Scientist Shortage

[Victuz (OP)]

So I've started a new game and an issue that at first didn't seem all that serious has grown to a rather big problem.
I have 1 scientist. Yes one, I've had two both with the same specialization (logistics :/) but one of them died in the first year due to an accident.
It's been 9 in game years and to battle the problem I've created 4 additional naval academies, since as far as I know they produce officers of all types (including scientists), I have a lot of civilian administrators and naval officers but I have yet to see a new scientist! I'm getting desperate enough to try to SM a few into existence. However I don't know how such thing is done (if it can be done at all).

I'd love suggestions on how I should battle that problem.

[Icecoon]

In my previous game I had 1(one) biology expert at start.

AFAIK you can SM extra commanders trough the Leaders tab clicking on the Add Extra button, but I don't know if it works with scientists too. 

[chuckles73]

The Add Extra button adds officers of all types.

[Victuz (OP)]

I did that but nothing happened. Guess I didn't have sm on and I just assumed it means that there will be a higher quota of accepted officers.

I'll check it out when I get back from work.

It's still better than starting a game with 9 scientists xP 8 of them being logistics experts and one being a biology one... it happened before :p

[Hawkeye]

Well, one of the first things I do in a new game is building a few more academies. As all officers, including scientists, are trained in academies, this resolves that kind of problems over a couple of years. Until this happens, I just roleplay the shortage in fields I don´t have scientists in. If, for example, I don´t have a missile/kinetics expert, my fleet will start out with lasers or particle beams and no missiles, gauss or railguns, pretenting that that kind of things never even crossed their minds.
Power/propulsion or defese can´t be ignored, of course, but research in those fields is then conducted by what scientists I have and only the absolutely necessary stuff.

Limiting yourself in that way can give you a very interesting game.

[andrea69]

In my current game I built 4 additional academies asap, now I'm 20 years in, but still waiting for my first CP and PP scientists. Sometimes things just go wrong.

[metalax]

Well, one of the first things I do in a new game is building a few more academies. As all officers, including scientists, are trained in academies, this resolves that kind of problems over a couple of years. Until this happens, I just roleplay the shortage in fields I don´t have scientists in. If, for example, I don´t have a missile/kinetics expert, my fleet will start out with lasers or particle beams and no missiles, gauss or railguns, pretenting that that kind of things never even crossed their minds.
Power/propulsion or defese can´t be ignored, of course, but research in those fields is then conducted by what scientists I have and only the absolutely necessary stuff.

Limiting yourself in that way can give you a very interesting game.

Indeed I've done this and gone 40 years with no energy or kinetic scientists, the only weapon we had available were combat drop modules. This as you can imagine lead to !!fun!!.

[Charlie Beeler]

Remember, just because you don't have a specialist doesn't mean a project can't be researched.  When I've had scientist's in fields I don't normally use and have nobody in fields I need they get cross assigned.  I've had then gain bonuses in the new field(s) so that I do have specialists moving forward.

[Jikor]

From what I understand non specialist just have the base RP x their bonus x Labs whereas the specialist get 4x their bonus on their specialty.

[Victuz (OP)]

Remember, just because you don't have a specialist doesn't mean a project can't be researched.  When I've had scientist's in fields I don't normally use and have nobody in fields I need they get cross assigned.  I've had then gain bonuses in the new field(s) so that I do have specialists moving forward.

Oh yeah I realize that completely. My problem was the fact that after almost 10 years I still had only 2 researchers despite the fact that for most of that time I've had 5 academies.

That has been mostly resolved now by adding additional 5 academies (up to a grand total of 10 O_o) whereupon I finally got at least a FEW researchers on board.

Glory to the random number generator!