Khan Quest
Prince
Assuming Firaxis made researching two techs at once possible, there would be no advantage to doing so. In fact there would be a big disadvantage. This is obvious to most of you, but Ill try to explain it anyway. If two techs each take ten turns and you allocate 50% of your beakers to each, both would be done in twenty turns. If you allocate 100% to one until it is complete then 100% to the other, you will also have them both in twenty turns but, you will be able to reap the benefits of the first tech after ten turns.
This is the case when the % beakers allocated to actual research generated were linear. If the ratio was curved there could be an advantage to researching multiple techs. Here is an example curve. The curve has a bonus (orange line above the yellow line) and penalty (orange line below the yellow line) to indicate to the player the ramifications of their selection.
The curve represents not just beakers allocated but also the commitment of the government to see the research accomplished. The sweet spot on this curve is 60% - 70%. This represents adequate resources with out waste. Over-funding (95% +) is less efficient, researchers tend to by things they dont really need or better than necessary to get the job done. Under-funding results in wasted time, repeated experiments and inadequate equipment. The under-funding penalty is a setting of 20% or less. The ideal ratio is 60/40.
In the long term, split research will allow you to research overall faster. For a short run advantage, you may still want spend 100% on a single tech.
Of course play-testing will be required to determine if the curve should be used as is, emphasized or deemphasized.
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On a related topic, Id like to something like research momentum - maintaining a constant research rate for efficiency. Changing the research rate of a tech in progress by more than 10% over one turn or 20% over 5 turns results in penalty of, say 10% of your beakers per 10% shift.
This is the case when the % beakers allocated to actual research generated were linear. If the ratio was curved there could be an advantage to researching multiple techs. Here is an example curve. The curve has a bonus (orange line above the yellow line) and penalty (orange line below the yellow line) to indicate to the player the ramifications of their selection.
The curve represents not just beakers allocated but also the commitment of the government to see the research accomplished. The sweet spot on this curve is 60% - 70%. This represents adequate resources with out waste. Over-funding (95% +) is less efficient, researchers tend to by things they dont really need or better than necessary to get the job done. Under-funding results in wasted time, repeated experiments and inadequate equipment. The under-funding penalty is a setting of 20% or less. The ideal ratio is 60/40.
In the long term, split research will allow you to research overall faster. For a short run advantage, you may still want spend 100% on a single tech.
Of course play-testing will be required to determine if the curve should be used as is, emphasized or deemphasized.
---
On a related topic, Id like to something like research momentum - maintaining a constant research rate for efficiency. Changing the research rate of a tech in progress by more than 10% over one turn or 20% over 5 turns results in penalty of, say 10% of your beakers per 10% shift.
