Flenser

I think that the OP hit this dead on. I think that the issues could be broken down into two components: Techtree balance, and Facility upgrade balance. Looking at the facilities, each facility has three levels, with the updates ranging from moderately expensive (Administration) to prohibitively expensive (R&D). Furthermore in some cases the upgraded building is overpowered vs. the time when it's first needed. For example the 30 part limit on the VAB tends to come into play around the time that the player is about to attempt a mun landing, upgrading the VAB increases the part count to 255, and adds the basic action groups. At the point that the upgrade is needed simply increasing the part count to 100 would be more than sufficient. I have two thoughts about how the facility upgrade could be addressed: 1. Increase the number of facility levels from three to five. This way the level two upgrade become more affordable and not so over-powered. 2. Breakup the building upgrades based on features. Returning to the example to the VAB this would mean that the upgrades to the part count could be purchased separately from the upgrades to the action groups. Option 2, gets interesting when it's applied to R&D, instead of having the upgrade raise the maximum science level from 100 to 500 for everything, an upgrade could raise the maximum science level for a subset of the nodes in the tech tree. So a player which is focusing on space-planes could choose the level2-aircraft upgrade which would allow the nodes related to aircraft (basically the Mk II) components to researched but leaving the rest of the 160, and 300 science nodes locked. Purchasing the level2-aircraft upgrade would make the level3-aircraft upgrade available, purchasing the level3-aircraft upgrade would allow the player to have the MKIII components which potentially leaving the rest of the techtree locked at level 1. It could make for some interesting choices.