Forgive me if this or something similar has been suggested already.

I'm a medium ranked player in a legion with many higher ranked players, and am a little frustrated by being unable to contribute to the base development. Currently, it would take a week of solid research dedication for me to "catch up" with the base's current development, and by that time, it would likely have moved on. As such, I can't contribute energy or any other resources to help my legion out. Essentially, this has frustrated me to the point where I've given up, and moved onto putting my research elsewhere, where it can actually do some good. This frustration is likely shared by a lot of other players, and I can only imagine being a new comer to the game and realising that I have to dedicate a tremendous amount of research to the base before I can contribute or use it. And, since I don't contribute to the base, I get no benefit from it -- I don't get a shipment of anything, ever, which is fair, but frustrating (I'm not here to debate that point).

What I would like to suggest, as a work-around for this, is that players who have not researched technology sufficiently to contribute or utilise the base be allowed to do so with a penalty. Here's how it works:

Your base right now is at level 6, and you are required to research Sub Quantum Logistics 1 in order to do so. You're, like me, at 0 of that level, but have completed all the other levels up to this. You have spent (I'm not actually doing the math) a total of 1,000,000 research points thus far, and, to catch up, need an additional 500,000 or a total of 1,500,000. So, you're 2/3s of the way there. You can contribute energy or whatever to the base at a 2/3s rate: if you contribute 100 energy points to the base, the base gets 67 points. Similarly, if you give the base 60 exotic matter, the base receives it as 40, and so on and so on.

If you are halfway done with the next level (250K/500K), you would have spent a total of 1,250,000 RPs, of a total needed for 1,500,000, so you would be have an 83% exchange rate. And so on.

The idea needs some work: rounding is going to be a problem, and of course, if some new player has spent 1000 RP out of the 1,000,000 needed ... what happens when they contribute 20 energy?

Leaders can set it up so that all members in a legion can share an equal part of the shipment from the base.

That's how the Knights of Ni have it set up to help out the lower ranked members. I've heard a lot of our lower ranked members wishing that they could help out but are unable to because of the requirement and there is no point in penalizing them for that.

If your legion doesn't have it set up this way, then you might think about switching legions.

Personally, even though it bites right now, I think its fair that resources are divided up according to contribution. If you do most of the work, you should get most of the benefit. Similarly, if you mooch, you get nothing. My beef is that right now, I'm forced into the mooch category, unless I devote a serious amount of time to research, and that each time I do, the base jumps ahead faster than I can catch up. And, if I were a new player, I might -never- be able to contribute. My suggestion gives lower level players, or at least those who aren't able to (or willing to) dedicate their research points signficiantly to the base an opportunity to, well, not mooch but still benefit.

I think I'd rather see a legion research tree, so everyone is at the same level all the time

totally agree 1000%