[booji]

You dont explain in your post how making getting to the ship cov op later makes it more tempting rather than less. Surely many fewer people will be willing to sacrifice the research time to get to the necessary cov op thus the levels of cheating should go down?

Unless you are thinking along the lines of "it takes me longer to get there, so I must ensure I am quicker at getting pods when I finally do get there!" And to be honest even if this is the case (I dont think it is) then those who are cheating are still being punished in being set back on the rest of research as a result.