Hello guys,
I have just recently stumbled upon the game, so I am a total newbee. There are some aspects of the game I simply cannot figure out on my own. It could be that these questions were already asked by others earlier, but it is almost impossible to comb through all the topics and to dig out the info. If somebody can help me or point me to the relevant topic via a link, it would be really appreciated.
How do research and manufacturing work exactly? How are the various elements of research and manufacturing connected to each other (manufacturing points, research points, etc.)? How does for example the cost of research come into the picture? On the research screen it can be seen that each research has a cost. But why does it matter?
Can I use my factories to build planetary improvements? If I first build some factories on a planet, then will the other subsequent planetary improvements be built faster? Does the output (the manufacturing points) of my factories have an influence on the speed at which I build my planetary improvements? Or are factories there only to build ships?
Thanks Guys!
Try the wiki first.
Just google: galciv2 wiki
There is a search bar on the top right side of the screen. Type in 101 or nube or something to get your questions answered. As to your specific question, reseach, industry, and military production are your three products. Money is earned by population and how much they are taxed. Build labs and factories to increase these stats for each planet and economy improvemnts to increase planetary revenue.
Have you found the answers on the wiki?
The wiki helped me a lot when I first got started.
First of all, thanks for the replies, guys. I wasn't aware of the fact that this galciv wiki exists. It is quite a treasure trove of info. The only problem is it is not complete, there are some contradictions in it, and it seems it covers the game only until DA (I have the Ultimate Edition, v2.02). Still, it is a very useful source of information.
Regarding research and manufacturing, I think, I must admit I still don't get some aspects of it. Some specific questions:
1. Each technology has a cost of research (i.e.: universal translator: xx tp). What is that exactly? Why is it important? To which other elements of the game is it connected and how? If I understand correctly, when I build a lab on a planet, it is only a capacity, it increases my potential research capacity only, and not the actual research output. If I want to increase the actual research output at a given time, I need to move the production and research sliders at max. This is when the labs capacity is utilized to the full extent. Am I right? It affects the research time of a technology, i.e. the research time decreases from 7 weeks to 4 weeks. But how does the research cost come into the picture?
2. When it is stated that the Market Center planetary improvement boosts the "economic output" of the planet by 10%, what do they mean with "economic output"? Exactly what is this economic output?
I think that's all for now. Your explanations would be really appreciated.
Thanks!
How can it be that in the 1st picture I have 61 flasks (at the top of the Earth colony management screen where production can be focused with the three radio button), and in the second picture, when I go to planet "Summary", I have only 47 flask (I assume this 47 tp flasks mean it is a capacity, and not the actual output).
I am sorry, I don't know how to insert a picture:(
If I'm interpreting your posts right (a big "if" ), then your questions come in three separate "flavors": conceptual, mechanics, and specifics.
On the conceptual, I believe that you are pretty much right to see a lab as representing a "capacity". Each planet's total output is a value that is affected by many parameters and each parameter-enhancing planetary improvement "improves" the output in its specific area - - other things being equal, but they need not be equal. If one has spending zeroed out for, say, research, then no research points will be generated no matter how many labs are on that planet. However, focus could still generate research there even with no labs present and even if research is zeroed out. All the as-built labs do on a planet is increase the OUTPUT of research based on the INPUT of resources into research. Note, also, that the initial colony building on each planet produces some, so that labs only "improve" the output.
If one holds all other factors constant, you are correct that a lab on a planet will produce its full "nameplate" research points value if and only if the spending slider is at 100% research. This single fact drives many to an all-factory strategy, especially in DA (all-fac was nerfed a bit in TA).
There are many other factors in play, however. For example, if the planet has an adverse environment, research and production there will be halved. For that matter, if you conquered or traded for the planet and you have never researched even the first level of the environment tech, all production and research will be zero no matter what buildings are there. Yet, you can still build things there if you buy them! Go figure.
I'll leave most of your other Qs to other folk. Still, I think "economic output" is just gamespeak for money ("BCs"). Also, I generally stay mostly on the spreadsheet page for colony management, where I can quickly see the various numbers, compare them, and make trade-offs among costs, outputs, and completion times. Some screens do not include the effects of some factors in their displayed numbers, but i do not just now recall which ones are which.
To find out whether I understand this correctly, let’s see the following example:
The research cost of the “Xeno Communications” technology is 15 tp. I’ve got two labs, with a nominal capacity or output of 6 tp each. That is 2x6=12 tp capacity in total. If I put both the production spending slider and the research spending slider at 100%, then all the capacity of my two labs will be utilized to max. extent, the actual research output will be 12 tp. That means I can research 12 tp worth of technology in a one week turn. As the cost of the technology to be researched is higher (15 tp) than the output of my labs (12 tp), I need another week to fully research the tech in question. One tp costs 1 bc, so in the first week the research costs me 12 bc. In the second week however, I need only 3 tp to finish the research (that would cost 3 bc), so I need to pull back on the sliders until I get the required 3 bc research spending. If I don’t pull back on the sliders, than in the second week of research the labs will continue to operate at full capacity, producing another 12 tp output that would cost another 12 bc. But I need only 3 tp in the second week, so the remaining 9 tp and its cost of 9 bc would be wasted.
Am I right? This is how it works?
It is the tax-reward from your planet's population. The more people on your planets, the more increases your reward. As well as the tax-slider jumps here in, and all economic structures built on this planet. The underlying tax-formula to this is horrible, and all you need to know is that with Stocks/Banks built you'll get more money from your people.
Optimally you may want to run your "production slider" at 100% throughout the whole game. However, if you've built too many labs/facs then your spending might consume all your economic input, and it is time to build some banks. So generally, only your civ-wide economic balance is all that matters - how it is calculated exactly on a per-planet-basis is a well-guarded SD-secret
No need for a pic as long as you describe the screen-title from the game as exact as you do
What you see in the "Summary" pop-up is only the planets "base"-production, in your case it is the "research production" (RP) which labs generate, your CivCap and also the Initial Colonies. This base production gets enhanced/multiplied by many many factors (see here) but at your current state of playing I wouldn't try to immerse myself deep into the numbers - you will probably be lost, esp. because there's also a lot of diversity from DL to DA to TA.
Yes, it works like this, but note that only your base-production costs 1RP=1bc other RP's that you have from multiplication (racial, TechCapital whatever) only costs 50%. And no, the RP's are not wasted - they are taken to research the next technology in that branch on the tree. If the tree is finished, that is, if you just researched an end-tier tech, then your RP's might carry-over to the next branch - or NOT. This is different from version to version, and from branch to branch. Generally there is to say that RP's are NOT lost.
Speaking of this, SP (social Production) is also not lost - unused SP is funded back at the end-turn.
What is however lost is the Military Production (MP) once a ship in your starport is finished. If you build an empty Cargo Hull (55 MP) and your planet has an output of 25MP, then you'll need 3 turns = 75MP's where 20MP's are lost - and you even have to pay for them - they don't get refunded. Hence optimally, you may want to built up your colonies to match your ship-designs, or vice versa, you design different usefull ships that have a different cost, and queue only the fitting into the starport, so that as less as MP gets overproduced.
I have a headache.... hehe
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