As I said, when the game first launched I felt even the slowest setting was too quick.  So you'd get lasers or whatever and then a few turns later they're obsolete.  I was hoping since launch they've made adjustments to the settings so when you discover technologies they actually have an impact individually and stick around for awhile on ships, etc. rather than being obsolete a handful of turns later.

Thanks, I'm just wondering if the developers have changed it since launch in any significant way so I don't have to mess with game files?

Pacingdefs.xml hasn't changed since release - so the game pace setting just increases production, and the research rate setting just gives a % modifier that is added to the % modifiers from techs and buildings ('very slow' research is equivalent to needing a couple of more labs per planet). Other balance changes in the game have slowed the pace down some (like the general reduction in research building effectiveness), but some others have sped it up a lot (the massive buff to growth rates).

The general pacing setting isn't too bad, but the research pacing setting is pretty much meaningless and really needs to be switched to a cost modifier on techs to work properly.