The rules for gaining new Tech are a bit disappointing to me. They are such fun cards, but only in very long games will you ever have the time to:
1) Gain a new Tech,
2) Research it, and
3) Actually benefit from all this effort.

At least, in my experience with the game so far, this has been the case. I've yet to see a second Tech fully researched, and even once it happens, I wonder if it'll have been worth the skipped encounter and intense ship drainage required, especially since this will be in the late game, most likely. So it feels like gaining new Tech is a pointless rule to me. Here I've attempted to combine Tech with the Rewards Deck concept on The Warp.

GAME SET-UP

Do not use in a game with Tech-based aliens!

Separate the Tech into four stacks, one stack for each research value 2, 3, and 4 (additional stacks if 0 and 1 value cards are ever added), and one stack for all other Tech (5-9 and X).

The 5-9 and X stack is now your Tech deck. It should have 9 cards. Shuffle and deal 1 to each player if you do not have enough for each player to have 2. You cannot gain Tech from this deck again during the game.

The other stacks will now be Rewards decks and should be indentifiable by their research values (write 2, 3, and 4 on slips of paper if necessary).

RULES

Whenever you are a defensive ally and your side wins the encounter, instead of taking normal rewards, you may take one card from one of the Rewards decks if you had at least as many ships in the encounter as that stack's denomination. Example: I ally with 3 ships on defense and our side wins. Instead of taking 3 cards from the deck and/or ships from Warp, I can take one card from either Rewards Deck 2 or 3, but not form Rewards Deck 4.

When you receive a card from a Rewards deck, play it face-down in your system with all ships used to earn it. It is fully researched and may be used immediately on the following turn if applicable unless you lose ships from it. From this point on, it is treated like a normal Tech.

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I am going to test out this variant the next time I play because I'd really like to see Tech get more action without overwhelming the game, but it's such a simple change that I thought I'd post it untested, anyway. I can't see any complications arising from this. An aftereffect that I hadn't intended but quite like in theory is that the more expensive (and more exciting) Tech will come into play more often, though I hope there will be a bigger pool of these after the expansions. The 2-4 Tech don't really feel that special, except for Genesis Bomb, but more like Artifacts that were tossed in as Tech to help maintain a smaller Encounter Deck (a decision I certainly appreciate).

I like the idea, but it's a bit to complex for me. Do you see any major flaws in doing it this way? :

Just make drawing from the tech deck another defensive ally reward along with drawing cards from the deck and getting a token out of the warp. You get to draw one tech card for each ship you brought to the defense, choose one, discard the others to the bottom as normal. Or do any combination of drawn tech cards, ships from the warp, or cards drawn into your hand.

Use the ships devoted to drawing a tech for researching that tech, even if that means you have more ships than necessary for research. Alternatively, no immediately applied research ships are allowed; you just research your second (or third, fourth, etc..) tech as the normal rules state, sending the defensive ships to already established colonies.

Originally I was going to simply say, "Add the Tech to your hand. You may play it when the card allows as if it were researched. Treat it like a normal card for all purposes, but when discarded it goes to Tech discard." Would that be simpler, or was it the separate stacks that was too complicated? I don't know that it is too complicated to me though; yours took just about as much wording to describe as mine. I will give both a try next time I get to play, whenever that is, and see what works better.

My main problem with your suggestion is that you could ally with a single ship you can gain a Tech this way. I really don't see a single-ship ally as deserving of a new Tech (or anything ). Even if it means you just get one Tech to choose from, all the Tech are good in their own way (unless you happen to be Amoeba and get the one that lets you have an extra ship in each encounter).

Perhaps a compromise between our two goals would be to have the Tech in one stack as normal, but whenever you ally with 4 successfully on defense, you get either 4 rewards as normal OR you can draw new Tech according to the same stipulations you would have if you drew it according to the official rules (two + one for each external base, I think?). And, like you said, leave it to the group to decide if ships go immediately to the card or not. That would just have to be playtested.

Good point about just having one ship in the encounter. If you do try it before I get a chance, let me know how people who choose tech go defensively. One thing I wanted to avoid was the insta-tech. I feel it should still require the number of rounds printed on the card to research it after you've chosen one.

Still, allying defensively with one ship does make gaining Tech awfully cheap.

The insta-tech didn't seem as bad at first because a few Tech are just renamed artifacts (edicts) from the Eon and Mayfair editions; however, since in my version it'd just be Tech of 2-4 research values taken as rewards, why not make them earn it? It wouldn't take that long to research, possibly just two turns.

I think the first way I will try it will be with two stacks: 0-4 as a Rewards deck, and 5-9 (and X) as the normal Tech deck. You'll have the option to gain one from the Rewards deck if you ally with four on defense instead of normal rewards, and there will be no ships placed on it immediately (so it'll be just like a normal Tech from then on out).

I still like separating the stacks in theory, so I want to try it. It's really disappointing to me when I get two 2-ship Tech at the start of the game which are just glorified artifacts. And I dislike drawing a high-cost Tech mid-game when I highly doubt I'll have the chance to fully research it. I see no reason to give the Tech player multiple cards if they're separated into stacks like this, so it'll just be a one-card draw. For now. Don't hold your breath for a playtest though. I played around 15 times over winter holidays when friends were back in town from school or work, but I haven't played since December, I don't think.

Another way to do it could be using chips&ships (!) ;

Drawing new tech -> As normal rule or "buy" with "tech chip" (as 1chip/level tech on card, perhaps with the option of chosing from deck).

Defender Reward -> Ship from warp, reward card or a "tech chip" (as 1:1 ratio)

Research phase -> Place ships as normal, "tech chips" or "buy back"-ship from tech card (replace ship with "tech chip" ratio 1:1).

For me this is an easy rule change, that adds dynamic to the research, perhaps it should be a bit more expensive to use chips on research, but thats up for testing.

We have played that you just keep the two Techs you are dealt at the beginning of the game, and can research either one each encounter. And, when you complete one, one of your researching ships can be transferred to the other Tech (and the rest return to colonies normally). It very much ups the ante on Techs and makes them more integral to the game.