New user, research question

[SeanThornton]

Hello! New DW user here. Really liking the game so far, just have a few questions on research.

First, for the Total Empire Research Potential (TERP). I know it's based off of population and planet quality, and a few other things. Mine was slowly growing, so as I neared the point where I had enough labs to fill the potential, I built a new research station. As soon as the station was done, the TERP jumped from ~460 to 510. I thought that was strange, since having more lab capacity shouldn't have any affect on the potential. Then I noticed a month or two later that the TERP had fallen to ~470 (where it would have been if it continued on the original trajectory). Any idea what caused that?

Second, the new station was built on a planet with a research bonus. As soon as the station was done, I could see an increase in my Total Research Capacity, but the numbers for the Actual Output did NOT reflect the research bonus from the new planet. Then, about 2-3 (maybe 4) game months later, the AO DID reflect the planetary bonus. So, is there supposed to be this lag before the bonuses kick in?

Third, in one of the research threads linked to the Guide of Guides, somebody had asked how long research should take, comparing the AO numbers with the numbers shown in the tech tree for a given tech. The answer was that the AO numbers are the research done in 1 year, so if you're doing 300K AO in a category, and the current research item in that category takes 600K, then it will take 2 years. Is this still considered accurate? The reason I ask is, I researching the first warp tech, and it says 480K to research, but it's been just over a year, doing a 210K pace for the first part of the year, and about a 250K pace for the later part of the year, and it's just about done.

Thanks for the help!

Sean

[Aeson]

As soon as the station was done, the TERP jumped from ~460 to 510. I thought that was strange, since having more lab capacity shouldn't have any affect on the potential. Then I noticed a month or two later that the TERP had fallen to ~470 (where it would have been if it continued on the original trajectory). Any idea what caused that?

On a prewarp start, there are some hidden events which temporarily boost empire research potential. You might have triggered one when you built the station.

Second, the new station was built on a planet with a research bonus. As soon as the station was done, I could see an increase in my Total Research Capacity, but the numbers for the Actual Output did NOT reflect the research bonus from the new planet. Then, about 2-3 (maybe 4) game months later, the AO DID reflect the planetary bonus. So, is there supposed to be this lag before the bonuses kick in?

I don't think that the lag is supposed to be there, but it does happen. The lag can show up in other places, too - for instance, sometimes it takes quite a bit of time for a research wonder's bonus to kick in.

Another possibility is that when you built the station, you had a better bonus to that particular research field from somewhere else, and something changed which led to the new station's bonus becoming the best bonus to that field within the empire (e.g. scientist gets killed off, station explodes, something to that effect).

Third, in one of the research threads linked to the Guide of Guides, somebody had asked how long research should take, comparing the AO numbers with the numbers shown in the tech tree for a given tech. The answer was that the AO numbers are the research done in 1 year, so if you're doing 300K AO in a category, and the current research item in that category takes 600K, then it will take 2 years. Is this still considered accurate? The reason I ask is, I researching the first warp tech, and it says 480K to research, but it's been just over a year, doing a 210K pace for the first part of the year, and about a 250K pace for the later part of the year, and it's just about done.

I believe it's still accurate. How certain are you as to when the project was started? Have you had an event which triggered a crash program for the project? Have you sent out intelligence agents to try to steal Warp Field Precursors technology from a pirate faction or empire and had the mission succeed?

[SeanThornton]

Thanks for the info, Aeson!

2 - No events occurred, and I had no other bonii, except for the empire-wide ones which are all in effect. So I guess it was just the "lag".

3 - It's early in the game, and there haven't been any events/agents. I was at 2102 MAY 3rd and the project was at about 15% done. At 2103 JUNE (forget the day), it's at ~98% done, and the AO for that category has been between 210K and 290K the whole year, which would indicate just about 2 years to finish. When I get home later, I can check the % done at each of those dates. I am certain of the AO numbers, however.

Annoying: site's telling me "You are not allowed to post links, emails or phone numbers for 7 days from the date of your tenth post." I don't have any of those in this post, yet it won't allow the post.

Update: Apparently the site thought my dates were phone numbers. Strange, and not very smart, they were formatted wrong for phone numbers!

[SeanThornton]

This will be a multi-part post, since I can't figure out what in the hell this forum s/w thinks is a link, phone # or email address:

[SeanThornton]

OK, checked on part 3 (colon)

[SeanThornton]

On the third day of the fifth month of the second game year, energy research was at 31 percent, doing two hundred seven thousand actual energy research

[SeanThornton]

Seriously, this is the worst forum s/w ever, it thinks everything has a phone number in it.

On the twentyseventh day of the sixth month of the third game year, energy research was at 91 percent, doing two hundred sixty eight thousand actual energy research.

[SeanThornton]

Looking at it, it's about right (sixty percent or two hundred sixty four thousand) in 13 months, so looks like a George Costanza moment (it's not you, it's me).

Saw another interesting thing. When I logged in to the latest save, I had a TERP of 447K, but when I logged out last night, I'm pretty sure it was in the 470K range. I know in GalCiv2, when you restored from a save file, it often took 1-2 turns for some stats to get properly re-calculated, so this may be one of those things.

Man this forum s/w has a hard-on for things it thinks are phone #s, which are not actually phone #s.

[Hattori Hanzo]

ORIGINAL: SeanThornton

Man this forum s/w has a hard-on for things it thinks are phone #s, which are not actually phone #s.

7 days after your tenth post you should never have this kind of problems when you post on this forum.. [8|]

[SeanThornton]

Good point. Filler post #9!

[SeanThornton]

Filler post #10

[stuart3]

A pity that you can't fill in the 7 days as easily. [:D]

[SeanThornton]

True, but I'm out of town and off line for the next three days, so that helps!