Revamped sophon affinity

As this idea (https://www.games2gether.com/endless-space-2/ideas/4-revamp-the-sophon-affinity#post-first) was deemed incomplete I hereby propose my solution to the issue of the current sophon affinity.

As a reminder here are some issue with the current Sophon affinity:

• This affinity will go awry as soon as there's more than one Sophon faction
• It will go even more awry when custom factions come into play. Assume someone has a custom faction that is stronger at research than Sophons and that got sufficiently good planets as well, that faction is quickly going to get on top of new tech with the affinity, leaving all other factions with the same affinity in the dust with only few or no techs left they can get a bonus on, and thus essentially with an almost worthless affinity

I propose the following Idea as a new Sophon affinity, number may of course be changed for balancing purpose.

Side projects: Once you have unlocked at least half the techs required to unlock the next era, you unlock a secondary research slot for your current era that doesn't consume science to research but can only take tech from this era and research at 20% speed. You can get one secondary slot for each era (except maybe the last one depending on what kind of tech it has). Once an era is fully researched you gain a global +10% research output.

Note that you can't unlock a secondary slot for an era still not unlocked, but you can unlock the slot as soon as you reach this era (apply in particular if you have the oracle of science law from a science government where you can already research in the still locked next era).

Also when all the tech from an era are researched (and that era secondary slot becomes useless) you gain a global +10% research output that will affect your primary research slot but also trickle down to the secondary slots of other eras still not fully unlocked.

This introduce some meaningful choices to a Sophon player: 

• Do I rush the secondary slot or do I use my oracle of science (science government) bonus for some cutting edge next era tech ?
• Once I have unlocked a slot do I keep researching in that era or do I let the secondary research slowly give me that era techs.
• In late game, do I use my primary slot to quickly finish era 1/2 tech to unlock the permanent research output bonus

Here is what I expect it to be in a game:

1. You start with no specific power, but once you unlock enough era 1 tech you unlock the era 1 secondary slot and can boost your research output by using it. If you still have a science government you can make the choice to start working on era 2 tech while your secondary slot finish the era 1
2. Once you reach ear 2 you can still use the era 1 secondary slot to get some useful but not vital tech you skipped while focusing on era 2 to unlock its secondary slot, once it's done you have the same choice as earlier if you still have a science government
3. As the game progress you unlock all the tech from the first eras using your secondary slot and has to see if it wouldn't be interessting to use your primary research slot to get the permanent bonus
4. As you near science victory, the permanent bonus from having unlocked all the tech from previous eras will help you beating a non sophon to the finish line.

It also fit the lore: once accustomed to an era techs some sophon researcher work on not so cutting edge side project in their free time that turn out to be fully fledged tech. Once an era is fully mastered, the sophon scientists can use their global understanding of that tech level to be more efficient.

It also overall give a nice science bonus to a sophon player without suffering from scaling or having another science focused player in the galaxy. Finally it allows you to have all the tech from earlier after some time without having to invest time in it, fulfilling the tech master fantasy of the sophon.

The drawback of that idea is that it doesn't fit the "cutting edge" idea of the sophon as well as the current affinity. You can still use it to get a boost in your current era though and combined with oracle of science (science government) you can unlock the secondary slot of your era then focus your primary slot on the next era tech while the secondary slot finish the current era and when you get to the next era you are closer to unlock its own secondary slot.