What exactly does a 'Research Agreement' do?

[Mr. Goblin]

I am new to Stellaris.

What exactly does a 'Research Agreement' do?

Nothing in the game tutorial. And there are no 'hover cursor' information either. I don't know exactly what this agreement does for me (and the other Empire). So far, it seems 'nothing'; no change. No gain, no loss, no change. But then again I am still recent in making this research agreement with this Alien race here.

[Elitewrecker PT]

Increased research speed when researching techs the other empire has I believe.

[Mr. Goblin]

Hm. Interesting.

[Syfe]

It grants you access to any research that they have completed; that you have not done so for yourself.

However, this is a double edged sword as in any technology or advancement that you've researched; will be granted to the empire that you have the agreement with.

This works well if the faction that you've entered this agreement with is more advanced than your own empire, but can also backfire; if you are the more advanced sapient race in the equation.

In essence, you may be cultivating a powerful ally for future wars to come; or creating a powerful and monstrous adversary that eventually you'll have to contend with.



Be cautious and wise in whom you share your secrets with...

[Mr. Goblin]

Ooh! Fun!
Very cool, thanks.

[Azor]

It applies (for both parties) a 25% bonus to researching technologies discovered by the other party.

By the way, you should just check the wiki for any question about how the game works. IIRC if you click the question mark on the bottom right you will be immediately directed to the wiki in a kind of in-game browser.

[Rabob]

I would only use it for long term allies.

If they are behind in tech, you won't gain much out of it anyway.

[Sabaithal]

I wonder if there should be some other form of this agreement.

Like say...both you and the ally in question want to research mega-engineering, so you set up a co-op with said ally, granting you both a 25-50% speed increase to that tech so long as you are both researching it. It's implied that the scientists of both empires are co-operating and sending data to each other.

Or perhaps the percentage should be based on their overall research score in the field. That would make more sense...maybe a percentage of that score added to yours and vice versa?

[-JaRnE-]

That would actually be kinda cool that federations can make research projects to get to endgame tech quicker

[Azor]

Originally posted by Sabaithal:

I wonder if there should be some other form of this agreement.

Like say...both you and the ally in question want to research mega-engineering, so you set up a co-op with said ally, granting you both a 25-50% speed increase to that tech so long as you are both researching it. It's implied that the scientists of both empires are co-operating and sending data to each other.

Or perhaps the percentage should be based on their overall research score in the field. That would make more sense...maybe a percentage of that score added to yours and vice versa?

Nice idea, and you should create an other thread for it.

[Mistfox]

But then, balancing? How do you give an advantage that a solo empire will not get rolled over by a Federation if someone rather go solo or play a non-Federation playstyle? The last thing we want is to make a Federation playstyle "the only way to play", especially since some government types do not allow Federations, we don't want them to be "suicide options".

[Mr. Goblin]

That is a pretty cool idea Sabaithal.

And, true that; Mistfox.

[lordcrekit]

Originally posted by Mistfox:

But then, balancing? How do you give an advantage that a solo empire will not get rolled over by a Federation if someone rather go solo or play a non-Federation playstyle? The last thing we want is to make a Federation playstyle "the only way to play", especially since some government types do not allow Federations, we don't want them to be "suicide options".

Honestly federations are the way to play right now. Good luck beating a federations free doomstack.

[Army Pea]

It also increases your "Trust" level with the other empire which factors into their opinion of you.

[Sabaithal]

Originally posted by Mistfox:

But then, balancing? How do you give an advantage that a solo empire will not get rolled over by a Federation if someone rather go solo or play a non-Federation playstyle? The last thing we want is to make a Federation playstyle "the only way to play", especially since some government types do not allow Federations, we don't want them to be "suicide options".

Maybe a "research" policy? Just like war doctrines affect fleets, your research doctrine affects that. Something like 'Data exchange' is an option that gives you passive non-research bonuses for having research pacts. 'Shared knowledge' would be something that further increases the benefits of my aforementioned "dual-research" option. And "Keepers of knowledge" gives you a bonus to all research sources, but disallows any form of research pacts. Something like that.

[Weizen1988]

Originally posted by Mistfox:

But then, balancing? How do you give an advantage that a solo empire will not get rolled over by a Federation if someone rather go solo or play a non-Federation playstyle? The last thing we want is to make a Federation playstyle "the only way to play", especially since some government types do not allow Federations, we don't want them to be "suicide options".

"Its not fair that one guy cant beat up 5 guys" No, Federations should pretty much always be stronger than any one empire. Thats how reality works