Research and discovery: help with vocabulary!

[ncarson]

I'm a relative newbie to this game, but am confused about how to assign RESEARCH versus DISCOVERY tasks. In traditional business jargon (my background) RESEARCH is, well, research in finding something new, and DEVELOPMENT is operationalizing what you found. In this game, DISCOVERY seems to mean research (something new) and RESEARCH is... well I don't really know what it means. A simple definition and example would really help, unless I missed this in the manual!
My other gripe about this game is that while everyone appreciates the need for logistics, no CEO (or ruler or what-ever the boss is called in this game...) should be reduced to putting up street signs to control logistics. Not appropriate, and not fun. If you have a cabinet, why not let the DIR of interior be charged with managing logistics? That's the way it works in the "real" world...

[zgrssd]

You need to Discover Technology, before you can research is.
Discovery is random, from all the Tech Fields you unlocked.
Research unlocks more Tech Fields.

I generally set them to 20% Discovery, 80% Research.
Any unused Research is pumped into Discovery.
And if you research any 3 things in a field, you unlock the following fields. So do not research without purpose.

[Uemon]

Its a silly system that i wish we could get changed at some point.

Because what it really boils down to, is a micro management hell. Where youre basically incentivized to swtich budget allocations every time you dicover what you wish to research next and then boost your actual research. I just cant be bothered with those sliders every 3 turns.

[zgrssd]

Its a silly system that i wish we could get changed at some point.

Because what it really boils down to, is a micro management hell. Where youre basically incentivized to swtich budget allocations every time you dicover what you wish to research next and then boost your actual research. I just cant be bothered with those sliders every 3 turns.

???

Did you not read a single word I wrote?
Or how else did you made up those "issues"?

Just put it 20/80.
Do not select a research if you want to discover stuff

The end.

[ncarson]

The micro management and fuzzy vocab is pushing me away from this otherwise potentially fine game. Random discovery? I guess that is why my academics informed me they discovered water deposits in my land filled with lakes and waterholes!
What would Donald do if that happened???!! I needed some tanks but my dudes found bazookas, even when my enemies had no tanks or armored vehicles...
Once again, a CEO or boss should be able to articulate what is needed, and not get ignored because he/she didn't say the right words. I understand it is not fun to design systems to do this, but that's the shakes.

[Xxzard]

I can understand the research system being potentially intimidating for new folks. It took me a few games to understand and start making good use of it.

Terminology in game:
DISCOVERY = random discovery of possible to unlock techs (must have at least 3 fully researched techs in a category leading to the new tech's category for techs to be possible to unlock)
RESEARCH = targeted development of a discovered tech into a researched tech. Once you have fully researched the tech you can build new buildings or create new unit designs with new equipment through the model design council.
LINEAR Tech = a tech field that never "finishes" it just gets better over time according to a logarithmic rate. This is opposed to a binary tech where once you finish research that tech is researched, done, known. These are in the applied science categories. Think of it like doing research to improve fuel efficiency - you can make it incrementally better with more effort, up to an asymptotic threshold.

Simple guide:
1. Unused research points turn into discovery points if no tech is actively being researched.
2. Therefore, setting the allocation of points once throughout the game should be fine (especially if you don't want to micromanage).
3. I typically set military council to 10% discovery and 90% research, economic council to perhaps 10% discovery, 50% research, applied science council to 20% discovery 80% research, and model design to 10% discovery, 90% research.
4. The only situations where you may want to micromanage are a) if you run out of discoverable technologies, b) you want to research something 10% faster, or c) you want to change research midway through researching a tech.

Note: It is possible to allocate 100% research instead of 90%-10%. If there are no discovered techs available for research, the research automatically goes into discovery points, and you can tell your research council to "work on nothing" even if there are discovered techs available but you want to focus on discovery. In this case, you may have to check in occasionally because they will continue to do nothing until you tell them to specifically research something.

Discussion: It is a little odd that tech discovery and resource discovery are random. Yes, it is bothersome when your prospectors keep finding very promising water deposits next to an ocean. And yes, being able to tell your scientists roughly what you want to discover would make sense too (I hate when they discover every unit type except light tank or bazooka!). But you have to realize this is a game design decision. Everyone is in the same boat, and the randomness adds some differentiation to each game. It's one of the reasons the game is very replayable. I might use bazookas as my primary early AT if I discover them first, or I might use AT guns, or I might just go all in on light tanks.

As for the other topic you brought up, logistics, I typically don't use road signs at all. I've tried them, but they aren't necessary to play the game and win. If you get to the point where you have to use road signs or your logistics network fails, my opinion is you should just build more logistics assets to support your network. It's tempting to overextend, but don't do it - wait until you have good logistics support at the front. Sometimes it is necessary to build railways to accomplish this, and sometimes you may want to create new cities with logistics assets closer to the front so as to avoid taking heavy administration penalties on your core cities (caused by having assets that are more than 7 tiles away from the city hex)