Lo-Fi Games

I'm surprised that the option to build things such as makeshift walls (cheaper!) and manually-operated processors (rather than electric-assisted) become locked out once you have researched higher levels.

I'm someone who wants to build multiple, specialized bases separate from each other (like a mining base in a stone/ore-rich area, and a food/cotton farm in a fertile area) while keeping them efficient and low-cost, rather than making one glorified 'everything' base;
I'm sad that the low-tech options disappear from the build menus.. why don't they just stay there so you have low-cost/manual options for everything once you've done research? I would love to just throw a hand-crank processor down at a 2nd or 3rd base that doesn't require the huge overhead for electricity consumption for no reason; and I'd love to have those cheap one-shot makeshift walls in places I really don't need thick defensive walls everywhere.

I couldn't find any information on this, and I dismantled my research III table just to check, and no.. there's no way to go back to previous level tech, and I'm disappointed that the new tech overwrites it in the buid menu.

Any help/tips would be appreciated.

You can actually build the lower tier items still. In the build menu, you'll notice some little arrows next to the name of the object you have selected. Clicking those will cycle through the versions you have unlocked already.

Oh dang, and I was -looking- for something exactly like that.

Haha, it's not intuitive but it really is there, something a newbie like me would miss and scour the wiki/forums for any information on how to down-tech... and it's just right there all along. -_-

Had stumped on this for a bit when I was trying to build certain things like fuel production, I wanted the hemp refinery but either the greenfruit or wheat refinery was selected by default.
Similar thing happened with the thief training box, the MkI was default when I had the MkII unlocked.
Also, light posts can be switched between their different versions the same way.

There is one low tech workshop(s) that I prefer to keep around, the weapon workshops.
MkI: uses only iron plates
MkII: must use fabric and iron plates
MkIII: must use fabric and steel

So, if you want to train someone for weapon crafting and you do not want to use or are short on fabric/steel to make junk gear select the earlier tech models with the arrows and build a separate low tech workshop.