Research and Development Tech Tree

[Marlon P.]

This is a re-proposal of an old suggested replacement for the standard research tree, edited with modern ideas and methodologies.

This is a tech tree that you unlock not by repetitive deconstruction, but through a puzzle game of deduction and matching.

Spoiler

There is the base Knowledge from which 'Fields' branch into specific Topics. 

• A Field is a broad category of classification and organization.
  • A Topic has a specific value and it's these which are ultimately scored.
• Combining Topics creates a Thesis. A Thesis has a point value adding up the score of every topic.
  • Each field has a randomly rolled relationship with other fields in terms of a positive or negative modifier.

You put the Thesis into a machine that scores it. You are rewarded two resources: Grant Credits and Endowments.

• Grant Credits are delivered in the form of a charge card assigned to the scientist in question, rewarding them immediately.
• Endowments are rewarded to the RnD department as a whole, rewarding the department immediately.
  • Endowments are pooled collectively and reaching different levels of research requires a specific number of endowments. The scoring for this will be elaborated on later.

You need 3 non-repeating topics for a research paper. There are 5814 possible topic combinations. You must pick your main topic from one field of science, and two supporting topics. They can be from 2 separate fields from each other or the same as each other.

• Economic policy, diplomacy, and bluespace combined into a Thesis would have a value of 4 * 0.5 = a thesis worth 2 endowments, and 20 credits.
• Combat, anatomy, and bluespace would be 4 * 2.0 = a Thesis worth 8 endowments and 80 credits.

Each topic would have a random roll to be within a range of 1 - 3 points individually. Each modifier would similarly be randomly rolled.

The two papers in our example will give the Research Department 10 Endowments that they will invest in unlocking a higher tier of research, or unlocking a specific prototype. This provides a theme of scientists applying theory (through their thesis) before testing prototypes and applications of their theories. Endowments are not "spent" upon use. If you have 10 endowments, you unlock everything worth 10 endowments. For an analogy, endowments as a resource are similar to the antagonist Vampire's 'total blood' score, which is tracked separately from 'usable blood'. 

All blueprints and prototypes will be given a score in terms of how many endowments must be reached to unlock it.

Below is the draft of how you will make a thesis.

Spoiler

 

1. The main menu.
   • Review research provides you with an overview of all submitted research, who submitted them, and a rolling score of the Endowments available to RnD.
   • The about page is a tutorial of the system.
   • Troubleshooting will ping the Aurora's IT department.
2. Fields are chosen here. Clicking one of the fields opens page 3.
3. Choosing a field opens page 4.
4. A Topic is chosen here.
5. The previous steps are repeated twice.
6. A preview of your Thesis is shown.
7. A loading bar tracks the data being uploaded to ResearchBuddy.
   • ResearchBuddy is within the server room; a subprocess of the Aurora's AI network. Technobabble will explain it as nonsapient but hyper-capable for its purpose.
8. You receive a response. Similar to real life job applications being handled by obtuse and mysterious algorithms, the in-universe criteria for scoring and processing is inscrutable methods but generally corporate-profitable results.

Possible responses to a Thesis paper would be as follows, based on the score. The credit amount should be randomized just enough to give odd numbers, providing the sense that they have been given specific consideration. The round numbers below are providing ranges, and are whole numbers for clarity.

Quote

0  = "This is a sloppy child's scrawling, not an accredited scientist's work. No value found.' 0 credits 0 endowments

1 - 4 = "After evaluating the possible applications ResearchBuddy has found a few middling potentials." 1 - 4 endowments 10 ~ 40 credits

5 - 9 = "ResearchBuddy has identified minor applications. ResearchBuddy is dispensing a standard grant for your findings." 5 - 9 endowments 50 ~ 90 credits.

10 - 14 = "This is a very good thesis and ResearchBuddy has already found an application. Your grant and endowments will be commissioned shortly." 10 - 14 endowments 100 ~ 140 credits.

15 - 20 = "The findings from this Thesis are already affecting Aurora's revenue projections for next quarter. Researchbuddy will beam this to Headquarters for publishing in Scientifica Galactica. Congratulations." 15 - 20 endowments 150 ~ 200 credits.

20+ = "Your thesis is being considered a black swan, opening avenues into knowledge previously unknown and possibly solving a future Outside Context Problem. This is being beamed immediately to HQ for publication and monetization within Scientifica Galactica. As sincerely as my circuits can be: congratulations." 20+ endowments 200+ credits.

This change will provide a deeper roleplay for scientists on station. Feuds between scientists about who has the better thesis will be true to life and more impactful to player-characters than the current meta. Both because they earned their recognition as a scientist through deductive reasoning in genuine research, and because they no longer rush through a repetitive min-max meta which encourages monolithic strategies.

Thank you for reading this suggestion.

Edited September 29, 2021 by Marlon P.
Integrated the idea to make it more on-station.

[ImmortalRedshirt]

Across many servers, I've seen people try to tackle the same problem of making Science interesting. Usually, this involves tacking on some gimmicky feature that ends up getting half-finished and eventually removed. Very rarely has someone actually tackled moving R&D away from the "fun" and "engaging" loop of "print and destroy expensive things until cool stuff is had", and these rare changes, while welcome, were designed around their servers, and would contrast heavily with Aurora. This is not one of those ideas. Not only does it make sense within the context of this setting, it provides a certain amount of unpredictability no amount of code diving will ever metagame away. Of course, I'd have to see it in practice to get a feel for how it really works, but I'm feeling like this is a pretty neat idea.

There is one other thing to bring up, though. I am not a coder. I do not pretend to be a coder. I have no idea whether or not it would be practical to implement this, someone else might, though. Some things might be changed to accommodate the limits this codebase may or may not have. 

[Ickysoup]

Spoiler

 

I like the overall change here and the only thing I think needs to be adjusted is the IC process of doing it.

As I said in discord an alternative way to have this fit in well would be to have some sorta machine a "super computer" on station processes the thesis than spit out the points/unlocks. This "super computer" could probably sit inside the server room and is simply flavor text(could have purpose if you code it maybe its upgradeable?) while all the magic happens with a terminal all research staff will have access too.

This is just one way of doing it however, sending research material off station to be processed takes away from the reason why this state of the art research facility is where it is, and thinking about how this system will function when NBT arrives is also something to consider for this big of a change.

Edited September 29, 2021 by Ickysoup

[Marlon P.]

1 hour ago, Ickysoup said:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

I like the overall change here and the only thing I think needs to be adjusted is the IC process of doing it.

As I said in discord an alternative way to have this fit in well would be to have some sorta machine a "super computer" on station processes the thesis than spit out the points/unlocks. This "super computer" could probably sit inside the server room and is simply flavor text(could have purpose if you code it maybe its upgradeable?) while all the magic happens with a terminal all research staff will have access too.

This is just one way of doing it however, sending research material off station to be processed takes away from the reason why this state of the art research facility is where it is, and thinking about how this system will function when NBT arrives is also something to consider for this big of a change.

We talked about this some on discord. I think having the process take place on the Aurora, moving the evaluation to the station/ship itself, is a good idea. Would you agree with the computer still transmitting a higher-scored thesis' back to HQ so that the player is given the reward of being 'published' in the 'wider galaxy'? That way everything still happens on-station, and there is also a recognition of the player's small impact on our setting. This seems like a good way to have both our goals achieved concurrently.

The computer will still reward you with grants and endowments within its [undefined] budget, as authorized by the SCC.

I will edit the original post if you think this is a good combination.

Edited September 29, 2021 by Marlon P.

[Ickysoup]

19 minutes ago, Marlon P. said:

We talked about this some on discord. I think having the process take place on the Aurora, moving the evaluation to the station/ship itself, is a good idea. Would you agree with the computer still transmitting a higher-scored thesis' back to HQ so that the player is given the reward of being 'published' in the 'wider galaxy'? That way everything still happens on-station, and there is also a recognition of the player's small impact on our setting. This seems like a good way to have both our goals achieved concurrently.

The computer will still reward you with grants and endowments within its [undefined] budget, as authorized by the SCC.

I will edit the original post if you think this is a good combination.

I dont like nor dislike it being sent off. Could definitely be fun for characters who want to farm clout. (*cough cough* every Skrell ever)

[Connorjg1]

I adore this. 

 

I cannot state enough how much I like this idea of science. It is the only time I have seen an idea for what to do with science that makes me go 'yeah this is it'

[Siccero]

I've always felt that a lot of science is lost in the HRP enviroment and I think a total retooling of science like this would be a great idea to breathe life into a department that is greatly understaffed (on a science station) and in a way that isn't a gimmick that people will have played out over a week I'm super up for this idea (though I'm not sure how much work would be done for it while NBT is still cooking in the background) and I think would be great to have another slowly ticking job of progress outside of mining, and due to the nature of not finishing your upgrades within the first 5 mins of start up, it allows for the possiblity of some fun strong tools that could help change how the department is played a bit from round to round instead of just a tool that makes things a tiny bit quicker to perform with

Edited September 29, 2021 by Siccero

[TronHoward]

Quote

I've always felt that a lot of science is lost in the HRP enviroment and I think a total retooling of science like this would be a great idea to breathe life into a department that is greatly understaffed (on a science station) and in a way that isn't a gimmick that people will have played out over a week [..]

I've never really been interested in playing R&D characters, given the current mechanics, but Marlon's suggestions are pretty neat. I would definitely give em a try.

[Marlon P.]

The OP has been edited to accomodate Ickysoup's suggested changes.

[nodnodnod]

My God. This is beautiful. I would vastly prefer this over the 15 minute max-tech speed run.

[Alberyk]

This is interesting and way better than what we have. However, I am unsure how hard this would be to implement due to the math. But I will consider after nbt is out.

[NerdyVampire]

Just showing my support. This looks pretty awesome.

[Myphicbowser]

You've done it.

 

You've made research fun again with this one, make it mean something and have better in-game representation.

[Colfer]

I strongly dislike the current research meta and find this to be something fresh and worth trying. However, how would this work with the current research meta is a good question, as building 1-8 tech processors usually makes research an unstoppable machine that can instantly get the full tree done within 10 minutes after being built? The easiest solution I can see is to remove tech processors. 
However, tech processors with this system could interact with the primary computer and perhaps speed up its analysis up to a point or improve the rewards from proper analysis, such as 8 tech processors reduce the time to 0, and 8 more increase the reward by 2x.