ORIGINAL: Taxman66
I think this has gotten more confusing with all the posts. Please help. S&I can't slow someone elses base research only accelerate yours & prevent your opponents from accelerating. Or at least that is what is intended. correct? Is this true of S&I impact on breakthroughs or is there another formula?
S&I is intended to work as you describe (provide a single country a bonus if ahead of all opponents).
However, Crispy has found a bug. I'm not clear on exactly the details, but it appears to be curtailing the maximum range (and thus reducing the mean expected each turn) for those that are lagging.
Awaiting further explanation.
Hubert clarified (and modified his post): All bonuses (S&I, Sharing & Catch Up) a country receives also add to the chance for a breakthrough.
Base chance 0% (under the 45 minimum threshold), 5% (1 chit) or 10% (2 chits).
example: With +3 in bonuses those become: 0% (still under the threshold), 8% (1 chit +3%), 13% (2 chits +3%).
Additional note:
Wording now indicates a country will only receive a single Friendly Catch Up bonus (aka Sharing bonus) and a Single Hostile Catch Up bonus based on the highest amounts.
This doesn't normally come into play in regards to the Friendly Catch Up since the Axis side only has 2 powers, and the Allied side has only 2 powers that share (given both have to be mobilized, remember USSR doesn't share) at any one time. I'm discounting liberated France as they're hopeless anyway.
However for the Hostile Catch Up this means that a country will only benefit from the highest difference and not all the differences.
example (say Ground Attack): GE 3, IT 1, USA 0. When USA invests a chit in Ground Attack they will get a Hostile Catch Up bonus of +3, not +4.
