I know research as it exists is a rather central mechanic to the game. It's just not a very interesting one. It's one of your pawns sitting at a desk as a full time job pushing a bar from 0% to 100% over an over.
Research should be locked until you have something to study. To learn to make pemmican, you either buy the recipe from traders to unlock it instantly or buy pemmican from the traders and spend time analyzing it.
To unlock smithing, you either buy a book from a trader and spend a small amount of time reading and studying it or once you own for example a sword of normal or better quality you can spend a more significant amount of time studying it. From doing so you'll learn to make the smithing bench, but you'll only be able to make swords. When you find normal or better quality of other weapons you'd be able to make them too.
I recognize this would be a rather large undertaking and probably isn't going to happen. It would just be nice if researching were more than just a generic progress bar grind.
This would also provide an opportunity for colonist backstories to be more important. The glitterworld surgeon might unlock the entire line of medical research, for instance. A military engineer might know about turrets, etc.
There have been a few research-changing threads recently(-ish), although the forum search doesn't seem to find them for me. :)
But yeah, the current system is just a slow grind, and not interesting. There's a lot you could do to change it. For example:
- make back-stories of pawns matter for speed, instead of some colony-wide "tech level"
- make research use 'recipes' like crafting now, where you could (for example) take four stone chunks and output finished research into stone cutting, or take 300 cut blocks (from ruins on the map) and research stone-cutting that way
- have blueprints you can buy/barter for, to either speed along research, or get that tech immediately (there was a mod for this, but it's for B18)
- more types of lab benches, and not just having them be (always) straight upgrades from one to the next
Maybe even make the pawns able to master some of the researched things and add something new to them. For example:
1.The pawn with 16lvl cooking skill, after learning to cook lavish meals, can (after he cook it for some time and with a %chance) "improve the recipe", allowing to save more ingridients during the cooking (right now it's 0.5 meat (10 pieces) and 0.5 vegetarian (10 pieces), but after "improving" he or maybe even all the colonists 'll be able to cook it with 8 pieces of each ingridient, or cook more efficient, allowing to increase the nutrition rate of the final product (meal).
2.The pawn with 16lvl(it's just a random high-lvl) crafting skill (same as before: make it for some times and with some %chance he may improve it) may discover the new ways to .. "make the weapon barrels" (in context of crafting some guns), so now, after crafting a new gun, it'll have an improved accuracy stat. Also some ideas for the guns improvements/upgrades: |Improved scopes calibration| |Improved weapon balancing (for melee)| |Foregrips for guns (better weapon control/less cooldown| etc.. It's just a names for reasoning the stat improvements, no need to make it visual/interactive.
P.S. So basically - stat/recipe improvements by practicing.
I really REALLY like this idea! :D
OK, having thought about this more this weekend, I think there's several simple-ish things which could make research less bad. A lot of these basically have the subtext, incorporate things from the Technology Blueprints (https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=37649.0) mod :) . Some of them are just tweaks of existing systems in the game:
- Have purchase-able blueprints, which either give some percentage (or entirely) some research tech
- Make those blueprints rewards for trade requests, item stashes, killing raider outposts, etc
- All research can also be done by dis-assembling existing items. (i.e. Stick three turrets onto a bench, slowly use them up (like a sculpture recipe / cooking recipe), to get research points (or the above research blueprints, if it's easier to build in the game). (Here, the player is giving up the resources and the effectiveness of the un-researched item.)
- Some research can be done by using up the ingredients for crafting those items instead. (Player needs to choose to put in resources which could be spent on repairing or building their base.)
- Make a script or something, which goes through all the crafting/building recipes for items/buildings in the game, to make the above two types of research recipes. (Save effort making feature, works with future mods.)
- Some fleeing pawns, instead of joining your faction, will drop off blueprints in exhange for fighting the bandits chasing them.
I like the idea of research being faster but requiring item input and colonist skills. For example medicine research may be locked until you have some neutroamine and a level 10 doctor. A space ship part may be locked behind ship schematics so instead of taking 2 million research it only takes a thousand plus a rare schematic. Stuff like that.
I really like the advancement in tech with the skill of you pawn. i wonder its not in yet.
i could see research becoming a minigame like memory or something like that, were the player can boost points once a day or sth like that.