It's a short and simple suggestion
Researching energy technology after level 10 makes your fleet spend less deuterium.
So if you have energy tech lvl 11, your fleet will use 5% less deuterium than it normally does.
lvl 12 would make it 10% cheaper
So to cut your deuterium expenses in half, you would need to have energy technology level 21
that costs 838.860.800 crystal and 419.430.400 so i think it's pretty much well balanced.
The best part of if it is that it is in agreement with science, with advancing your knowledge of energy technology, you are learning how to spend less resources to get the same energy. That's the reason why the fusion reactor is giving an higher energy output and spending the same amount of deuterium.
So why would it not be logical to use that same knowledge for fuel usage of your fleet?
Researching energy technology after level 10 makes your fleet spend less deuterium.
So if you have energy tech lvl 11, your fleet will use 5% less deuterium than it normally does.
lvl 12 would make it 10% cheaper
So to cut your deuterium expenses in half, you would need to have energy technology level 21
that costs 838.860.800 crystal and 419.430.400 so i think it's pretty much well balanced.
The best part of if it is that it is in agreement with science, with advancing your knowledge of energy technology, you are learning how to spend less resources to get the same energy. That's the reason why the fusion reactor is giving an higher energy output and spending the same amount of deuterium.
So why would it not be logical to use that same knowledge for fuel usage of your fleet?