Breakthroughs and Inspirations

[catuk1181]

Does anyone else think this actually restricts the player as opposed to introducing something new? I've not had control over what I am researching for the last couple hours of play (unless I ignore the breakthroughs and inspirations...which I am guessing is not advisable.)

[Greil9]

I'd disagree. Breakthroughs aren't essential (so far 2/3 were just +1 damage to a weapon type, hardly a deciding factor) and sometimes you just need a tech more urgently so you need to weight between having a quicker research and the one needed more urgently. It's about making a decision of what you need more at the time.

[KRON]

No restrictions there. You want it, you grab it. Also, sometimes breakthroughs appear as a reward for covert action.

[Ginrikuzuma]

don't fall down the rabbit hole of researching every single last breakthrough. If the breakthrough is for something you don't need don't get it.

Same goes for inspiration. If you were planning on researching better armor but tygan is inspired to work on something you don't care for as much at a certain point (say for example an autopsy) then ignore it and stick to your guns.

[Silverangel]

Autopsies are Instant for me most of the time when getting inspiration. So easy to take them then.
And Breakthroughs is like they already said. When need, take it, when not let it. No need to take them all. They are nice to have but not must to have.

[Madcain]

breakthroughs are optional bonuses.

[Mr. Nice]

It is nice though when inspirations appear for what you were going to do anyway. In my first WotC campaign I got magnetic rifles as inspiration, after I had just did the alien biopsy to unlock the proving grounds, and power armour when I had nothing left to do but that & a load of autopsies anyway (I tend to leave power armour late until I get all the plasma weapons).

[Twelvefield]

There's an entry in the Commander's Archives you may access right within the game. Read that, and you'll understand completely that even the devs seem to have trouble describing the difference between Breakthrough and Inspiration. Oh well.

[Drakilian]

I ignore them 90% of the time because it's not worth the research time when I could be researching better weapons. I wonder if you can get repeats.

[Ginrikuzuma]

Originally posted by Mighty Twix:

Autopsies are Instant for me most of the time when getting inspiration. So easy to take them then.
And Breakthroughs is like they already said. When need, take it, when not let it. No need to take them all. They are nice to have but not must to have.

Yes they are instant but I was using autopsies as an example of something that might not be high in your prioties being an inspiration that would eat up a day or 2 of research away from your intended goal

[Mr. Nice]

Good to note that "instant" autopsies don't count for losing inspriation/breakthrough for not taking the offer up"immediately".

[fenlander]

You don't have to do the inspirations all the time. I went with the +1 weapon damage ones though, on a single weapon type they don't add up to much. But when I use my squad make up with two specialists those +1's can really help.

[KRON]

Originally posted by fenlander:

You don't have to do the inspirations all the time. I went with the +1 weapon damage ones though, on a single weapon type they don't add up to much. But when I use my squad make up with two specialists those +1's can really help.

You can get +1 on specific weapon type(like rifle, shotgun, cannon, etc.) and you can get +1 damage on all weapons at specific tier. So I got +1 damage on all tier 3 weapons(which included even swords and psi-amp) and +1 on all weapon types. Which made my assault rifles deal 9-11 damage and shotguns/cannons/sniper rifles deal 10-12 damage.

[Silverangel]

Going on Inspiraton is really no need anyway. Cause Inspiration just lowers the duration of an existing Research.
Breakthrough is the now or never (which you still can get maybe later on Research and Covert Ops too).
Or was it named other way? Doesnt matter. One is just lowering the Research Time, the other are things like +1 dmg on specific weapons. The last ones are nice to have but no must. When you have better things to do, leave it.