DSU Research stumble

[Skywalker]

Hello everyone. Got a bit of a stonewall here.

DSU, Prewarp. 1 Homeworld with starport (5 of each lab modules on it), a bunch of mines and slow ships.

Discovered that one of gas giants gives +20% bonus to Energy research, whipped up a starlab base (15 energy research modules) and built it there. Then looked at research summary panel and dropped jaw.

So, before i built it:
W - 145 actual with 150 total
E - 145 actual with 150 total
H - 145 actual with 150 total

After

W - 72 actual with 150 total
E - 345 actual with 600 total
H - 73 actual with 150 total

The hell? I expected it to buff my Energy branch but new energy lab pulled research points from other fields????? is that some sort of a bug or "feature" and is there any way to get those damn points back?

Irealise that for a prewarp society such bonus in this field is crucial but having such unexpected cuts from other field is concerning.

[Bingeling]

Welcome to how research works in this game [:)]

In the upper right of the screen, you have the Total Empire Research potential with a red background. The key in having research as full speed is that your lab totals exceed this number. So in your "before" situation you have enough labs if the total potential is 3*145 or less. This means that adding labs when you have enough do not matter when it comes to total output.

Then you discovered the other feature. The proportion of research distributed to each branch depends on the proportion of lab outputs.

So two (three) things to take care of:

1: Enough labs, I suspect your original setup was a bit short (but not much).
2: Distribute the lab count according to the desired output.

If you were a bit short, should build som W and H labs and scrap a whole bunch of E labs to even the lab count and get enough.

In addition, each research branch get a bonus based on its best location (and other stuff) (but that is after the count above). The bonus of a location is the location bonus (20% in your case) plus the bonus of the scientist there. So if you have an ace energy researcher on another spot (with more than 20% bonus), the site won't matter. Keep in mind that a random research lab is quite a bit less safe than your capital spaceport. When it comes to keeping a scientist alive.

If you want to use the energy site, the simple answer could be to upgrade the lab count on your capital spaceport, and have one energy lab less there. Then only have a single energy lab on the bonus site. The count of labs on a bonus site does not matter, all you need is 1 of the correct type.

[Skywalker]

ORIGINAL: Bingeling

Welcome to how research works in this game [:)]

In the upper right of the screen, you have the Total Empire Research potential with a red background. The key in having research as full speed is that your lab totals exceed this number. So in your "before" situation you have enough labs if the total potential is 3*145 or less. This means that adding labs when you have enough do not matter when it comes to total output.

Then you discovered the other feature. The proportion of research distributed to each branch depends on the proportion of lab outputs.

So two (three) things to take care of:

1: Enough labs, I suspect your original setup was a bit short (but not much).
2: Distribute the lab count according to the desired output.

If you were a bit short, should build som W and H labs and scrap a whole bunch of E labs to even the lab count and get enough.

In addition, each research branch get a bonus based on its best location (and other stuff) (but that is after the count above). The bonus of a location is the location bonus (20% in your case) plus the bonus of the scientist there. So if you have an ace energy researcher on another spot (with more than 20% bonus), the site won't matter. Keep in mind that a random research lab is quite a bit less safe than your capital spaceport. When it comes to keeping a scientist alive.

If you want to use the energy site, the simple answer could be to upgrade the lab count on your capital spaceport, and have one energy lab less there. Then only have a single energy lab on the bonus site. The count of labs on a bonus site does not matter, all you need is 1 of the correct type.

I see. Thank you very much . Had no idea proportion of labs also matters.

[Guardian54]

General rule of thumb with labs is to build them up to just over your max potential at your homeworld (update i.e. add more periodically, e.g. when you get important new components like energy collectors, LRS, etc.)
Then put 1-2 labs in each research station. You can build a 2-lab research station with 1 energy collector, one of each hab module, a reactor, a couple fuel cells, and a few cargo bays with just your starting techs, IIRC.
A 15-lab research station is not a good idea.

I don't recommend arming your homeworld starport at all until you have Velocity Shards (my weapon of choice because Assault Missiles in late game are shit for DPM unless you modded them), PD guns and Shields, because maintenanace is expensive and early game you're paying off all the pirates you know of anyhow)

[Bingeling]

Paying off pirates is for wimps [:-]

[Retreat1970]

Paying off pirates is for wimps

That made me laugh. Look, maintenance isn't that bad. I've started every game with a LSP. As for pirates, I only buy them off if they have a strong agent blowing stuff up. Just my opinion.