PP, worth 5 BC as Trade Goods. Advanced Starbase that provides greater defensive power, 2 Command Points (can be increased by some mid- to late-game techs), and gives defending warships additional Ship Attack and Ship Defense bonuses. Achievement that gives your Marines a +10% ground combat bonues and increases their toughness.
 * Robo-Miners (150 PP; maintenance 2 BC)
 * Battlestation (1000 PP for new build, 600 PP to upgrade existing Starbase; maintenance 3 BC)
 * Powered Armor

Recommended choice for non-Creatives: Robo-Miners is a must-have for most races.

900 RP: Servo Mechanics
Ship Special System that allows ship to fire missiles twice in 1 combat turn, but it must waiting for 1 combat turn a turn without firing any missiles. The idae is to overload enemy anti-missile defenses. Achievement that repairs all ship damage after combat; otherwise ships have to wait without moving for 1 combat turn in order to repair. Most useful either if you are under continuous attack or if you are running an all-out campaign of invasion. Ship "weapon": shuttles carry troops that automatically board enemy ships or Starbases when in range, trying to either raid (damage) or capture them. Only effective if the target's shield's are down on at least 1 side.
 * Fast Missile Racks
 * Advanced Damage Control
 * Assault Shuttles

Recommended choice for non-Creatives: Advanced Damage Control or Fast Missile Racks, depending on your military situation and research strategy (e.g. if you're going for "beams" or torpedo weapons, Fast Missile Racks are not useful).

1150 RP: Astro Construction
Allows you to build Titan class ships (before this the largest you can build are Battleships). Titans have 25% better shields than Battleships, provide over twice the internal space, about are about 2.5 times as expensive to build as Battleships, but require only 25% more Command Points. To put it more simply: in a typical case 6000 PP worth of Titans (2) will have slightly less firepower than 6000 PP worth of Battleships (5); will take slightly less damage in total but it will take the enemy longer to make the first kill, so your fleet is dealing out full damage for longer; and requires only 8 Command points rather than 20. Titans also have tactical advantages when assaulting heavily defended enemy colonies, especially if your main weapons are "beams" - 2 or 3 Titans can direct their full firepower against the target sooner than 5 to 8 Battleships, because the ships at the ends of a wide line usually take an extra combat turn to get into range. Planetary Defense Building of your best HV and PD "beam" weapons. Probably the most powerful defensive installation (with the possible exception of the insanely expensive Star Fortress); in particular the only ground-based defense that can defend itself against missiles and fighters. Ground Batteries protected by a planetary shield can be tough opposition for attackers. The one reservation about Ground Batteries is that you need good targeting computers in order to make them fully effective. By this stage in the game 200 PP is not ahuge amount of production to stockpile, so threatened colonies can usually build Ground Batteries instantly (provided you can see the enemy coming, i.e. provided their ships are not cloaked). Achievement that enables Armor Barracks to build defensive ground combat robots that have a +10% ground combat bonus and take three hits to destroy (not cumulative with Powered Armor). Of limited use if you lost the space battle, as the enemy can bomb your colony.
 * Titan Construction
 * Ground Batteries (200 PP; maintenance 2 BC)
 * Battleoids

Recommended choice for non-Creatives: usually Titan Construction, as Titans can be used for both attack and defense, and they provide a significant increase in combat capability without a huge increase in Command Points required; but Ground Batteries are often a reasonable alternative, especially with good computers and "beam" weapons that naturally have no dissipation at long ranges (Mass Driver, Gauss Cannon, Disrupter; Plasma Cannon are also good if enemy ships do not have good shields, because their natural enveloping effect more than compensates for their twice-normal dissipation).

1500 RP: Advanced Manufacturing
Building that enables each colonist (and Native!), regardless of job, to generate 1 PP in addition to whatever they're already producing, and with zero pollution. Usewful only for colonies with populaiotn 15 or more, otherwise it takes over 14 turns just to recover the PP used to build the Recyclotron and you're paying 3 BC maintenance all this time. Can be very good for colonies on Large / Huge Poor planets, where pollution bites at lower production levels and where you probably want the colonists to concentrate on research and / or farming; less useful on your all-out ship-building planets, where you'd spend 200 PP to build something than only adds about 10-15 PP per turn (Rich planets usually have lower maximum populations, unless you got them be defeating Space Monsters), so it takes over 10 turns for the investment to pay off and a shipyard panet should already be producing about 150 PP per turn by this stage in the game. Ship Special System that repairs up to 20% of a ship's armor or structure or repairs 10% of its systems per combat turn, and after combat completely repairs the ship (in both cases provided that the Automated Repair Unit is not destroyed). Quite bulky, and the space may be better spent on weapons. Advanced Damage Control also repairs fully after combat, takes no space in ships, and cannot be damaged in combat as it's an "achievement". Enables a colony to create new colonizable planets in the same system by converting Gas Giants into Huge Barren Abundant planets and Asteroid Belts turn into Large Barren Abundant planets. To colonize the new planets you also have to build a Colony Base (200 PP) or Colony Ship (500 PP), so the total cost is 1000 PP or 1300 PP per new colony - you can't afford this against good human players, as 1300 PP will produce a very good Battleship while 1000 PP will produce a very good Cruiser plus quite a large addition to your stockpile (or a very good Battleship if you have 300 PP stockpiled).
 * Recyclotron (200 PP; maintenance 3 BC)
 * Automated Repair Unit
 * Artificial Planet Construction (800 PP; no maintenance)

Recommended choice for non-Creatives: usually Recyclotron, so that your less industrial colonies can produce the more advanced buildings more easily and / or move workers into research; some Cybernetic players use Automated Repair Unit along with their natural repair ability to produce extremely durable warships; Artificial Planet Construction is a joke.

2000 RP: Advanced Robotics
Building that needs no workers but increases production by 5 to 20 PP, depending on mineral type of planet (5 PP for Ultra-Poor; 8 PP for Poor; 10 PP for Abundant; 15 PP for Rich; 20 PP for Ultra-rich). Useless on all except Rich and Ultra-rich planets; while these are the planets where you most probably want to maximize production in order to build ships, Robotic Factories cause serious pollution problems for non-Tolerant races. And even if you have no pollution problems, it takes at least 10 turns to recover the PP used to build the Robotic Factory and you're paying 3 BC maintenance all this time. Ship Special Weapon that launches 4 small ships, each of which carries your best bombs, and can drop one bomb four times before returning to reload. Bombers can be used to attack ships, Starbases and planets; but, like Fighters, can be destroyed by drive explosions.
 * Robotic Factory (200 PP; maintenance 3 BC)
 * Bomber Bays

Recommended choice for non-Creatives: neither is particularly impressive.

3500 RP: Tectonic Engineering
Colony building that increases production by a flat 15 PP (regardless of workers; not subject to pollution) + 3 per worker (subject to pollution). Most useful at your shipyard colonies, if pollution does not stop you from using it fully (you could always shuffle some workers into research or farming); can also be better than Recyclotron at non-industrial colonies with populations of less than 15. Building that completely eliminates pollution penalties; if the colony already had a Pollution Processor and / or Atmosphere Renewer, these are scrapped and the proceeds paid into your treasury. Core Waste Dump's very high maintenance means it should only be built in a few colonies, usually where you want to build ships as fast a possible.
 * Deep Core Mine (250 PP; maintenance 3 BC)
 * Core Waste Dump (200 PP; maintenance 8 BC!)

Recommended choice for non-Creatives: Tolerant races prefer Deep Core Mine, unless they want to build ships at Rich or Ulra-rich captured colonies whose populations are non-Tolerant; non-Tolerant races with large production bonuses may prefer Core Waste Dump; other non-Tolerant races should probably choose Deep Core Mine and take part of the benefits by some workers into research or farming.

If the game gets this far, Creatives who can afford the maintenance costs can become industrial monsters by using both, e.g. they can build ships extremely fast and then, if they are short of Command Points, make their best industrial super-colonies build Battlestations and or / produce Trade Goods for a very few turns (Deep Core Mine + Core Waste Dump at the right colony can easily produce 300 PP or more; that's worth 150 BC or more as Trade Goods).