Has very fast Research precept any downsides?

[phlux]

I know i can just not pick it but it looks kind of unbalanced?
I don't see a reason to not add it other than making it harder for me.
Maybe it should add a desire to research or something?

[MortVent]

It does have one in some ways. You can often out pace your production and supply so all those advanced items are impossible to make or use.

Plus you can easily push your wealth into the stratosphere without realizing it, resulting in larger raids you're not prepared for since you didn't built up defenses and gear.

Think of it as instead of giving everyone a decent longsword or assault rifle/bolt action rifle you went for research and instead crafted one charge lance burning up all the materials you had resulting in a raid that for the most part you are fighting off with short bows, clubs and one unarmored pawn with that charge rifle...

So yeah research is nice, but you have to have the infrastructure to take advantage of it.

Not to mention once everything is researched, the precept means nothing.... much like a dedicated researcher becomes worthless at the end if they have no other duties/skills

[glass zebra]

Originally posted by MortVent:

Not to mention once everything is researched, the precept means nothing.... much like a dedicated researcher becomes worthless at the end if they have no other duties/skills

There is always mineral researching in the late game.

The precept is basically just a scenario editor like choice for take it or not.

[Iskander]

Originally posted by phlux:

I know i can just not pick it but it looks kind of unbalanced?
I don't see a reason to not add it other than making it harder for me.
Maybe it should add a desire to research or something?

I'm not 100% sure, but I think it makes it harder to level up your intellect skill, as you earn intellect XP based on the amount of tics a pawn spends researching, not on the amount of research points that pawn generates. So: faster research means less intellect xp earned.

Again: I'm not 100% sure if my assumption is correct. I think it is, but best to double check with someone else. It is not a meaningful drawback of any kind, though, just thought I'd mention it in case you want to craft lots of items that depend on the intellect skill for crafting speed/quality.

[jerrypocalypse]

Originally posted by Iskander:

Originally posted by phlux:

I know i can just not pick it but it looks kind of unbalanced?
I don't see a reason to not add it other than making it harder for me.
Maybe it should add a desire to research or something?

I'm not 100% sure, but I think it makes it harder to level up your intellect skill, as you earn intellect XP based on the amount of tics a pawn spends researching, not on the amount of research points that pawn generates. So: faster research means less intellect xp earned.

Again: I'm not 100% sure if my assumption is correct. I think it is, but best to double check with someone else. It is not a meaningful drawback of any kind, though, just thought I'd mention it in case you want to craft lots of items that depend on the intellect skill for crafting speed/quality.

I believe that's accurate. From my own experience; a colony with increased research speed, and one with normal speed; the researcher from the regular speed one hit 20 intellect with only a single passion much earlier in the research tree than the pawn from my fast research colony that had a double passion. They researched at pretty much the same frequency as well.

[MortVent]

The other thing is fast research means you run out of easy ways to train up intelligence for hacking drones/installations (which can be a bad thing if you only have a couple high intellect pawns)

The only other task is making hard drugs and medicine (which can easily boost colony wealth faster than you can compensate)

[glass zebra]

Originally posted by MortVent:

The other thing is fast research means you run out of easy ways to train up intelligence for hacking drones/installations (which can be a bad thing if you only have a couple high intellect pawns)

The only other task is making hard drugs and medicine (which can easily boost colony wealth faster than you can compensate)

You can also train your colonists with the two mineral searchers, though those give a bit less exp than researching.

Hacking barely scales with the intellect skill (about 50% faster from min to max) and apart from the drone, all hacking in the game is done in about 3 seconds or 2 with a high skill. The only thing you really need the skill for after research is making drugs and the mineral scanners.

[grapplehoeker]

I like it a lot, especially when combined with Transhumanist for an Archonexus quest run, since you will have to research the tech tree three times over!
Even if you do complete the tech tree (once, twice or three times), there are still activities an excellent researcher is useful for such as the Ground-penetrating scanner and Long Range Mineral Scanner.
Having a Research leader is also useful for the buff they can provide to other researchers working alongside them.
I particularly like using them for the space drone event. Having an excellent researcher means a much faster hack and if you time it carefully, you can complete the hack just before one of the raids shows up and have them obliterated by the self destruct explosion. That's fun to see ;)
But, yeah, hardly any downsides and so what?

[Ducks on Fire]

I never use it because of how it just feels cheap. It really feels like it should be a slider in the custom difficulty menu rather than a precept (actually wasn't it a custom slider at some point, or a scenario editor option?) . It doesn't even offer any meaningful role-playing element. It's just a magic research boost.

[Jaggid Edje]

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[RCMidas]

Originally posted by Ducks on Fire:

I never use it because of how it just feels cheap. It really feels like it should be a slider in the custom difficulty menu rather than a precept (actually wasn't it a custom slider at some point, or a scenario editor option?) . It doesn't even offer any meaningful role-playing element. It's just a magic research boost.

It is in the difficulty slider too. You could combine both for ludicrous research speed. Basically akin to using dev mode to "add research" at that point.