by VartLoccur
Of course, it's very situational but nearly a half of basic technologies are. Consider Artifact Key, Wormhole Generator, Monolit, Orbital, +3 Computer or +3 Drive technologies. They aren't very useful by themselves but may be useful under certain circumstances. Sometimes there're no good techs available. I played several games with only one or two Improved Hulls for 3-5 players, with one or two cannon upgrades, with only 6 sources, with only missiles or with no missiles.So, I can easily imagine Humans or Magellan, or Mechanema player with early Discovery of 11-source or Muon Source to their Dreads which is followed by Jump Drive upgrade and taking Interceptor Bay to move their Dreads with interceptors just into turtled player territory with no need in wormholes at all. Hurrah!