Matrix Games Forums

ORIGINAL: johanwanderer

[ol][*]Weapon Research = min(Potential, Total Capacity) * (Weapon Capacity / Total Capacity) * Weapon Bonuses
[*]Energy Research = min(Potential, Total Capacity)* (Energy Capacity / Total Capacity) * Energy Bonuses
[*]HiTech Research = min(Potential, Total Capacity) * (HiTech Capacity / Total Capacity) * HiTech Bonuses
[/ol]
Crash research = multiply that by 3.

So basically, keep Total Capacity (bottom left) just a bit higher than Research Potential (top right). Everything else is then just a ratio between how much labs and bonuses you have.

Please confirm if I understand your formulae correctly as saying that:
* The additive sum of the bonuses listed in the right hand screen box is applied after the Research\Potential calculation in your formula
* Crashx3 or any other multiplier is then applied
* These yield the Actual Output, meaning the actual amount of research currently being done, which with bonuses can greatly exceed the TERP in red (which means the big action is in collecting bonuses).[/size]

(I am asking carefully since I've seen this explained very differently and usually incompletely in ways indicating Actual Output above the Potential is wasted, and bonuses apply only up to the cap set by the potential number in red - which would make bonuses near useless as capacity approaches potential.)

I got my information from WIKI, better is to get the information from the developers..or not

johanwanderer is correct.

If you couldn't exceed the TERP with bonuses then the entire research mechanic would be broken, and nobody would ever build bases at bonus locations. Nor would they build science wonders.

As many people have recommended in the past, think of total empire research potential as the number of labs you can staff. The output of those labs is what is improved via bonuses. So you build labs = to slightly more than you can staff, to cover steady increase in research potential, and build them in locations that make your labs more effective than they would otherwise be. Thus, even though you can only staff so many labs, your actual research output should be MUCH higher than your empire research capacity.

To simplify this, TERP should instead be called total empire lab capacity, or somesuch. This is because the TERP only limits the amount of research points you can obtain from unmodified (ie without bonuses) lab components.

Edit: and yes keston, bonuses are (edit: additive) and applied to your output after your total research is whittled down to match your TERP. They do not simply increase your cap. Because of this, you still get your bonuses even if you are researching under your TERP value.

ORIGINAL: Keston

Please confirm if I understand your formulae correctly as saying that:
* The additive sum of the bonuses listed in the right hand screen box is applied after the Research\Potential calculation in your formula
* Crashx3 or any other multiplier is then applied
* These yield the Actual Output, meaning the actual amount of research currently being done, which with bonuses can greatly exceed the TERP in red (which means the big action is in collecting bonuses).[/size]

(I am asking carefully since I've seen this explained very differently and usually incompletely in ways indicating Actual Output above the Potential is wasted, and bonuses apply only up to the cap set by the potential number in red - which would make bonuses near useless as capacity approaches potential.)

The additive bonus is applied to the actual capacity (capacity as adjusted by potential) to yield actual output. As long as your total capacity exceeds potential, actual output is what you should look at. It should be exactly as the formula above shows.

When you crash research a project, take that actual output and multiply that by 3. Alternatively, take the remaining cost of the project and divide that by 3. The latter makes more sense since it doesn't imply that the benefit carries over to the next project.

OK then you must look at the TERP and the TRC numbers (compare them) as i read this in the manual
TERP = number of scientists to get working in labs ( based on colonies population and development level)
TRC = needed labs who are housing scientists

TRC must exceeds TERP in a certain amount ( but never TRC < TERP ) : a surpluss of labs is better to house scientists, when there number is growing by increasing of the population and developmentlevel of the colonies.
With your labs you must keep on the par with the number of scientists for housing them.

AC = actual output research power ( scientists) By building labs with bonusses ......

Note: build too many labs..is a waste of time and money
TERP => TRC.. TRC must be at least equal or bigger than TERP and if you have used a bonussed lab ...you get extra scientists what speeds up the research

Example 1: using only standard labs
TERP = 1000
TRC = 1200 ( 400 + 400 + 400 = 1200)

AC= 1000

Example 2 : using standard labs + bonussed labs
TERP = 1000
TRC = 1800 ( 1000 + 400 + 400 ) ..1000 is a bonussed lab
AC = ? for this is some math needed

I studied a example file
TERP = 951 K
TRC = (1261K ,1472K, 1472K ) ==> the sum exceeds TERP : 4205> 951 .. 21 stations are build ( why are the bonus stations not depicted in the list ?)
AO = (1900, 2250, 2292) ..how much from this is effective actual output ?
To get a realistic figure you must strive to have TRC > TERP , but here is the ratio 4205/951 =4,42 and 951/4205 =0,226

AO_effective = 0,226 X (1900,2250,2292) = (429, 508, 517) =1454 ..so from 951 to 1454 by bonus labs .. a 50 % increase in research speed
Makes this sense ?

What ratio to keep between the TERP and TRC .. 1 : 2 ?.. the population of the empire will grow and so the TERP number too.
example TERP = 1000 => TRC = 2000
and

@ Lonnie : Basically I have an ultra genius scientist, my racial bonus, my government bonus, and my bonuses for scientists researching at special research locations. That gives me a huge multiplier...

can boost the research

ORIGINAL: Jeeves

ORIGINAL: Tcby

Hm...I'm having trouble downloading the file. Can you double check the link for me Jeeves?

Hmmm... You're right, the link does not work unless logged in to mediafire. Let me see what I can do about that.

Lonnie Courtney Clay

Edit : try this on at :

http://www.mediafire.com/download/dcrio ... /LCC4U.zip

At the end of the ninth year now, and about to conquer the Wekkarus and Paratis within six months. Is anybody interested in further uploads? Lots of progress in past year...

Lonnie Courtney Clay

Early in the 11th year now. Eight files in a 300 mb zip uploaded to :
http://www.mediafire.com/download/4mdcx ... LCC4U2.zip

only the games after the last batch were included...

Lonnie Courtney Clay

Edit : I verified the latest saved game is compatible with patch 7 and the extended mod patch at :
http://www.mediafire.com/download/ovgu3 ... +1.0.3.zip
I ran for two months on "rule in my absence" with no crashes, and my cash balance improved as time passed.

Lonnie Courtney Clay

Early in the 12th year now. A 250Mb upload bring you up to today is at :
http://www.mediafire.com/download/g1wlu ... LCC4U3.zip

I haven't upgraded my version since the last post. No problems encountered except lots of pirate attacks have caused my warships to launch fighters, and the save game takes about 45 seconds for me now...

Lonnie Courtney Clay

My empire summary looks bad except that I get about 6 million per year from selling tech and my civilians get over two million from selling super luxuries :

My governor just got a nice civilian ship speed promotion :

I had high hopes for this leader at the start of the game for the diplomacy and colony ship build speed skills, but am seriously disappointed by the extremely slow speed to get improvement :

Here's the top page of my colony list, conquered the Wekkarrus and Paratis, about to add the Gizurean homeworld, but will let them live so they can research universal hive for me. Then its onwards to the Haakonish and Yor to get enough ships to retire so I can finish researching tech...

Jeeves, I assume the next game with be on Extreme Difficulty with the AI Improvement Mod, Expensive Research and with some decent house rules such as:

• No Homeworld Invasions are permitted until the 30 year mark and no use of sneaky fast troop transports
• Diplomacy may not be used to farm cash in any way (i.e. technology trading, selling stations/bases or sanctions/war)
• Intelligence Agents must remain on Counter Intelligence duties
• Recovered ships must be retired
• Debris field ships may not be recovered until they are within my territorial influence
• Ship and Base Design is on Automatic almost always
• Exploration ships must be on Automatic, no micro
• Research is on Automatic (although there is a trick if anyone can pick it)
• Cannot attack the Eruktah Refugees until they reveal themselves as the Shakturi

You play the game like that if you wish. I do like hard rather than normal difficulty since it gives me much more cash, but I am not going to play very hard or extreme or follow your rules...

Lonnie Courtney Clay

No worries UberJeeves, I'll keep trying to convince you to play above training wheel difficulty [:D]

Jokes aside I'm interested in what you could do on those settings!

http://www.mediafire.com/download/e64sl ... LCC4U4.zip

Has the latest progress of my game up to the end of 2011. The last save is just before I declare war on the Lipids and conquer their home system, but I'm going to let them live in the hope that they will build me a regional capital. If you ever wanted to pound some insect butt, that save game is for you!

Lonnie Courtney Clay

http://www.mediafire.com/download/bdiqs ... LCC4U5.zip
has the final installment of this game from me. Victory is inevitable at 620416 ready to take Ylt'a home system. The two troop fleets then combine forces and transfer troops to the resupply invader ships for conquest of the Guardian's homeworld. That will double revenue, bringing expenses to a positive balance. There is no inflation and stocks of resources are high enough to last till end game without further mining if you don't want the chore of managing state run mining ships. Just retrofit them to a design of your choice and put them on auto...

Lonnie Courtney Clay