I am not sure if this is a problem in the system, or if there is just something that I don't know about how it works.
I think the speed up no longer influences research speeds after players get to the AZ15. I cannot be sure about when the research stops being faster, simply because I wasn't paying attention to this dynamic. But now I can confirm that despite having a 2x speed up in Nexus, the research times are not faster. I have checked the times for research when the speed up is not active after coming out of VM, and they are identical to the research times once I have p0roduced enough to get the speed up system active.
To be clear, the fleet build and building production times are 2x faster, but not the research.
A few months ago I thought I noticed a dramatic difference in speed when I got into AZ15, but I just presumed I was imagining things.
Regarding whether I just don't know something, here is a quote from the speed up system FAQ:
Q: What is covered by that speed bonus?
A: This bonus is similar to the bonus in a speed universe. Following items will take profit of it:
- Resources production
- Buildings
- Ship buildings (fleet as well as defence)
- Researches
But I must say that the FAQ really seems to be out of date. It only talks about a maximum of 5x speed, so maybe research has been removed from the speed bonus. If so, it would be really good to announce it somewhere...
The situation now is that people have accounts with millions in fleet and buildings that they created in short time through the speed up system, but their research is terrible. This just makes it a joke that the speed up system helps to:
The speed-up system is an feature planned by SpaceInvasion which shall make it possible for smaller players to get up faster.
If the "smaller players" can get up faster but have soft fleets because of low tech etc, they are even more vulnerable than if they were growing slowly....
If this is a bug, then I want to sit in the corner and cry that I did not report it earlier - I have lost months of speed up research!!!
I have also created a ticket ingame.