Bug or Feature?

from Stardock Forums

I'm not sure if this has been asked yet, but I know I've seen it mentioned a few times. This is the first time I've intentionally gone after a tech win and so I have built a godzillion different Research +% buildings . . thinking that these percentages would make the money spent go farther. (For example, in my mathmatically limited imagination, if I spent 100 bucks to get 100 research points. . . then build +50% of tech bonuses. .. that 100 bucks will yield 150 research points.)


It seems, though, that researching costs MUCH more when I build +% bonuses. I've only noticed this in a recent game (gigantic/tough) where I'm intentionally going after a tech win. I'm in the end game now and whenever I go slide my tech bar to 100% I have to drop my spending all the way to 15% just to break even.

Can someone either explain how bonuses help or point me to a post where it has already been explained? Thanks.

-SG-
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Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
If you've read the manual, you'd know that a fraction of the bonus is free and the other fraction is added capacity you pay for. For research, buildings give 1/3 of their percentage for free, while resources and your empires abilities give 2/3 free. This has been documented in Economics of GalCiv (go to the Encylopedia page of the website).
Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
Currently research lab, research center, and neural net are the only +research buildings I build. I haven't had time to check it for sure, but I suspect that the others aren't worth the maintenance cost for the bonus they provide (i.e. you have to turn your slider down so much to cover their cost that you don't end up with enough gain to justify building them). But I haven't checked it so this is pure speculation.

I also like to keep recessions in mind, you fill your planets up with galactic research centers and info nets and then a recession hits and you are going to be hurting for money, big time.
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
I'm not sure of this but I think of the treasury like a bucket of water. The economy is pouring water into the bucket while research is a hole in the bottom allowing the water to escape. Your +economy bonuses are increasing flow of water into the bucket while +research bonuses are increasing the size of the hole in the bottom of the bucket.

So, if you keep adding +research without matching it with +economy, all you get is an empty bucket. On the other hand if you only add +economy then all you get is an overflowing bucket without much research going on.

That's why I always pick Federalists because in my games the economy seems to be my most limiting factor, not research or production.
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
The nice thing about economic bonuses is that you can put the results wherever you want. They work under any situation at any time, which is a flexibility that's hard to beat.