Boosting research

[jgstrick]

Is there a foolproof formula for cutting down time to research. I often Bork the research and lose all research and have to dpstart from scratch

[Haldurson]

The more you boost your research, the greater your chances of a lab accident (and some techs can have greater risks involved). I BELIEVE that the only way to guarantee a zero chance of screwing up your research is not boost it. Spoiler: AI techs always carry a risk, even if you don't boost them.

All that said, I did find this vague sentence in the SOtS Codex:

There are different technologies you can research that minimize the chance of a "dropped vial".

If this is actually correct, I haven't a clue which techs they are talking about. Maybe someone else can fill us in on that?

[Fulano]

Ya, I pretty much never boost it because the risk increases as you do so. But if you get a good economy going with cruiser freighters maxed out, most of the techs are done in 1-2 turns anyway, even with slowing the research speed to 50% in the game setup. I'm usually spending 50% to 80% of my budget on research though.

Originally posted by Haldurson:

Spoiler: AI techs always carry a risk, even if you don't boost them.

It seems all the disease related techs too, since I almost always have one or two of them cause a planet to get infected, and never boost them. But I believe I've heard people say that the speed at which you research something affects the chance of it going poorly too... and I never research diseases until there is nothing else to research, or I need an antidote from an AI attack.

[Mordachai]

I almost never boost.
If I have a game where I feel like it's worth the risk - I'll boost moderately on the first turn of research, and then not after that (I don't want to reset the counter if I succeeded initially).

And as folks have noted - some techs can go very wrong :D

[jgstrick]

Thank you

[Frosty the Pyro]

Originally posted by Fulano:

Ya, I pretty much never boost it because the risk increases as you do so. But if you get a good economy going with cruiser freighters maxed out, most of the techs are done in 1-2 turns anyway, even with slowing the research speed to 50% in the game setup. I'm usually spending 50% to 80% of my budget on research though.

Originally posted by Haldurson:

Spoiler: AI techs always carry a risk, even if you don't boost them.

It seems all the disease related techs too, since I almost always have one or two of them cause a planet to get infected, and never boost them. But I believe I've heard people say that the speed at which you research something affects the chance of it going poorly too... and I never research diseases until there is nothing else to research, or I need an antidote from an AI attack.

yeah the chance per turn of a dangerous tech having an accident is based on how fast its being researched, but when you go faster it takes less turns. The math is designed to be roughly the same chances per research (aka if you research plague over 3 turns or 40 turns, the chance of dropping a vial during plague are about the same)

[Kir]

In my experience you usually don't want to put in more than a quarter of the bar in boost. I don't generally boost at all unless I am over 100%, where boosting is 4x effect rather than 2x.

[unkn0wnx]

If single player, save before you boost. Only boost early games. As you have more money later on, not really worth the risk IMO. You can research at 100% instead. Never boost while researching AI or Bioweapons (don't even ask me why).