Science Labs and Habitats

[Generalderpy014]

So I can't build any science labs on my habitats while other specialist buildings are available, is this intended or is it a bug? I mean there is the research district, but its pretty useless comparatively.

 

[Gyrvendal]

I wouldn't say the research district is useless since it allows you to save strategic ressources...

 

[Xeorm]

I would believe it's intended. You also can't use the clerk jobs building. Which makes sense, because otherwise all the districts except for housing would be the wrong choice.

 

[MatthewVilter]

So from an Empire Sprawl point of view habitats are really inefficient for research?

 

[Baqar79]

So from an Empire Sprawl point of view habitats are really inefficient for research?

They are indeed less efficient in terms of sprawl compared to a planet (or ring-world). In my testing, I only required 5 districts on a ring-world to get out the same amount of research as 8 districts on a habitat (upgraded version).

However.... there are several big bonuses that I think makes them great for research:

1) You don't need to wait for your pops to grow to 5 pops before placing your first research lab (as on planets), since you can build a research district immediately. You could even build them all in advance if you wished.

2) As a result of the above, there is no staggered research growth; that is on habitats research can grow as your pops do, rather than on planets where you need to wait for your population to increase by 5 before unlocking another building slot so that you can place another research lab.

3) Each research district gives 3 jobs; with a fully upgraded Habitat (+2 districts), I could squeeze the equivalent of 9 basic research labs worth of research (18 jobs) and a Research Institute, with about 25/26 pops (with another 4 habitat building slots to use however I wish). For a planet I needed to unlock 10 slots to achieve the same research output. This required 50 pops as a minimum (since I needed that many to open up the building slots), but leaves you with quite a bit of unemployment as a result, in addition to costing more resources in order to pay for the population upkeep.

4) Research districts only require 1/3 of the energy per researcher job.

5) Higher stability (in stratified economies) due to the fact you only need specialist and leader jobs.

Here is a comparison I switched together:

Of course if your have lots of exotic gases to spare, you can get much better output with a smaller population on a planet, but otherwise habitats seem pretty efficient for research.

 

[Orkonkel]

Four building slots (two gas refineries and two fully upgraded research buildings) give a planet 20 research slots.

 

[Baqar79]

Four building slots (two gas refineries and two fully upgraded research buildings) give a planet 20 research slots.

Just having a look at my old game, looks like Research complexes give +8 research jobs rather than +10 each.

In any case I gave it a try; Note however that the capital can't be downgraded (so this is 80 pop capital which provides an additional Science Director), I just removed the pops and buildings from my old ring world:

I needed 30 pops in order to fill all of the ruler and specialist jobs that are given with the 80 population capital complex (still have the 4 clerk jobs unoccupied from the 2 city districts) , so the population count would probably be similar to the habitat.

Only required 2 districts, so planets can be much more district efficient then habitats; but getting research up quickly and cheaply is something the habitats do very well.

 

[westamastaflash]

One thing folks forget is the large ongoing mineral expense if you use large research buildings since you have to pay for those exotic gasses somehow. Habs are great for per pop efficient research, and they are far cheaper than a ringworld to build and come far earlier in the game.

They synergize with taller playstyles especially pacifist where minerals become a bottleneck by mid game and if you get master builders you can have 4 or 5 science habs giving you 1k plus science. The big benefit of building space is good too. Put your 1 job per building slot industries on them as well. oh and they're another source of pop growth.

Another thing to keep in mind is that while they are less colony and district efficient they are a bit more system efficient than ringworlds, not much but it's a bit of a benefit.