So does the Lab it replaces....so what is the point?
A laboratory does not provide any free scientists, meaning no base beakers.
The primary value of Labs is to boost production of space parts. Labs will only be built in high prod cities to build parts.
The primary value of the research institute is to
BOOST RESEARCH, as I said.
The science boost is negligible at this point in the game.
No, it's not. Did you not read my post? If you were to build a research institute in all of your cities, using representation, you would get, at the very least, an extra 18 base bpt per city
before adding in any other multipliers.
Again, think of this. By the time you're able to build research institutes, you should have around ten cities. If you had ten cities, you could set your research slider to zero and, by building a research institute in all ten of your cities and running representation, you would generate 180 bpt without any other modifiers being added. If, for fun, you were to build a library and a university in each of those cities, you would generate 240 bpt. If you were to set your research slider to zero and build a laboratory in all of your cities, you still would generate zero bpt. Not to be confrontational, but you really do not know what you're talking about. Imagine the following three cities.
City #1: 80 base bpt + Library + University + Observatory + Laboratory = 160 bpt
City #2: 80 base bpt + Library + University + Observatory + research institute (w/o rep) = 172 bpt
City #3: 80 base bpt + Library + University + Observatory + research institute (w/ rep) = 184 bpt
City #2 generates 7.5% more bpt than does city #1 while city #3 is generating a 15% more bpt than city #1. I don't find that to be negligible. As an added bonus of the research institute, you can turn a city producing very few beakers (>10) into a city which produces between 30 and 40 bpt with very little effort.
By the time you get Labs you're already building parts anyway.
You shouldn't be. If this is the case, then you need to retweak your tech path. Satellites, composites, ecology, fiber optics, fusion, superconductors and genetics are the techs which allow you to build spaceship parts. Superconductors also allows you to build the research institute.
Satellites requires rocketry and radio.
Composites requires plastic and satellites.
Ecology requires fission or plastics.
Fiber optics requires computers or the laser.
Fusion requires fission and fiber optics.
Superconductors requires either refrigeration or computers (computers is the longer tech path).
Genetics requires superconductors.
If you're going to a space race victory, you generally want to go on a computer beeline, which means ignoring rocketry (the AI loves to tech rocketry/satellites so you'll pick those up from the internet). Superconductors is one tech away from computers and is a prerequisite for genetics, which you also need to tech for a space race victory. That is generally what you want to research next, especially since it allows you to (purportedly) build spaceship parts faster. I, personally, can't remember the last game I teched superconductors after, say, satellites, composites, ecology or even fiber optics.
The RI is a very marginal UB with a very marginal value (over base) for only a single victory condition.
The point of the research institute is to boost your research (it even says so in the description), and it does this quite nicely. It seems to be the biggest knock against it is that it "comes to late", which I don't treat as a serious rebuttal for reasons already stated. Yes, it comes late, but it's pretty effective at doing what it's supposed to do.
I'd estimate approximately 85% of Russian games one would never build the RI unless you are a space nut.
So what? This does not detract from the usefulness of the UB-- even more so if you're a fan of advanced starts.
(Edit: Someone can check my math. I'm sure I probably made an error somewhere.)
cost.
