Matrix Games Forums

There are some things that people just have to learn, concerted scientifc effort or not. My sugestion is to have some research progress, simply by being exposed to an issue that it could fix. Somewhat like how field testing works.

The obvious usecase would be for any of the Optimisation techs:
When you are shooting a lot of armor, Armor Piercing Optimisation should make some progress even without the Applied Science Council looking into it.
Radiaiton is another thing - the whole planet may be iradiated, or only parts of it. The people living in said parts would have a bit more progress on this tech.
AT guns and Bazookas could develop as a result of meeting a lot of armor
With most weapons, facing and salvaging stuff in combat should give you some insights into making your own.
If we have a energy shortage (maximum consumption >= maximum production), energy techs should be something people look at.

Even some starting technology may be gated behind it (to decide if those should be among the starting tech options):
- with a good atmosphere, you would need no Environmental Suit tech. While on a moon, societies either retain the tech or die
- Similary, Electrical Motors and Solar power generation would be much more of an issue on a moon, then a planet full of biomater you can turn into Biofuel
- Radiation protection tech could be something that some societies start with - but others have to develop - based on if they started in a radiation field

It would primarily aid the discovery process to finally find a tech we need. But for discovered techs, it may even be able to finish the tech - eventually. It should not be a complete replacement for the Scientific councils, just a guiding hand or assistant to get the right tech.

Mechanic Implementation Idea:
It could be some BP "gathering" for one specific technological advance as the need becomes apparent (we run into the issue, like failing to damage armor) or examples are encountered (fought a lot of enemy AT guns or enemies with automatic rifles and combat armor).
Those BP would be added to Discovery of the Tech. And once the tech is discovered, also build towards getting the technology - eventually.

On the "discovery" of techs: it would be great if there were a way to influence or guide the discovery effort, by either having a choice of areas to focus on, or having an event message come up, or both.

In either case, the prerequisite to be able to "focus" on a specific area should be that you've discovered a "problem" you need a solution to, or maybe you've encountered something the enemy has but you don't.

E.g.: you encounter really heavy tanks enough times, your military then suggests you really need something to counter them. Then you could (either directly via the message, and/or manually) choose a "focus area" for the discovery effort. Which could be something as vague as "anti-armor tech". Then, the next tech to be discovered would be something to help against armour: for the mil res council that could be new types of weapon tech; for the model designers, anti-tank guns, RPGs, or heavy tanks for yourself; while for the operations council it could be OOBs that take tanks into account more.

Something similar could occur for the other research council, e.g. discovering better ways to protect from the environment, radiation, etc. - if those things are a threat that you've encountered.

Naturally the general pre-requisite rules would still have to apply - so an option to focus on a specific area probably shouldn't even appear if it's not possible to discover that particular tech/model/formation yet. So, that limits the usefulness a little bit of something like this, since what we can discover is already (somewhat) limited by what's already available; however, this kind of focusing should, in theory, make much more sense than just getting something random from whatever techs you currently have potential access to.

While there have of course been times where someone had a brilliant idea for something that came out of nowhere or was discovered by accident, in general research (especially military research) is far more focused in real life - even coming up with ideas isn't completely random, it almost always results from trying to find a solution to a real-world problem.

The only problem with this approach I can see is that it might make things TOO predictable. A possible solution for that would be that "focusing" on a particular problem shouldn't 100% guarantee that a potential solution is the next discovery, but instead it could just significantly increase the likelihood.

I do quite like the idea of "field experience" possibly contributing to the discovery (and possible researching) of the tech in question.

A possible alternative to what I proposed above, now that I think about it, could simply be that the more something is encountered (e.g. on the battlefield), the higher the likelihood that a tech to counter it (or copy it) will be the next tech discovered. So to take the "hidden BP" idea, IMO its primary purpose would be to increase the chance of discovering the appropriate counter/copy.

On a related note, it would be cool to see more "improvised"/"alternative" stuff available for countering certain things, or even just additional equipment for the troops, e.g. molotov cocktails, flamethrowers, grenades, claymores, etc. These could be optional extra things you stick onto a unit. On that note, specific stuff dependent on climate would be cool, e.g. skis, snowmobiles, sand-skimmers. Since we have such a diverse range of atmospheric conditions possible, I would expect some weaponry (e.g. flame, chemical, etc.) to have markedly different capabilities/limitations based on the planet's atmosphere and/or the environment.