Research Suggestion - It's the Economy, Nerds!

[dbs1701]

I just can't get over how technology research "works" in game. In reality, most inventions of consequence were developed privately and licensed to whomever could pay. It's not like the British retained a monopoly on steam turbines until everyone else independently discovered them. Even something as game-changing as radar was *understood* by all powers even if they lacked the resources or urgency to develop it and take it to sea. I think the following research system would be more logical, simpler to manage, and lead to more balanced campaigns without resorting to "catchup bonuses" or the confusingly ineffective "research priorities" (why wouldn't you just be able to invest your extra funds into the priority area, instead of always taking away from everything else?) Here goes:

There is a UNIVERSAL rate of "unlocking" technology based on the historical progress the game is modeling. Example: Steam Turbines were actually invented in 1884, but the development to be used in warships took longer (Turbinia built in 1897 and first effective warships using turbines in 1900). So let's say that you can actually research Steam Turbines right away, but it will take 6 years even if fully funded (allowing YOU to invent a marine steam turbine engine in 1896 and your first completed ship in 1897), the player invests RP to develop that technology. Rather than universal research budget, you slide each individual unlocked technology to assign the priority and the cost. Here is where the gaming can take over:

If you access the research screen, you'll see the available inventions to research, and their status ("in development" or "available for purchase")  You decide when and how much to invest in each area. A new technology needs to have money spent on research to develop it for your navy OR buy a license from the inventor to build your own copies. The slider has three positions: "not researching", "Low priority", or "High Priority". Not researching does not spend any money, but you'll pay for that later as I'll explain. "Low priority" will take an extra year beyond "history" to complete the research, "High Priority" will complete the research "on time". You can assign your three research priorities to catch up any not researched or low priority item to "Standard" but this will cost the overall cost of the invention PLUS the difference between the cost of the invention and what you had already spent on it. This allows for fairly rapid modernization if you have the funds for it.

If you DO NOT research an invention, after two years it will change to "available for purchase". You can use the technology in your ships, but because you are literally buying the components off of the open market or from allies, build time is increased, cost is higher, and maintenance is increased. If you decide that you need to build the technology yourself after all, after a technology becomes "available for purchase" you can spend the full value of the research and buy a license to build the technology for the usual cost. This way, a small economy or a struggling nation can keep up a small fleet of modern ships, then in better times can catch up almost immediately in technology as long as they can afford it.

I think this system would be more intuitive, more historically accurate, and allow more flexibility to the player!

 

[Peksern]

20 hours ago, dbs1701 said:

It's not like the British retained a monopoly on steam turbines until everyone else independently discovered them.

That is not always correct. Especially industrialising britain is a great example of using its own inventions to create massive advantages. In civilian economy as well as in military. For example the invention of the dreadnought battleship type, meaning the advantages of  the "all big gun" concept: The british and the american came to the knowledge independent from each other at pretty much at the same time. 

Nontheless... in fact there is a boost for technologies, that are reached by other nations. For example when Great Britain gains the radar tech, the other nations will progress faster in that tech. So there is an adaption of technology in other empires. You can imagine yourself wether it's by espionage, buying or just adapting, what was seen.

[Dave P.]

On 11/18/2024 at 9:09 AM, Peksern said:

That is not always correct. Especially industrialising britain is a great example of using its own inventions to create massive advantages. In civilian economy as well as in military. For example the invention of the dreadnought battleship type, meaning the advantages of  the "all big gun" concept: The british and the american came to the knowledge independent from each other at pretty much at the same time. 

Nontheless... in fact there is a boost for technologies, that are reached by other nations. For example when Great Britain gains the radar tech, the other nations will progress faster in that tech. So there is an adaption of technology in other empires. You can imagine yourself wether it's by espionage, buying or just adapting, what was seen.

Up until WWI, almost everybody (including the Germans) was buying capital-scale turbine engines from the UK because nobody else could build them. Even their last WWI designs (Bayern class) used a locally built copy of a Thornycroft design. The USN, except for a couple BBs (Florida and Wyoming class) that used UK-sourced engines, stuck with triple expansion engines for its dreadnoughts, until the Nevada class, which used US-built engines. Having some kind of "foreign parts" mechanic that tinkers with repair rates or consumes research dollars might be an interesting mechanic, but it would mostly be annoying IMHO.

The "All Big Gun" concept was actually invented by an Italian. Published a paper in some naval journal and the UK was just the first with the money and industrial capacity to rush a ship into service following the idea. IIRC somebody else designed one and laid it down earlier but didn't get it complete in time to be first. The "once somebody gets it everybody gets it" idea should, IMO, definitely apply to the Manuever Warfare tree. That's all going to be published in journals and stuff.

Historically, the thing delaying the adoption of technology in various navies was the inherent conservatism of the designers; not wanting to introduce too much new stuff in one go and have a ship that was useless or too fundamentally flawed to be useful. We have the benefit of hindsight, so some ahistoricity is kind of needed to make a game that's challenging.

I _do_ think the tech trees should be reorganized but I don't want to make this a 3,000 word post.