Please explain the mechanics of "Research".

[Merchantbard]

I'm playing at "Thinker" level and have taken to playing 'blind' research now, and really need to maximize my chances of climbing the tech tree before anyone else.

Can anyone suggest some decent strategies (beyond building a Network Node at every base *before* everything else, that is)? Thanks everyone in advance.

 

[Pickly]

Take a look at the tech tree (In the great library and such), and try and adjust your choices of "explore, discover, conquer, build" to get to your preferred technologies as quickly as possible.

Presumably you've been playing enough to understand how social engineering choices work, but if not, try increase research, ecoomy, and efficiency.

In terms of strategy, network nodes immediately might not be so useful, if another city improvement provides better benefits for growth and such. In general, good expansion will also significantly boost your research.

(In terms of advanced mechanics, like how research costs are determined beyond social engineering, I'm not really sure if any other tricks exist to increase research.)

 

[Merchantbard]

Take a look at the tech tree (In the great library and such), and try and adjust your choices of "explore, discover, conquer, build" to get to your preferred technologies as quickly as possible.

I should have been clearer. What I need is some insight into how to gauge how quickly my faction is accumulating "Tech Points" during the research process. Is it simply a sum of all the Labs output in all my bases put together, or is there more to it?

 

[Pickly]

Yes, that's how research works.

 

[GooglyBoogly]

how quickly my faction is accumulating "Tech Points"
You should also consider espoinage for research - often it is worthwhile getting a little less LABS if you can probe someone for a few techs.

If you have large, unexplored landmasses pod hunting can give great rewards from cashing in Alien artifacts for tech (you'll need to pop a sea pod with a transport unit if you want a chance to get an artifact)

Research costs depend upon how many techs you have relative to everyone else, so if you are ahead of the pack, your research will be more expensive than theirs.

Research costs depend upon the number of techs you already have (not what level they are), so it is usually better to focus down one or two branches on the tech tree than to try and research all the techs together.

I believe there is information for it in the datalinks, but it doesn't give specific formulas - just the variables that you can control.