Space Ports, Research and how to figure the cap?

[Larsenex]

With another thread about space ports and in it there was mention of a research cap. I would like to know a few things. I read that putting labs on my Recreation bases is useful in that I can place ONE base at a research/Scenery location and get both benefits. Ok this is a great idea. How many do I need? Should I seed the galaxy? How do I determine what mining bases I need and what ones I dont? How can I tell if I am capped out at reasearch? I may go back to a small spaceport but include recreation and medlabs and more cargo space and a couple extra docks.

What about manufacturing? Should I equip all three on a spaceport? Where are these used best? I read thats someone put all three on thier miners but I cant remember if it was manufacturing or labs....What will this do?

The empire gets to a size that is so large that I go thru and make wholesale cuts. Which leads me to another question, What is the difference between Retire and Scrap in regards to YOUR own equipment? I know if I retire other races stuff I get tech. What is the difference?

I cannot upgrade old mining stations or research bases, is this normal?

Thanks much!

[Sabin Stargem]

You can check your research cap in the research manager, under "stations".

[Larsenex]

Is that the cap for each station or the empire as a whole?

[Raap]

Basically, your total research potential( which is decided by population, I think?) is divided on the three research areas based on how many research labs you have of each type. This can be capped by the Total Reserach Capacity, which is effectively the capacity of your research labs. If you don't have enough labs, you won't be able to take advantage of all your research potential. Bonuses, including those from research locations, race and government, are added after the research lab cap and can allow you to exceed that cap. Your Actual Output is how many research points you are generating in each field, when all is said and done.

So basically what you need to do is to make sure that the Total Research Capacity for all your three fields of research adds up to a large number than the Total Empire Research Potential. If it does, then you're fully exploiting your research potential.

You only need one lab at the research location to get the research benefits( unsure if it must be of the same type as the benefit, since I usually have all three types of labs).

You'll generally want all three types of construction plants, since they build different equipment; Weapons Plant builds weapons, Energy Plant builds shields, engines, etc., and High-Tech builds colonization modules and such stuff. Basically the same as the research categories.

Putting stuff on miners( or rather (Gas)-Mining bases was related to research labs, since it effectively transfers the maintenance costs related to those components over to the civilian sector, saving you some cash and always ensuring you have enough research capacity( since there will be tons of mining bases).

Retire sends the ship to the shipyard to dismantle it, giving you resources and/or cash back, not sure to what extent. Scrap immediately removes the ship from the game. Yes, you can't upgrade non-planetary bases.

[Tehlongone]

It does need to be the right type of research component.

Placing the research components on mining stations and other private sector bases seem too much like an exploit to me (removes all maintenance, keeps all the benefits, also the AI never does it).

Yes, currently only bases based on a colonized planet can be upgraded, sad, but true. I believe a patch recently made you capable of scrapping the private base and then manually replacing it.

[Data]

indeed, this is considered as an exploit and the request has been made afaik to change this