Starting Research

[Balagor]

OK, waiting with baited breath for my starting turn (ahh, Moosehead ).

 

Now I have all these unused setup points, that apply to add research to my RC 1 project, sort of like extra research centers.

 

From board browsing (not sure if its RTG official), adding RCs has a decreasing effect on a project (dropping rapidly, it may be, not sure of that part).

 

Anyways, since setup points add in, do they add in like decreasing rate RCs, or steady RCs.

 

For example, lets assume Tech X would take 3 turns if researched by 1 RC turn, or 1 turn if researched by 4 RCs. Since my RC 1 adds one RC of effort, do I consume setup points equal to 2 RC (simulating that the project was started 2 turns back), or setup points equal to 3 RCs (crash project).

 

As should be apparent, this would affect usage of early setup points. If the first case was true, it would be better to try to use the setup points to go deep into a single tree. If the second was true, it would be better to spread them out over many early project for maximum effect.

 

Any insights or comments (or new FAQ material from Pete ?)

[ShadowKitsune]

Let's see if I can answer your question in a way that makes sense.

 

To the best of my limited knowledge every technologythat can be researched in the game has a certain Research Point value [X]. If you have accumulated more than [X] points, you have successfully researched said technology.

 

Each RC generates a finite amount of these Reseach Points each turn. Or to be more precise, a finite number of research points are generated based on the number of RCs assigned to a particular technology. [NOTE: Assorted theoretical formuale have been posted as to what the curve looks like and Pete ain't telling.]

 

For sake of example, let's say every RC after the first is sequentially halved (1st RC=100%, 2nd RC=50%, 3rd RC=25% ...).

 

To make the math easy let's say that each RC has the potential to generate 100 Research Points. Therefore 3 RCs dedicated to the same technology would generate 175 Research Points. Your Leftover Points from Racial Creation is used to "make up the difference" on whatever technology you have slotted in RC #1.

 

Say Superconductor requires 300 Research Points, and you assigned RC #1-3 to it (giving you 175 RPs). If you had more than 125 Leftover Points, the 125 necessary points would be applied to Superconductor technology then "Eureka!" your Empire now has Superconductor technology.

[Balagor]

OK, that's one interpretation, but I was kinda under the impression that 1 left over point was about as valuable as 1 RC's worth of research. If its a strait linear add, then the results are per my first example.

 

As to relative value of left over setup points. Has any had alot left over who would be willing to comment on how helpful they were, compared to RC researching ?

[WKE235]

The key here is ... is ONE SRP equal to the research from one research center. Based on my own experience with saved SRP's and the technologies I got, compared to the assumed costs now, I would say YES. In other words, having 100 SRP is like having a bank of 100 RC's worth of research that will be used up on any techs placed in RC Slot #1 at the end of each turn. The banks is used up without the detrimental effects of multiple RC's.

 

SO, using the example from Shadow

 

You placed item X in slots 1, 2, and 3, and generated "175" points. Item X costs 300 Points. You need another 125 points to complete. Per shadow, 1 RC by itself is producing 100 points. If I am correct, since each SRP is like 1 RC, you would use 1.25 SRP of the 100 SRP to complete the item (using up 1.25 SRP to generate the 1.25x100 = 125 needed).

[woolfe99]

I am a bit unclear as to your question.

 

SRP's form an exendable pool. They apply to whatever tech you put in slot 1. They add to RC 1's output in a given turn up to the total cost of the tech. If you have enough left in your SRP pool, you "buy" that tech and get it in one turn. This goes on, getting 1 tech per turn (whatever you put in slot 1), until you run out of SRP's. 3 SRp's is nothing. That will buy you like half of 1 low level tech. Techs seem to cost anywhere from 5 to 100, depending on the tech. I started with 396 SRp's. That will buy me anywhere from about 20 to 40 techs in as many turns, depending on what I use them for. If I push high up a ladder, it will buy me fewer than if I spread them around to many lower level techs.

 

This is personal opinion, but it seems to me the value added in pushing higher up the tech tree in this game is less than the value added of looping back to get lower level techs. Example: let's say I have a 3rd gen tech and am interested in the 4th gen version. The fourth gen version might take 35 turns for 1 RC. Or I could get it in 10 turns with 5 RC's. Instead of using those 5 RC's for the 4th gen tech, I could put 1 in each of 5 2nd gen techs, and get all 5 in 10 turns. Is the value added going from that 3rd gen item to the 4th gen item more than getting the 5 2nd gen techs? It seems not. Maybe not even close.

 

- Dave

[hobknob]

I think that the short answer here is that you do not suffer the affect of multiple RC's for the tech put in slot 1. So, if you go with the idea that a tech will take 3 turns to get and you put in slot 1 it uses up 3 turns worth of global research points to complete it. While it may not be completely accurate you can just about figure that each point you saved is worth 1 RC worth of research. If you know that a given tech wioll cost you 10 turns at 1 RC/turn then you could buy it in slot 1 and basically use up 10 points worth of global points. As the techs get more advanced they cost more until the point where you can't buy them with startup points. While we don't know yet how much things cost at the higher end most folks figure that 20-40 turns at 1 RC will be required.

 

Hope this helps. Feel free to ask anything you like.

[Laserwolf]

Here is my understanding Emperor Hoot Owl:

 

Assume a tech requires 12 turns to research using one RC dedicated to it.

 

If you put it in slot one you will get it in one turn and 11 RC will be deducted from your pool. (one for the RC and the rest from the pool)

 

If you put it in slots 1, 2 and 3 then 12 - 1 - X - Y would be deducted, where X = the first diminishing return value of an extra RC and Y = the second diminishing return. Using the above example 3 RC's woudl produce 1.75 RC's worth of effort, thus deducting 10.25 from your SRP pool.

 

The power of SRP is that it allows you to dive deep quickly, to pound out an advantage in one or two technologies, thus getting a huge edge over your neighbor, just in case you need that edge. Do you really want to wait for 50 turns at 1 RC per turn to get that way cool MK III spinal mounted asteroid accelerator mass impact weapon? Unfortunately, SRP are limited, so choose your path wisely and beat it to death to master it.

 

~Laserwolf