ORIGINAL: michaelm
For each factory/location, one to 3 R&D points are added to the aircraft development per turn. This is how it has always been.
What this means it that it is not a simple case of how many R&D devices are out there.
For example, if I have 4 cities with each having 2 factories (of 10 active devices) researching a plane, the number of R&D points that turn would range from 8 (4x2x1) to 24 (4x2x3). Even though I have 80 (4x2x10) actives devices, which would be what is reported on most of the industry related screens.
Thus the advance by a month could happen in 13 to 5 days respectively.
ORIGINAL: michaelm
In simple terms
(a) A factory will produce a random R&D between 0 and the number of devices in the factory ie 1 device = 0, 2 devices = 0,1, 3 devices =0,1,2, 4 devices = 0,1,2,3, 10 devices = 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 etc.
(b) The random R&D is then divided by 10. Any random R&D of less than 10 will be '0', otherwise it will be the ten's component of the random R&D.
(c) If there are no damaged devices in factory (this is a given as there must be NO damaged ones present), add '1' to the number from (b).
(d) If the number from (c) exceeds 3, it is capped at '3'.
The number from (d) is added to the a/c development counter - this will be a number from 1 to 3 inclusive.
Once the counter exceeds 100, it moves the available date sooner by a month and resets the development counter.
The above explains how R&D really works in the game.
So the majority of what I said below is unfortunately wrong, wrong, wrong.
The R&D factory repair rate and the switching of factories to the next plane in sequence without damage is still vaild though.
Ignore everything below this text that discusses R&D acceleration
After spending much time reading these forums (thanks everyone) and doing detailed tracking of Japanese production, I thought the following might be useful.
First off it is important to know that all Japanese airframe R&D factories start off damaged (execpt Helens, why them, I have no clue) at the beginning of every game. Engine factories are NOT damaged at the start of the game. Why the difference, I do not know. So the first thing before playing as Japan, is go in the editor and change all the R&D factories to Building versus Repair. Regardless of what some Allied players might tell you, this will NOT have a major impact on the game as you will see below.
To recap from the manual, a R&D factory will need to accumulate 100 build points before an engine or airframe can be advanced. As you might have guessed, this is not as easy as it may sound due to the following:
- If an R&D factore has ANY damaged factories ZERO points will be added to the 100 needed for advancement. Based on my testing this is true.
---- Example: A R&D factory that is a 5(0) will apply 5 points every month towards the 100 needed. A R&D factory that is 5(1) will supply 0 points until the 1 damaged factory is repaired.
- Damaged R&D factories are NOT automaticly repaired at the 1/day that production factories are. R&D repair is based on the difference between the availability date of the plane/engine and the current turn , the number of factories that need repaired, and the (imfamous) random number roll. Because of this, R&D factories for planes/engines that are available in '45 will have a much more difficult chance of repair in '42 versus ones that will be available in '42. So no jets in late '42 [:(]
- As soon as the 100 points is reached, the plane/engine will advance one month. It is not randomly determined sometime after you have the 100 points (although it may seem like it lol).
- Regardless of what you do, you will ALWAYS get aircraft on the historical availability date. This is true even if you have ZERO R&D factories researching that plane (not historical to say the least). Therotically, you could switch every R&D factory to research A7M3-J Sams (availability 1/46) and you would still get all the planes the Japanese had historically on the historical dates. Using this method maybe you could get jets in 42/43 [:D].
Example:
The Aichi Ha-60 starts off with 125 R&D factories fully repaired with an initial availablity date of 10/42. It was accelerated five times by 3/3/42. The turns it was accelerated and the new dates are shown below (thanks to Tracker).
- 18 to 9/42
- 34 to 8/42
- 51 to 7/42
- 69 to 6/42
- 87 to 5/42
You will notice that it advanced every 16-18 turns. The differences are due to rounding errors with the daily production numbers being applied to the 100 points needed.
As most of the Japanese plane R&D factories start at less than 5 (and damaged to boot), you will not get any large acceleration with airframes like you do with the engines. Even if fully repaired per my suggestion above, a R&D plane factory producing 5 points/month would take 20 months to accelerate just one month. Impressive huh lol?
The best method that I have found (and if anyone has a better one, feel free to share it) is to use at least two factories to research a plane. When BOTH factories are fully repaired, add 1 factory to one of them. This will stop that factory from contributing to the 100 points needed, but the other factory will continue to do so. Once that factory has been repaired add 1 factory to one of the two. Continue this until you get the number of factories you want. This will allow at least one factory to always working toward the 100 points.
Example: Accelerate Ki-45 KAIb Nick (not an inspired choice but just an example [:D])
- The Nick starts off with 2 R&D factories (assume fully repaired)
- Switch another factory to R&D this plane (say another 2 factory like the Ki-93-Ia)
- Wait until both are fully repaired (so both are showing 2(0))
- Now you have 4 points/month toward acceleration (25 months for a 1 month advance)
- Expamd one of the factories by 1. So now it is a 2(1)
- Wait until it is repaired (now a 3(0))
- Repeat as desired
For the planes I really want to advance, I want to get to the 25-50/month range as that will give me an acceleration of one month per every 2-4 months which is pretty good. I had one up to almost 70/month but realized it really was not gaining me that much as compared to the 50/month mark.
Hopefully you found this useful. Any suggestions or correction of errors, please let me know.
Based on the fact that R&D factories can be switched WITHOUT damage in very specifc cases, I thought it might be good to know what those cases were [:)]. Below is what factories can be switched to what types in order to maximize the ability of the Japanese to get more advanced airframes earlier.
You will note that there are some very odd paths for some plane types. Specificly the Zero and Tony line. I have no ideas as to why, but this is what the database has. I want to stress this is NOT the upgrade path for squadrons, just factories.
The bottom line of all of this is that if you want to play the 'Japanese Production game' is that trying to accelerate any plane not on this list is a waste of very limited resources. Also most of the planes on this list are not worth accelerating anyway due to the aircraft not being very good and/or it only has a single upgrade past the initial version. This obviously limits the choices in which airframes should be accelerated or not. IMHO, any airframe that has 2 or less upgrade 'hops' should be skipped, your decisions may vary [:D].
What to do about all the plane R&D factories of planes not on this list? Switch all of them to an airframe that is on this list. Remember, all aircraft arrive on their historical dates even if zero R&D factories have been used. So you will still get the planes so why waste valuable R&D factories on them when you do not have to? Obviously not very historical [:D]
As I do not feel that is very realistic, I play with a self imposed house rule where if I have not had at least one R&D factory researching a plane up to it's availability date, then I cannot build it in the game. This at least forces me to have to chose between which planes I really want and which ones I don't.
