Research screen - please help me understand the numbers

[szabferi]

I tried to understand on my own, reading the guide and the posts on this topic but unsure in my current game if I properly maximizing my research output.

So could someone help me to interpret the numbers on the attached screenshot?


1. Total empire potential (afaik this is the natural cap what cannot be changed) says 721K.
- is it per category (weapons/energy&constr/hightech&industry) or is it the total of the 3?
- I have +40% and +60% bonuses from race and governent. Is it included in the 721K?
- there are tons of bonuses listed them (scientist/facilities), again are they counted in the 721K?
- how come that actual output for energy is WAAAAY MUCH MORE (987K) than my potential?


2. If I understand well total research capacity is basically depended by how many laboratories I have. But how come, that I have 720K capacity for weapons and my output is just 697K, while Energy research capacitiy is smaller (600K) but the output is much more (987K)?

[feelotraveller]

1. 
 
The empire potential is for all three added together and not each separately.
 
Your empire research potential is based on your total strategic development (I think), with some sort of diminishing returns.  So the larger and more developed you get the harder it is to increase this number.  Generally it only changes very slowly.
 
Your government and race bonuses are multiplied on top of the 721k (in your example) potential.
 
The other bonuses are not included in the 721k but multiplied on top of it.  In general each bonus is multiplitier (exception being that scientists and locations are added).
 
This is why you have much higher actual output than potential.
 
2.
 
No you are misunderstanding.
 
Basically the total labs you have across all three categories (total research capacity) do research up to 721k (in your example).  So you have close to three times as many labs as can currently be useful.  To put it another way, you want all your labs to total up to no less than 721k  (e.g. 240 + 240 + 260 = 740) to maximise your total research capacity.  Additional labs will not increase research beyond the 721k (or whatever your potential is at any given time).  Bonuses are then multiplied on for each category.  Because many bonuses are specific to categories (e.g. weapons) they will have different multipliers.  If you have more labs than 721k then the actual research is divided proportionally.  So for 200 + 300 + 500 you will do 20% of 721 for the first, 30% of 721 for the second and half of 721 for the last.
 
Hope that's clear, and don't worry you are far from the first.  [:)]

[lightheart]

^wow, that is helpful ...you are good. This game is alot of fun ...but there are some huge details and a steepish learning curve.

[jpinks]

Huh???? I am totally confused by this. So having more research than your supposed to hurts your total reasearch?

ORIGINAL: feelotraveller

1. 

The empire potential is for all three added together and not each separately.

Your empire research potential is based on your total strategic development (I think), with some sort of diminishing returns.  So the larger and more developed you get the harder it is to increase this number.  Generally it only changes very slowly.

Your government and race bonuses are multiplied on top of the 721k (in your example) potential.

The other bonuses are not included in the 721k but multiplied on top of it.  In general each bonus is multiplitier (exception being that scientists and locations are added).

This is why you have much higher actual output than potential.

2.

No you are misunderstanding.

Basically the total labs you have across all three categories (total research capacity) do research up to 721k (in your example).  So you have close to three times as many labs as can currently be useful.  To put it another way, you want all your labs to total up to no less than 721k  (e.g. 240 + 240 + 260 = 740) to maximise your total research capacity.  Additional labs will not increase research beyond the 721k (or whatever your potential is at any given time).  Bonuses are then multiplied on for each category.  Because many bonuses are specific to categories (e.g. weapons) they will have different multipliers.  If you have more labs than 721k then the actual research is divided proportionally.  So for 200 + 300 + 500 you will do 20% of 721 for the first, 30% of 721 for the second and half of 721 for the last.

Hope that's clear, and don't worry you are far from the first.  [:)]

[Gareth_Bryne]

No, just useless and a waste of maintenance money.

[szabferi]

Thx feelotraveller [&o]

-1-
The building of facilities right now is under AI control, I would like to take it over from it, so thats why I try to grab the details.

Looks like the AI dont really cares about optimal amount of capacity, but since the maintenance of the 8 researchbases is not a big amount, and the extra doesn't hurt at the end, I wont fix it then . But loks like all the resarch bases which dont listed as adding bonus % can be demolished theoretically.

But again thx to confirming I'm well above than the needed capacity (I just had an instict on it).



-2-
I've put together a little spreadsheet based on your replay - almost got the numbers what I see on the screen (so looks like the scientists bonus applied separately from the race+gove bonuses), then comes the area specific one. Screenshot below on it, while it would be nice to get the exact numbers, I think it shows pretty well how the numbers adds up

-3-
What is the "duration" of this output value? Monthly/weekly or something else?
Eg: when I have a 480K weapon tech under research and my output is 696K, how many days the research will take?
If it is monthly than it should be something like 480 / (690/30) = 20 days as the daily output is 690/30 = 23K.

[feelotraveller]

Yep, looks good.  I have a vague memory that the 'Ultra Genius' trait increase your potential research amount?  Whatever.  There is also the ongoing bonus for repairing ships, assuming this is about 1% each (or 10% each if I am right about UG) I think we are there.  [:)]  (I don't usually play with the storylines so maybe someone else can confirm that bonus?) 
 
1.  Only the highest (scientist + location) bonus is counted for each category.  It might be worth keeping the extras in case of 'accidents'.  Or if you need to have some suboptimal pairings for whatever reason.  But yeah.  It's only money though so if you are at the point of the game where you are rolling in it... *shrug*.
 
2.  Play around about with the numbers over a few games and you will be the expert teaching me.  [;)]  One thing to note is that the game calculates from numbers which are more accurate than those shown, and then rounds off any decimals/fractions for display on screen.  You will often see the final research change by 1k when the potential has not changed on the screen.
 
3.  Ah, the final piece to the puzzle.  [:D]  It is a a yearly estimate.  So in your example your 480k tech will take something over 8 months if no other influence impinges.
 
 
 

[szabferi]

"There is also the ongoing bonus for repairing ships, assuming this is about 1% each (or 10% each if I am right about UG) I think we are there."

Well, I had the same toughts, there were 3 construction ships repairing derelict ships, I turned them OFF, but the numbers didn't update after several days of gameplay. But anyway, such deviation I can live with

Gosh, yearly figures? Thats a lot of time then

But finally, I would like to thank again giving hand regarding the research topic. Time to move on to another area in a different topic

(in my current game I have morale issues on several colonies, either the population revolts and refuses to pay tax, or even worse, in the middle of my empire they join another empire without any warnings).