Scientific Strategy

I'll usually have a bunch of tech fields in my queue but have it set for 1 at a time to research. For single player, theres really no reason to do otherwise I think.

I usually spend the bulk of my RP researching research.

Sometimes I'll change that for one or two turns if I want to gain a few levels in something immediately. Usually I'll just have it set up to gain one research tech level each turn. (or every other turn if I can't do one each turn) And whatever assorted techs I want to research have a few points in each. often I'll have a dozen or more techs with only one point invested. these are things I want to (in the long term) research but have no critical need to research immediately.

I tend to put 1-4% each in multiple areas, depending on how much of a priority each area is, then put what's left into whatever's currently most urgently needed. By turn 50, I've routinely got over two dozen areas being researched.

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"Good morning, Pooh Bear," said Eeyore gloomily. "If it /is/ a good morning," he said. "Which I doubt," said he.

Hmm, for the most part I have a few research fields at a time.
Then, if I open up a bunch of new research possibilities, I'll often research in several of them for a few turns.
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I'll make one later.

Usually I Research like Marhawkman, 50-75% of my research going into research, the rest to things I need, ship sizes, sensors ..
in the beginning just a view of them with research at 75 and
sensors and ships at 10 and 15 .. or some different techs .. as the mood strikes me.

as I gain research points I reduce the percentage of the other and spread out, sometimes I reduce the percentage on research, normally in 5% steps till i am down to 50% or 3-5 turns until a new tech level.

when I decide I have enough research points ( around 80-120k )
I drop all my research to 1 %, applied research included, and
research the colonisation techs, which takes then about 5-8 turns
to get both

i play sp, and don't trade my colony tech until my borders are established .. meaning fully colonized systems, so no sneaky ally could set foot in my systems .. after that I give them away for free, just to give the enemy a little boost

after i finished applied research, i switch the bulk to stellar manip. My research looks then like this :
1-5 % to a lot of tech, 1 to minor like education,
up to 5 to hulls, engines, some weapons, and 25-50 % into stellar manip.

this says, I have a little problem with stopping a research field completely once started

written from balance mod, which i am playing right now,
but it works with every other mod, too ( so far )

Remember : Pillage! then burn.
- Cpt. Kaff Tagon

I often start with many but go down to a few by mid game.

Depends on what I am playing. In stock, some 50% to applied research. The rest first to sensors, then to colony techs and after this to whatever seems fine.
In BM at the beginning sensors and ion engines, then applied research and colony techs, probably followed by intelligence and armor / weapons.

I personally avoid spreading my research into more than one area at once. If you need two technologies which require 5 turns of research each, how do you spread your research for the next 10 turns?

1) Research tech A at 100% then move on to tech B.
2) Research both at 50% each.

In both cases you will have the two technologies at the end of 10 turns, but with 1) you have benefited from tech A for 5 turns as well.

Exactly, but with exception of Gritty Galaxy mod.

That doesn't work so well when the time to research is

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"Good morning, Pooh Bear," said Eeyore gloomily. "If it /is/ a good morning," he said. "Which I doubt," said he.

You may also want to consider that intel attacks on your empire can remove progress towards a research area, so it may be better to concentrate on one at a time so that you get tech A 'locked in' as early as possible to minimise impacts of those types of intel attack.

I do it in 2 ways:

1, I divide it into 5 different tech areas, with 20 percent each. But if Im low on points, i divide in around 4 with 25 each.

2, I put all my research into one specific area, finishing 3 or more levels of it in 1 turn.

It's occurred to me that if someone puts, say 50%, into researching Research that may work well if you are playing against the AI but it could get you toasted in MP games because you could fall behind in some critical area. What would everyone do different in multiplayer games as opposed to AI games?

I also totally ignore many tech areas. In weapons, for example, I focus on one or two weapons to the exclusion of all others. The same goes for other areas as well. Is this good for me in the long run? It seems to work well so far.

I tend to focus on large techs rather than lots of little ones. The summary usually says I have less tech than other people but that tech is usually big stuff like stellar or resource/research than troop weapons or bombardment. Genrally I focus on one tech for a turn rather than share it around a number of techs to all finish at once. Soemtimes if I'm researching complimentary tech such as explosive warheads and mines I have them to be ready at the same time, there not ebing much point having warheads if you can't make mines yet. Mines is the tech I try to get as soon as possible because it's made for defence. One thing to keep in mind is that if you are in the process of building ships there isn't much point researhcing the next techs such as weapons or shields every turn because either there's no free queues to make instant use of it or upgrading the queues will just go on and on without completion.

I do ship upgrades in phases, build using what I have, research improvements, then make an upgraded design. Usually the second one will have a 2-3 tech level difference in it's components.

capnq wrote:
MisterBenn wrote:
I personally avoid spreading my research into more than one area at once. If you need two technologies which require 5 turns of research each, how do you spread your research for the next 10 turns?

1) Research tech A at 100% then move on to tech B.
2) Research both at 50% each.

In both cases you will have the two technologies at the end of 10 turns, but with 1) you have benefited from tech A for 5 turns as well.

Depends entirely on what techs A & B are. If they're both going to give me components, I might split the research evenly in order to avoid doing two rounds of retrofits.

You may also want to consider that intel attacks on your empire can remove progress towards a research area, so it may be better to concentrate on one at a time so that you get tech A 'locked in' as early as possible to minimise impacts of those types of intel attack.

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To me this is the way to go for defensive reasons (less opportunity to loose tech research) as well as investment reasons (I get my tech investment faster).

I think you do need to spread out the technology goodwill based on how well you are doing. If I'm doing really well, I try to cover a few areas to spread my bets but if I'm getting drilled, better to get really good at something for some longer term strategy I've got.

I think if you wanted to make the game a bit more strategic, you should give a bonus to those players who plan better. Perhaps a percentage of your research is automatically reinvested back into your current research efforts based on the number of turns you've been researching a technology. This way players who are constantly investing in one technology are more reactive but loose out long term while players who plan ahead get a reward.

Since I use targeted research in specific areas my experiences are like Randallw's. I'm often low in the list of total tech levels but that can be very deceiving since I've invested in quality instead of quantity. That also unfortunately reduces my overall score and could make other players think I'm vulnerable. I guess I can't have it both ways.

i like to invest in research and pickup the small stuff early just to have availible , then pick a few key techs and go full bore untill level desired is reached. I think sensors and scanners early are a must then sat/mines/fighters for protection while i research better weapons/shields. Really depends on how many players are in a game. alot of players small map or few players big map can also change things a bit.

hmm it didnt sound like anything people posted but this is what I do

Phase I
I pike 3 techs, one a weapon, a defensive and then other like maybe engines or cloak or senosrs, then I advance the weapon 3-4 times, the other techs 1-2 and then switch them out for a diff def tech, like armor or em. That way I advance a weapon, defensives technology's and other categories

In this phase I also do upgrades on all my buildings, see phase II

Once I have done a few of these researches, and things start to slow down I go to phase II

In Phase II I do economy research, research researching, intel, shipyard what ever I need and maybe 1-3 diff items and while thats going on I go and upgrade my ships

When Phase II slows a down a bit I go to phase I