Research goes faster than the production for me as well, at least until I tweaked the code to my liking. Human technologies I can now produce faster than alien ones(makes sense, being native to Earth), while disassembling UFOs takes much less time than it used to. Four or five days as opposed to two weeks with 80 workers is a little better - I know we're trying to be realistic about this, but is it not easier to destroy than create?
The good balance should be where your research lasts long enough to keep it worth it to have scientists and laboratories. You'll always want to have workshops and plenty of workers, they're just less important at the beginning when you're just starting up. Another idea I've implemented with my own files is to boost occupancy of labs and workshops to 20 per building, thus giving me more bodies to work, which made it a little easier to construct bases that could at least protect themselves while being able to build or research. I was having trouble making specialized installations that either fought (with interceptors, dropships, soldiers, and batteries), researched, or built, but not all three. I may start over at some point and reset the code to release standards, then build my bases in clusters so they can have a builder and researcher with a defender base within radar range to protect them. Boosting the occupancy allowed me a little more flexibility in base design and brings the production/research balance more in tune before the tweaks to the time requirements. The tweaks... well... I took 10% off the research and production times for most stuff and it put the game at near X-Com: UD/EU levels of productivity, in my opinion.
It works out well enough for my satisfaction. I did not bother with changing cost on productions - there has to be some catch to keep the challenge. It is already slightly cheaper to produce than to buy from the market, which is fine with me. Do I want to save a few credits or do I need it NOW?
