More Research

[azedenkae]

When will you guys release more tech? I'm about to completely all the researchable techs. :/

[mataeus]

I completed all the techs, but it took me around 16 years (game time!) To do them all whilst wiping out the Xeno threat.
I was hoping the secret achievement would be for researching them all, or building a level 5 tech or something, but no! Guess I'll keep on searching

[azedenkae]

That's fast. I'm on year 17.20AE and still have about 50 er days/weeks/months or so left.

What happened afterwards? Did all that RP just go to waste?

[mataeus]

Well, despite the library (which only discusses overviews of stuff), the lack of an instruction manual means I have no idea what happened to the RP. I've played through and completed the tutorial game, colonising every world (except one which I destroyed) yet I don't have any idea how TP, EP and RP are implemented.

I know some buildings elevate those points from their description, but how they're used I have no idea. I was always just able to research, trade and negotiate how I wanted.

I'm still not fully aware of how CP work.

The game really needs some proper documentation like the others.

The plus/minus figures at the bottom of each planet screen mean nothing to me.

I've still been able to play and very much enjoy the game, I'm having a blast with it, but with regards to the stats I just go with the 'more is better' approach and just build / upgrade everything I can, everywhere.

Are EP, CP, TP and RP used up like currency? Are they simply a 'minimum barrier' to doing stuff? Is it the amiunt of 'points' that goes toward the total of what you're doing with them, but without consumption? I have no idea!

And especially, what exactly am I looking at at the bottom of each colony's page with the +/-? I know what they represent from the icons, but I don't know what they ultimately mean.

The library is fine, but an proper explanation of icons and mechanics is what's really, desperately needed. And yeah, I know we can figure it out gradually as far as to enjoy the game, but that's not the point. It took me five attempts to play a game through to it's conclusion. I kept wiping my save just due to not knowing what I was doing when I went back to it. I could certainly see it putting off new players.

Also, getting to the advisor from an extra icon would be helpful, as opposed to having the button hidden away behind another one (The Empire Summary IIRC).

[lixxx235]

mataeus: I'll try to explain.

CP stands for construction points. Each planet has it's own number of CP/turn(indicated by the CP number at the bottom of the factory screen). When you build an upgrade or ship in a planet, every turn the planet will add the number of CP/turn to the "spent" amount in the upgrade/ship it's building. If it's not building anything, the planet will convert the CP into credits at the base rate of 10 credits/CP. You get CP by building factories.

RP and EP are essentially the same as CP, except that they are both empire-wide(that is, all the RP and EP in the empire are added together and applied to the empire wide diplomacy or research project) and they are used to make research and treaties, respectively.

TP is like CP that is always idle. That is, they're like CP that are always converted to credits.

Hope this helped.

[mataeus]

It did help indeed! I knew what they stood for - Construction, Espionage, Trade and Research - but didn't know how they were calculated by the game. I also know how it works with habs housing the influx of population, then putting that population to work in factories creates CP. It was mostly the figures at the bottom of the city screen, and how the various points were used.

You've cleared some of that up now, so thank you! Very helpful

[Cory Trese]

Guides are always welcome and we're happy to edit, repost and share.

The ST RPG manual was written by a group of players who wanted to improve it.

[terrik]

To add on to lixxx's great post, CP and RP (but not TP) require population to be "activated". That is, I don't believe you get any benefit from CP or RP beyond the equivalent population count (so if you have a population of 3 but a CP of 4, only 3 of those CP will be applied to a construction project, likewise with RP and research projects). From what I can tell, this does not apply to CP/RP provided as faction bonuses. For example if a Cadar colony has 2 population and 4 CP, 2 of those CP are from the Cadar faction bonus and are already activated for "free" so to speak, and the other 2 CP have 2 population to be activated with, so you will get the benefit of all 4 CP. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong but this is how it seems to work from what I've seen.

As lixxx said, each point of TP generates income, anywhere from $0 to $30 per turn I believe. The exact value is influenced by politics and faction bonuses. Generally, the better the political situations, the closer the income of a point of TP will be to $30. The worse the politics, the closer it will be to $0.