How research works

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d0mbo
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How research works

Post by d0mbo »

Have been looking around and tried to figure it out myself, but i couldn't.

So, here's the deal: techs cost a certain amount of money (say 500 mil). If my research efficiency is at 100%, and i spend 25 mil a day, this tech should be researched in 20 days......

it isn''t.

so: what else does influence research? tech level? if so: how?

prolly a stupid question, but i'll ask it anyway.

Regards,

Len.
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bergsjaeger
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Post by bergsjaeger »

So you put 25M into research, but how much money are you actually putting toward the tech itself? You divide the money between tech level, the techs themselves, and eff. If nothing or little money is going to the tech, then it won't be researched as fast as you want it to.

However, you can't put 100% of your money to the tech itself, because your eff will drop, which will cause a lapse in the days it takes to finish the tech. Its a give or take, like I put 40% of the money toward the tech themselves and 60% toward eff. You have to find what you like regarding how you divide the money put into research.
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d0mbo
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Post by d0mbo »

Ah, indeed i forgot to mention:

my eff vs. tech slides are about 30%-70%, with eff. hoovering around 100 %; and still the math doesnt add up :(

i am researching 1 tech at the time.
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tkobo
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Post by tkobo »

Its more complicated than that.

Each tech has a certain limit(a cap), which is basically hidden, that you can spend on it per day.

Any money you put into that tech (via tech research) beyond the limit gets automatically redirected to the other spending fields (tech level and research efficiency)

Soooo, if i spend 25million /day on a tech that has a cap of 10 million a day, the other 15 million is re-allocated to the other spending fields (mentioned above)

In addition, you have to remember that the money you spend gets spread out by the sliders %s even before the caps kick in.

Sooo, if your spending $25mil on research and have the sliders set to 70% tech and 30% efficiency, the amount of money directly spent on researching the tech is only circa 17.5mil.(70% of $25m)
With the other circa $7.5 mil going to effeciency (30% of $25m)

AND thats before the cap, if any applies due to the spending spread, kicks in.
This post approved by Tkobo:Official Rabble Rouser of the United Yahoos
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d0mbo
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Post by d0mbo »

Dang :/

So i'm pretty much capped :-)

Anyway i can find out the cap per tech?

E.G. i want to research urban infrastructure, which costs 4 billion (so one of the big techs). That one is virtually impossible to research in less tan 10 years or so, as it seems now.

Lastly: Is it possible to research "old" techs faster when you have an higher tech level?
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tkobo
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Post by tkobo »

I cant say for sure if this is accurate,but what i used to do was take the total estimated cost and divide by the days required as stated in the tech description,before it enters the research que.And that was what id figure for the cap/day.
BUT the cap isnt really important unless your cash strapped.


Now,the speed at which a tech can be researched can be increased by increasing the efficiency %.And this is what you should strive for really.

So if youve got the cash, build more research centers and throw more cash at them.Max out the research spending bar,than build another center and do the same til you cant afford to anymore.Dont go nuts, make sure you stop before you have a negative income.

An efficiency of 120% to 160% is possible with enough centers and cash thrown at them,even for smaller regions like spain.
I always seem to hit a cap here also, even when ive got more than enough cash to burn, but others have gotten past that to efficiencies in the 200% range.
So experimentation might be your friend here.

This info is all based on the games most recent status via the most recent patch.

If you do some reading on this forum, becareful to look at the date of the post,becuase the research system has had some major changes to it over the years.
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bergsjaeger
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Post by bergsjaeger »

:lol: I have gotten well over 300% before in eff, seems its affected by the number of centers. Not sure about the exact math to figure out when at a certain number of centers will cause the eff to start dropping instead of rising. But I have seen it happen, had like 50 centers with a population of 300M people, started adding more centers, but after a few of the centers were finished, my eff was over 200% but dropped all the way down to 170%. If I can remember all the info I learned in my research tests I could tell you everything about research. I do know that adding a research center for every 2M people in your region is the exact math on knowing how many centers you can have. Adding more centers than your limit can cause drops in eff.
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d0mbo
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Post by d0mbo »

Thanks for the replies, guys. Things are getting more clear here. I also have found the reason for my slow progression, even with (relatively) a lot of tech centres.
Balthagor said in the "Explicit test on research"thread:
(remember that there is a GDP based cap on the amount of money you can push into research, no matter how many centres you have)
well he said more, but this explains why things for my madagascarian (sp?) empire are progressing slowly.......

does anyone know if tech level increases research speed or only gives you access to said tech year's techs.

Len.
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bergsjaeger
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Post by bergsjaeger »

Access to the next tech year's techs and units. The actual speed will stay the same unless you increase your population (conquer a region), add research centers, increase your GDP, or increase your research spending.
In war destroy everything even the livestock.
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