Interesting idea…
It might not change the way people build infrastructure as much as you think, it really depends on where the resources are among all of your stars, because science is extremely expensive. People might actually still make do with building science on there front line as the opponent is eventually going to get a high scanning level and see all of your science regardless of where you build it (eventually)…
At the start of the game you might make do with not building as much science as normally if its to expensive everywhere else to not give the opponent free research, you might actually get a stand-off in science infrastructure where no one wants to upgrade which would be interesting… But you cant really say what is going to happen unless we test it because it adds a lot of depth to the game, when high scanning levels are around its really not going to matter where you build it probably.
Maybe if the opponent was to spam in science infrastructure you might have to do the same anyway?? because even though he is going to give you free techs because you will scan a lot of science you would still be behind in science I dont know exactly what would happen.
Definitely researching scanning would be highly competitive with researching experimenting, I would really be convinced that cheaper scanning would be really worth it in games with lots of players, if you are surrounded by more players, the chances are you can see more science.
Having science destroyed would also make people think more about where to build there science, you probably intended it to be like that in the first place? but at the moment its just so expensive its worth the risks if you just need to keep up, if the opponent takes risks on building there infrastructure in order to build more cheaply, then you kind of have to do the same in order to keep up. But if your science is easily destroyed then you might actually be able to use raiding tactics more or set them up instead of trying to keep up in the infrastructure…
Raiding is where you attack a star without the intention of keeping it, just to harass your opponent and weaken there economy, you will take the star the quickly retreat away from it because you might not have enough ships left to defend it, I was trying to do it in that accidental 1v1 proteus game that was made, because economy is so expensive it became more worth it to attack even when you cant keep the star.
Raids will most likely happen when you can get ships to your front line faster than the opponent even if you have less ships being produced, so I would guess building science on your front line would be very dangerous if you have the least amount of carriers.
Also, thank you for the badge how do we get the wizard badge?? do we actually have to supply the code or can it be just with an idea?