How to research

[Potätr]

Is it just me, or just researching even the 3rd item in most parts of the tech tree seem excessively expensive and difficult to do?
I remember in the tutorial the instructions where that 'people like churches'. But unless you have an endless supply of little crosses and mother marry statues, don't bother. Am I right? Or am I just missing something here?

[S22]

I'm new to the game, but from what I can tell you either produce the items in your town, sell/buy them at the stewart screen and I think earn them after battle.

[Potätr]

Originally posted by S22:

I'm new to the game, but from what I can tell you either produce the items in your town, sell/buy them at the stewart screen and I think earn them after battle.

Then I must be missing something because I don't see any buildings that let me make the resources, and I don't have nearly enough silver to buy the things I need from the Stewart screen

[wcbarney]

Originally posted by S22:

I'm new to the game, but from what I can tell you either produce the items in your town, sell/buy them at the stewart screen and I think earn them after battle.

Mainly you earn the items after field battles, but not after battles to conquer a town. Yeah, some techs are prohibitively expensive at first, so you've got to make a plan of which order to research.

My preference is to research the techs leading to the market; that gets you cows and then sheep, which generate a lot of silver when you populate your towns with nothing but cows/sheep + 3 serfs and a horse cart. Cows are the 3rd tech in the "economy" category, markets are the 4th tech, and sheep are the 5th tech in that category.

I used to prioritize the tech that reduced the cost of upgrading towns (2nd item in the "trade" category), but usually by the time I get that tech, I have so much money coming in that it is no longer a priority.

I never do deliberately research churches, and I hardly ever build them. I do research towards the academy, and I build & upgrade academies in all towns, which generates happiness, but not as much as the church, nor are they as expensive to maintain.

[Potätr]

Originally posted by wcbarney:

Originally posted by S22:

I'm new to the game, but from what I can tell you either produce the items in your town, sell/buy them at the stewart screen and I think earn them after battle.

Mainly you earn the items after field battles, but not after battles to conquer a town. Yeah, some techs are prohibitively expensive at first, so you've got to make a plan of which order to research.

My preference is to research the techs leading to the market; that gets you cows and then sheep, which generate a lot of silver when you populate your towns with nothing but cows/sheep + 3 serfs and a horse cart. Cows are the 3rd tech in the "economy" category, markets are the 4th tech, and sheep are the 5th tech in that category.

I used to prioritize the tech that reduced the cost of upgrading towns (2nd item in the "trade" category), but usually by the time I get that tech, I have so much money coming in that it is no longer a priority.

I never do deliberately research churches, and I hardly ever build them. I do research towards the academy, and I build & upgrade academies in all towns, which generates happiness, but not as much as the church, nor are they as expensive to maintain.

So, I'm working down the economy tree and unlock the first tech, but the second is grayed-out despite being affordable ( https://i.imgur.com/ffkxIQ4.png ) is this a bug? Why can't I research this?

[Dev Konstantin]

In the end it comes down to researching Techs that increase Trade Good generatio, then unlocking buildings that produce trade goods in towns (Blacksmith, Armoury, Church e.t.c), and then having some towns as dedicated Trade Good producers (the higher the happiness the more trade goods are produces each month). Few years into campaign, once you have 10-15 towns, you will have plenty of trade goods.

[Potätr]

Originally posted by Dev Konstantin:

In the end it comes down to researching Techs that increase Trade Good generatio, then unlocking buildings that produce trade goods in towns (Blacksmith, Armoury, Church e.t.c), and then having some towns as dedicated Trade Good producers (the higher the happiness the more trade goods are produces each month). Few years into campaign, once you have 10-15 towns, you will have plenty of trade goods.

I've noticed I spend a decent amount of time at the world map waiting for money to trickle in. Might be something to balance going forward. Also, do you get the same rewards if you auto resolve a battle as opposed to going and fighting it?

[wcbarney]

Originally posted by SimplyMrMatt:

... I've noticed I spend a decent amount of time at the world map waiting for money to trickle in. Might be something to balance going forward. Also, do you get the same rewards if you auto resolve a battle as opposed to going and fighting it?

The money only trickles in quarterly -- that is, the amount of silver you earn in your towns and armies vs the amount you spend on upkeep. The generated trade goods comes quarterly also. You do have to collect taxes manually, either town-by-town as I do, or by clicking the hand icon in the upper-left of the screen. Clicking this hand icon collects all taxes at once, but you lose 15%. The maximum taxes that can be stored in a normal level-5 town is about 1,000 silver (more at lower difficulties). If you accumulate more than that amount the excess is simply lost forever. Also, you should upgrade your towns to level-5 as soon as you can afford it; the taxes collected are significantly increased. I always set my tax rate at 100%, and I guess I have to wait a little longer to enter the towns, but the increased taxes are worth it.

Rewards from battle: They are the same whether you fight the battle or auto-resolve it. BUT it really isn't worth auto-resolving, because the calculated damage to your troops is usually WAY more than the actual damage sustained if you fight the battle manually. I did a test the other day with one of my invincible armies (16 level-10 Hospitaller Knights, 11 level-10 Long-bowmen, + 1 serf, 1 cow, 1 battering ram. When I fight a field battle I might end up with damage that costs less than 100 silver to heal; when I auto-resolved the same type of battle the healing cost me nearly 2,000 silver. So I advise never to auto-resolve, since your silver is extremely important. I don't need silver much any more since my treasury is over 2 million, but I am still very careful with it.

[Zardoz]

The trade goods producing mecanic of towns is not very easy to understand, I did not even saw it in the first place, and now I see it because i have read about it on the forum, but I have no idea how it works, I have to read the forum to guess there is something going on here. When you finally happens to see the trade goods, you only see you can buy or sell them but you have no idea the town may be producing them, you do not know when, and you have no idea that happynes is affecting this.

[wcbarney]

Originally posted by SimplyMrMatt:

... So, I'm working down the economy tree and unlock the first tech, but the second is grayed-out despite being affordable ( https://i.imgur.com/ffkxIQ4.png ) is this a bug? Why can't I research this?

The techs that are grayed out are free to you once you unlock the preceding techs in the same category -- the ones that show locks.

[wcbarney]

Originally posted by Zardoz:

The trade goods producing mecanic of towns is not very easy to understand, I did not even saw it in the first place, and now I see it because i have read about it on the forum, but I have no idea how it works, I have to read the forum to guess there is something going on here. When you finally happens to see the trade goods, you only see you can buy or sell them but you have no idea the town may be producing them, you do not know when, and you have no idea that happynes is affecting this.

When you look at your town in world view, there will be icons showing what tech items are produced there. All towns produce at least one of something, even without specific buildings.

There are five buildings which produce tech items:

1. Armory -- produces weapons (and is available quite early; also causes unhappiness)

2. Blacksmith -- produces tools (and is also available quite early; causes unhappiness)

3. Market -- produces gold (also produces a LOT of silver)

4. Academy - produces books, and also provides happiness (costs upkeep)

5. Church - produces crosses, and also provides happiness (more happiness & upkeep than Academy)

Other buildings:

1. Military buildings: Cost a lot of upkeep; some provide happiness (I think -- I always delete them after recruiting soldiers because they cost so much upkeep).

2. Iron & Stone Mines: Produce quite a lot of silver, cause unhappiness.

3. Storehouse: Produce a moderate amount of silver.

4. Manor: I *think* it produces happiness, costs no upkeep, more happiness at higher upgrade levels.

5. Defenses: Produce happiness; I've never seen a quantitative amount per wall & wall defenses, but towns with defenses have more happiness (towns with garrisons do also, but garrisons cost upkeep while walls & wall defenses are free of upkeep).

All buildings perform better (& also cost more upkeep & cause more unhappiness) when upgraded to level-5.

[Zardoz]

Thanks for you very usefull post, but the issue is that for a well designed game you shoud be able to understand this in game, not reading forums. Yes we see "images" when we pay attention to details after a while, but we have no idea what those in game images means. There should be a way to understand this like for example: explanations in the tutorials (économics/research), additional explanatory texts, management menus with économics informations for towns and trade goods, help or informations for buildings, etc..; None of thoses is here in game right now.

[wcbarney]

Yeah, someone ought to start a Wiki page. Maybe there already is one, but I've never checked. A couple of the community guides are OK, not too far out of date.

[Zardoz]

Yes the wiki is empty. But nevertheless a good game can be played without wiki or forum, with all informations ingame. Once you start to read forums you are spoiled, and you are missing the best part of playing wich is discovering those by yourself. I just did the new mission modes in Frostpunk and I dit not read any forum or wiki, i just had the pleasure to get my butt kicked over and over until I found out what to to by myself, in game, but all economics informations are available ingame, no need to look elsewhere.

Right now for example i would need a list of all units abilities and cost, do you know a page with this information ?

A few things are just still a total mystery : for example what does miltary unit level gives ? the level does not seem to make any difference in unit stats, the only thing I can see is self healing at level 5, wich is totally Oop by the way because it makes your army inviicible if you know how to play (so you have free huge unlimited invicinble armies if you buld them with level 5 buildings, wich is free as well). But I have no idea what is the point of levels for units exept the incredibly oop invincible self healing level 5 bonus (yes soldiers will magickelly heal their broken leg or severed arm during combat, how convenient, even more powerfull than dumbledoor).

[Potätr]

Originally posted by Zardoz:

Yes the wiki is empty. But nevertheless a good game can be played without wiki or forum, with all informations ingame. Once you start to read forums you are spoiled, and you are missing the best part of playing wich is discovering those by yourself. I just did the new mission modes in Frostpunk and I dit not read any forum or wiki, i just had the pleasure to get my butt kicked over and over until I found out what to to by myself, in game, but all economics informations are available ingame, no need to look elsewhere.

Right now for example i would need a list of all units abilities and cost, do you know a page with this information ?

A few things are just still a total mystery : for example what does miltary unit level gives ? the level does not seem to make any difference in unit stats, the only thing I can see is self healing at level 5, wich is totally Oop by the way because it makes your army inviicible if you know how to play (so you have free huge unlimited invicinble armies if you buld them with level 5 buildings, wich is free as well). But I have no idea what is the point of levels for units exept the incredibly oop invincible self healing level 5 bonus (yes soldiers will magickelly heal their broken leg or severed arm during combat, how convenient, even more powerfull than dumbledoor).

The devs already have tutorials in-game. I feel like all they need is to give those a little updating and they'd be fine; no forum or wiki hunting necessary

[wcbarney]

Originally posted by Zardoz:

... A few things are just still a total mystery : for example what does miltary unit level gives ? the level does not seem to make any difference in unit stats, the only thing I can see is self healing at level 5, wich is totally Oop by the way because it makes your army inviicible if you know how to play (so you have free huge unlimited invicinble armies if you buld them with level 5 buildings, wich is free as well). But I have no idea what is the point of levels for units exept the incredibly oop invincible self healing level 5 bonus (yes soldiers will magickelly heal their broken leg or severed arm during combat, how convenient, even more powerfull than dumbledoor).

The higher your military units level up, the more hit points they have. You can see this in their stats: hover over a unit and its health is represented by a test-tube of blood.