Research
Research allows you to unlock new buildings, transports, vehicles, edicts, recipes and ship upgrades.
You may add more than one research to the research queue and they will be researched in the order you have added them. The number of technologies in your current research queue are represented by the "+X" number that is located next to the current research in the research bar. You can remove items from the research queue by selecting them, and clicking on the "Remove From Queue" button. However, you must remove the items from the queue in the order they were added as well. If you wish to cancel the entire research queue, simply cancel the current research and it will also clear the current queue.
Research Points
Each Research Lab I produces a different amount of research points each cycle.
Each technology has a "difficulty rating", which defines how many research points you need to research in order to unlock the technology. The difficulty rating can be seen next to the technology name in the research screen, e.g. "Construction III[9]".
How to calculate the amount of research points necessary from difficulty rating:
Formula: difficulty * 10 + (difficulty - 2) * 18
Difficulty 1 and Difficulty 2 are 10 and 20 points respectively. Each difficulty thereafter represents a 28 point increase in research points necessary to research the technology. For example: Difficulty 25 requires 664 research points. (25 * 10 + (25- 2) * 18)
The amount of research points needed also correlates to the amount of Lab Equipment necessary for the research in its totality. This would mean that in the above example, you would need 664 lab equipment to research a difficulty 25 technology.
| Research Labs | Research Speed (points per 60) |
|---|---|
| Research Lab I | 3.2 |
| Research Lab II | 4 |
| Research Lab III | 4.8 |
| Research Lab IV | 5.6 |
| Research Lab IV | 6.4 |
| Difficulty | Points Needed |
|---|---|
| 1 | 10 |
| 2 | 20 |
| 3 | 48 |
| 4 | 76 |
| 5 | 104 |
| 6 | 132 |
| 7 | 160 |
| 8 | 188 |
| 9 | 216 |
| 10 | 244 |
| 11 | 272 |
| 12 | 300 |
| 13 | 328 |
| 14 | 356 |
| 15 | 384 |
| 16 | 412 |
| 17 | 440 |
| 18 | 468 |
| 19 | 496 |
| 20 | 524 |
| 21 | 552 |
| 22 | 580 |
| 23 | 608 |
| 24 | 636 |
| 25 | 664 |
| 26 | 692 |
| 27 | 720 |
| 28 | 748 |
| 29 | 776 |
| 30 | 804 |
| 31 | 832 |
| 32 | 860 |
| 33 | 888 |
| 34 | 916 |
| 35 | 944 |
| 36 | 972 |
| 37 | 1000 |
| 38 | 1028 |
| 39 | 1056 |
| 40 | 1084 |
| 41 | 1112 |
| 42 | 1140 |
| 43 | 1168 |
| 44 | 1196 |
| 45 | 1224 |
| 46 | 1252 |
| 47 | 1280 |
| 48 | 1308 |
| 49 | 1336 |
| 50 | 1364 |
| 51 | 1392 |
| 52 | 1420 |
| 53 | 1448 |
| 54 | 1476 |
| 55 | 1504 |
| 56 | 1532 |
| 57 | 1560 |
| 58 | 1588 |
| 59 | 1616 |
| 60 | 1644 |
| ResearchID | SR Need[1] | Max Lvl | Effect | Effect at Max level[2] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vehicles Pollution[3] | 15 | 20 | -4% pollution from vehicles | -80% |
| Ships Pollution[3] | 15 | 20 | -4% pollution from ships | -80% |
| Trains Pollution[3] | 15 | 20 | -4% pollution from trains | -80% |
| Crop Yield | 20 | 250 | +1% to crop yield, +0.25% crop water consumption | +250%, +62.5% |
| Tree Growth Speed | 5 | 50 | +1% to tree growth speed | +50% |
| Rainwater Yield | 10 | 40 | +5% to rainwater yield[4] | +200% |
| Settlement Water Use | 10 | 40 | -2% settlement water consumption[5] | -80% |
| Unity Capacity | 5 | 60 | +5% to unity capacity | +300% |
| Housing Capacity | 4 | 40 | +5% to housing capacity | +200% |
| Focus Points | 5 | 25 | +4% focus generated by offices | +100% |
| Vehicle Limit | 20 | 60 | +5 to vehicle limit | +300 |
| Vehicles Fuel Use | 5 | 35 | -1% to vehicle fuel consumption | -35% |
| Ships Fuel Use | 5 | 35 | -1% to ships fuel consumption | -35% |
| Trains Fuel Use | 5 | 35 | -1% to trains fuel consumption | -35% |
| Rockets Capacity | 1 | 20 | +5% to rocket payload capacity | +100% |
| Maintenance Output | 4 | 50 | +1% to maintenance production bonus[6] | +50% |
| World Mine Output | 5 | 50 | +2% to world mine and oil rig efficiency[7] | +100% |
| Solar Power | 10 | 200 | +2% to solar power production | +400% |
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 You need space research, done with the space station, from this point on
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Note that the info in max effect is based on math, not ingame, so it could be wrong
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 These 3 are available much earlier than the others. And are totally useless if you switch to Hydrogen
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Presumably this affects rainwater harvesters, dunno if it affects groundwater refilling
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Probably increases waste water produced in proportion?
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Probably doesn't increase inputs?
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Probably only increases outputs, but other factory games like to use efficiency to mean 'extra free stuff', so who knows?
