7400 research in 2392

[PanzerMan7]

WAD? Not hard to do. I went semi wide, colonizing 14 planets and then stopping. I'm pumping out techs in 30 months that used to take me 70 months--in 2450. I'm also playing on admiral difficulty.

I think the deeper economic system allows a player to squeeze even more out of it.

 

[Wolfgang I]

The only thing that is relevant at that point of the game is the strength of your fleets though.
If you can't crush a 5x crisis on Grand Admiral with ease at that point than your economy is much weaker than during half competent pre-2.2 wide game.
Edit: And by crush I mean that you destroy the first Contingency hub while the roaming fleets are still in the system and destroy the others as fast as your fleet can move.

 

[AlknicTeos]

I have almost 80k research in 2370, 100 planets, 0 empire sprawl ... 0,25 tech cost and I have researched the repeatable -empire sprawl tech almost 100 times. Also played on very easy, just to see build orders and so. I wouldn't go over 50 planets.

 

[PanzerMan7]

The only thing that is relevant at that point of the game is the strength of your fleets though.
If you can't crush a 5x crisis on Grand Admiral with ease at that point than your economy is much weaker than during half competent pre-2.2 wide game.
Edit: And by crush I mean that you destroy the first Contingency hub while the roaming fleets are still in the system and destroy the others as fast as your fleet can move.

Well, I bring in 500 alloys a month and have 150k strength between my main fleet and my federal fleet, and a soon to be finished strategic coordination center and a science nexus. And that's without fallen empire tech.

I can't say I ever got THAT good at stellaris though, so good I could sneeze at the Contingency and win

The research helps because I have 4-6 of all the repeatable damage, reload, shield, and armor techs