Guts of research costs

The cost of a tech level depends on four things:

1. Your research setting for that field (cheap, normal, or expensive)
2. The level you are researching (higher level, higher cost)
3. The total number of tech levels you have already have in all fields (you can add it up yourself, or look at 'tech levels' on the 'score' screen).
4. whether 'slow tech advance' was selected as a game parameter.

in general,

totalCost=(baseCost + (totalLevels * 10)) * costFactor

where

  totalLevels=the sum of your current levels in all fields
  costFactor =.5 if your setting for the field is '50% less'
                     =1 if your setting for the field is 'normal'
                     =1.75 if your setting for the field is '75% more expensive'

If 'slow tech advance' is a game parameter, totalCost should be doubled.

Below is a table showing the base cost of each level.

          Level   Cost            Level  Cost
            1     50              14    18040
            2     80              15    22440
            3     130             16    27050
            4     210             17    31870
            5     340             18    36900
            6     550             19    42140
            7     890             20    47590
            8     1440            21    53250
            9     2330            22    59120
            10    3770            23    65200
            11    6100            24    71490
            12    9870            25    77990
            13    13850           26    84700

It's a Fibonacci series up to level 12, then it levels out quite a bit. To get all 6 categories to TL26: (at all normal cost): 4,185,240

This includes the 10/level additional cost, and assumes all tech areas start at TL0.

(Courtesy Bob Martin, with some editing/formatting/additions by other editors)

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