Energy Research priority

[Mad_Maximus]

I keep running into energy bottleneck, my EC is set to 100% discovery and for reasons beyond me, research everything BUT solar, or power plants. Is there any way that i can specify energy as a research priority? or is the entire selection process random?

[chriskessel]

Hit a similar problem myself, had to really scrimp by by running things at less than 100% for a while until I finally picked up solar panels.

I'd have to look at the prereqs on fields, but I think you have to eventually get solar or the power plant at some point, especially if you shut down other research (e.g. military) so it stops opening up new research brackets. Push a ton of points at the Economic council so it's researching like mad.

Still a bit annoying though.

[maerchen]

What works: Put 95% Discovery and 5% research priority on your economics council.

When you got solar/, switch to 5% discovery, 95% research. DO NOT reduce anything to 0% priority.

Try to find hex perks with research bonus and grab them.

You might take a look at this: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2314732568

[Kadrush]

Yeah, thats annoying, feels like

-Economic Director, called you here today because we need a way to generate power.
-Roger, I will get into that.

Few months later.

-So? Did you find a way to generate power?
-Oh...no...but I discovered a wonderfull way of stockpilling resources....

Feels like me doing some papers in the university

Professor:
-Talk abot the camel
-Ok, the camel is a mammal, like the elephant.. which has 4 legs, it is big, heavy, lives a very long time, everyone likes elephants...

[cranky corvid]

The only guaranteed way to get a power generation tech is to stop unlocking new tech groups (the boxes in the tech screen) until you roll a power generation discovery. Every time you complete research on 3 techs in one group, you unlock the next tech groups connected to it.

There's an argument for setting the starting tech level to 4 for new games specifically to get around this issue. Then you (usually?) start with solar or power plant tech and don't have to worry.

[Mad_Maximus]

Originally posted by cranky corvid:

The only guaranteed way to get a power generation tech is to stop unlocking new tech groups (the boxes in the tech screen) until you roll a power generation discovery. Every time you complete research on 3 techs in one group, you unlock the next tech groups connected to it.

There's an argument for setting the starting tech level to 4 for new games specifically to get around this issue. Then you (usually?) start with solar or power plant tech and don't have to worry.

So essentially just do 100% Discovery until you have discovered the tech you want to research.
anything else and you could risk researching into a new tech group which would decrease the probability of getting solar/power plant. Sounds about right gonna give it a go

[maerchen]

Never do 1 00% priority anywhere. Do 99/1 %

[Mad_Maximus]

Yeah I see now. I got powerplant first couple turns. Thanks for the help man

[maerchen]

Congrats. Another milestome. Now exterminate those slavers!

[Mad_Maximus]

Onward, to victory!

[timb132]

If I understand this correctly..
1) If you research 3 techs in a research box it opens up the technology in the next box.
1 a) If that happens, and at least 1 of the 3 technologies you've gotten isn't one of the 2 energy technologies the odds of getting one of the 2 energy technologies falls as their are now a whole new group of technologies competing to be the next technology researched.
1 b) And since any 3 technologies researched opens up a new technology box you don't want to research ANYTHING until you get one of the 2 energy technologies.

This may be realistic but it turns the beginning of the game into a roll of the dice. Fail and you might as well concede(or close to it). I understand the approaches to avoid this people have already discussed.

But.. am I alone in finding this unacceptable? Does anyone know if this has been brought to the designers attention?

[laagamer]

Originally posted by timb132:

If I understand this correctly..
1) If you research 3 techs in a research box it opens up the technology in the next box.
1 a) If that happens, and at least 1 of the 3 technologies you've gotten isn't one of the 2 energy technologies the odds of getting one of the 2 energy technologies falls as their are now a whole new group of technologies competing to be the next technology researched.
1 b) And since any 3 technologies researched opens up a new technology box you don't want to research ANYTHING until you get one of the 2 energy technologies.

This may be realistic but it turns the beginning of the game into a roll of the dice. Fail and you might as well concede(or close to it). I understand the approaches to avoid this people have already discussed.

But.. am I alone in finding this unacceptable? Does anyone know if this has been brought to the designers attention?

If it's preventable, what's wrong with it?

[maerchen]

+1

[timb132]

Originally posted by laagamer:

Originally posted by timb132:

If I understand this correctly..
1) If you research 3 techs in a research box it opens up the technology in the next box.
1 a) If that happens, and at least 1 of the 3 technologies you've gotten isn't one of the 2 energy technologies the odds of getting one of the 2 energy technologies falls as their are now a whole new group of technologies competing to be the next technology researched.
1 b) And since any 3 technologies researched opens up a new technology box you don't want to research ANYTHING until you get one of the 2 energy technologies.

This may be realistic but it turns the beginning of the game into a roll of the dice. Fail and you might as well concede(or close to it). I understand the approaches to avoid this people have already discussed.

But.. am I alone in finding this unacceptable? Does anyone know if this has been brought to the designers attention?

If it's preventable, what's wrong with it?

I thought that was clear, but I will elaborate.
1) Because it forces you down a single specific path and requires dumb luck, or you lose, wasting hours on an unwinnable situation. I don't consider that okay.

2) It is the only technology(at least that I've seen so far) that is absolutely required to continue the game successfully, yet could not be obtained until very late in the game. It is hard for me to believe that is an intentional combination.

Also, the solution of setting the tech level to 4 is a cheat. What that tells me is you can't play the game with it's "natural" settings..

At least 2 other responses refer to the situation as annoying. Another makes a pun of the situation. So I'm not alone in my view. If you still don't understand, I can't help you.

So, again, do you know if this has been brought to the designers attention?

[maerchen]

2) I won games without energy tech.
I should not suggest to extrapolate from one single experience source, but I write guides here and have some hundred hours ingame experience.

Some planets have an abundance of energy hex perks.
You can conquer enemy energy assets.

1) Tech III start is just another layer of difficulty. Setting the discovery to 95-100% is the economic part of the solution, not researching weapon tech during that time the other part.
Surviving that is difficult but doable.

A lot of suggestions are energy start related, like having the option in planet generation to have an energy tech at tech III, or something to mitigate the RNG in finding techs.

I am pretty sure Vic knows these from suggestions and feedback threads here and at matrixforums. We still don't have these options.
Maybe he likes his game hard?

Beelining research to find energy tech is fun for me,

[ulzgoroth]

Yeah, I think it's important to remember that getting Power Plant is not necessarily a critical priority.

Sometimes it's pretty important. Other times it wouldn't even be helpful. (My current game I largely skipped power assets throughout the lower tech tree, because I was able to grab ample hex perks. I did make a little use of solar to supplement those before I got my volcanic power generator set up, though I probably could have avoided that.)

Another possibility for meeting energy needs is acquiring lucky artifacts that let you deploy ancient power plants. Certain fate strategems often will give you one of those.