The Cost of Research

More about Research

Playing Stars!

Research becomes more expensive for each level of technology you achieve. You spend resources to do research. Research in any field becomes progressively more expensive, increasing in a Fibonacci type series. The total cost equals the cost for that field plus the added cost of 10 resources per field of study per level you've already achieved. This cost is calculated for you in the Research dialog.

In  general, you should pick which technology you wish to learn, then research only the field(s) needed for you to be able to gain that technology. Then you'll never use more resources than necessary to learn a technology. Ultimately, though, it costs the same to research all technology. The added costs encourage you to develop a few initial technologies quickly and take them out into the universe.

Research can be cheaper for some races than others. To learn how efficient your race is at performing research, choose the View (Race) command, then turn to page 6 of the View Race dialog. Both the Technology Browser and pages 2 and 3 of the View Race dialog show you which technologies you won't be able to research due to a race traits. The Research dialog shows you only the technology that's available to your race.