optimal research strategy?

[Fjoelsvider]

i was just wondering how you guys research in general. im not asking for country specific research goals, cause its quite obvious to focus on naval for a while as portugal and stuff like that ^^

im interested in the general approach, cause i pretty much always end up focusing all my income in land technology when i play any kind of central european power, everything else doesnt help me at all it seems.

so do you guys focus on one field, or split your income for two fields? or evenly spread?

in my current austria game its 1610 and im at land tech 30 or something, and im world leader, will i be able to reach lvl70 at the end of the game?! cause i have seen many people that had lvl70 across the board at the end of the game, and i cant imagine i have enough time for that

 

[icon41gimp]

Once you start running into the penalty for being ahead of time it's much more efficient to start researching something else. In general, keep land and government up, then prioritize production/trade depending on type of country, last is naval research in most games. Deviate for specific goals over short periods of time but stick to the plan for the majority.

 

[Fjoelsvider]

i usually do it like this: when it says the tech is 16 years ahead of time, bt its finished in less than 16 years i keep focusing all money into it, only if its finished in more than the "penalty years" i tend to switch.
but still, is focusing even the right approach? should i split my efforts and research two fields, in the long run, whats better?

 

[Flammehav]

i usually do it like this: when it says the tech is 16 years ahead of time, bt its finished in less than 16 years i keep focusing all money into it, only if its finished in more than the "penalty years" i tend to switch.
but still, is focusing even the right approach? should i split my efforts and research two fields, in the long run, whats better?

When it says "16 years a head of time, it cost 320% MORE than normal. Or if a tech cost 1000 it will cost 4200 16 year a head of time. I must say I'm impressed if it says you will be able to research a tech 16 year a head of time in 16 years. Though it DOES say that, it will take a lot shorter as each year the tech cost will decrease with 200 ducats until it's not a head of time again. Each year a head of time adds 20% points to the tech. In that example the tech cost will only be reduced by 4,7% the first year, but 17% the last year even if it's by the same amount.

As for general tech speed, do keep government and land up. Then focus on either production or trade depending on what your strongest field are. A big nation will probably benefit most from production, while a small trading country, like Oman as I just started, will be better off getting a high trade tech. Naval is not very importent. If all your others tech are a head of time, do research it as to not waste money, but unless you're useing a lot of time blocking straits or that colony you want to make is just out of range, you should focus on any of the other 4 instead.

Government opens up new way to rule and idea slot and some buildings. This is even more important if you play IN(seeing as you haven't registered a HttT or DW), when almost all buildings are opened up by advanicng in Governement.

Production and trade gives you 1-2% increase in trade and production efficiency for each tech lvl, they open up a few buidlings in IN, more in DW, and opens up some NI.

Land tech does ofcourse stop you from getting creamed by superior forces. Some techs are more important than others, mainly the once wher you get new units. Wich techs that is depends on wich country you play. It also helps with supply limit and moral, so you will take less attrition and not break so easy from battle.

Naval lets you fight better ofcourse and gives the navy more moral, it also increase your colonial range from 100 at lvl 0 to 840 at lvl 72. About 10 every tech lvl, though at tech 12 and 13 you get 15.

 

[Moltke]

There are some techs I beeline too, even at ludicrous cost. Ideas are an obvious one, if I really need one, and Land tech 18 is another obvious one. Otherwise I just bounce back and forth between my priorities which change depending on country. (Usually government, land, and trade)

 

[Sandmann]

as a big colonial empire you want naval too for cheap barques at lvl 10 to keep tariffs at 100%. And you want colonial range and the east indian trade company at lvl 20 if you are good at trading. So I use to pursure NI government levels as long as I feel there is nothing that is more important.

 

[Fishmalk]

Gov tech 11 is the magic number for would-be trading states, as this is the point at which you can have NPT, SCP, and the National Bank NIs, as well as the Formalized Scales, Weights, and Measures decision from your capital.

Land tech 22 is notable for being the first upgrade western nations have from latin knights, to the mighty caracoles, which in open terrain can be even more important an edge than hitting 18 first.

 

[GAGA Extrem]

Gov Tech is great to grab new NIs, Land Tech is important to get new units, building & better modifiers.

In general I put all income into a single field of research until I reach the selected goal (GT 4 / 7 / 11 for NI for example).

With DW, the new buildings also open some great choises for tech research.

 

[Alanthiras]

The first thing to keep in mind is that you should never research more than one tech at a time. So when you're done with one tech level you decide in witch field you want your next one and put everything into that. And then we have the difference between singleplayer and multiplayer. In singleplayer you can typically get by if you have good land tech and decent gov tech whilst in multiplayer you have to keep up in all tech fields (except possibly naval if you're landlocked kazakh). And ofc it is fine to blitz ahead a few levels on occasion when there're something critical you need asap as long as you go back and catch up after though never put research into something that's ahead of time if it can be avoided.

 

[grommile]

The first thing to keep in mind is that you should never research more than one tech at a time.

Unless all of them are a decade ahead of time because you're ridiculously rich.

 

[Alanthiras]

Unless all of them are a decade ahead of time because you're ridiculously rich.

But if that happens then you've not been expanding properly or allready won

 

[TAMBOURINESNAKE]

Once I get sufficiently large or hit a comfortable income range, I just spread my research evenly across the techs, and then bump government and land up a little bit so its 23/18/18/18/23

 

[Sandmann]

Once I get sufficiently large or hit a comfortable income range, I just spread my research evenly across the techs, and then bump government and land up a little bit so its 23/18/18/18/23

If you form that series of numbers with your hand it will form the hand of victory: !...!

 

[ciadude2]

I generally just leave my research alone lol. I never beeline anything aside from government 4 for the first NI and it suits me well enough. I tend to go full innovative and free subjects though so I'm usually ahead anyway.

 

[unmerged(205402)]

Max military.