Research too fast?

[TallTroll]

I would comment that one of the reasons the player research can feel fast is that the NPR AI isn't great at managing its' own research, so even if you are behind them at first contact, it isn't generally that hard to fairly quickly catch and surpass it, especially if you concentrate on a few key techs that counter their advantages. One day, that AI is going to get improved though, and it probably isn't going to be that hard to get it to improve its' research performance. The days of being able to leave an NPR alone for a couple of decades, and expect its' tech base to be pretty much the same when you decide to go clean their clocks will not be infinite

[Jorgen_CAB]

I would comment that one of the reasons the player research can feel fast is that the NPR AI isn't great at managing its' own research, so even if you are behind them at first contact, it isn't generally that hard to fairly quickly catch and surpass it, especially if you concentrate on a few key techs that counter their advantages. One day, that AI is going to get improved though, and it probably isn't going to be that hard to get it to improve its' research performance. The days of being able to leave an NPR alone for a couple of decades, and expect its' tech base to be pretty much the same when you decide to go clean their clocks will not be infinite

That is not my issue at all... for me it is all about how quickly you move along in technology and reach way too high levels way too fast. I mainly judge it on it's own merits.

When you give yourself restraint such as not min/max research and restricting the amount of labs to researchers then you actually don't research that much faster than NPRs do... NPRs probably could be more efficient and better at it... but for me that has nothing to do with it at all.

I guess that for most people it has mostly to do with how fast the progress through the techs is in general. Aside from a few very important technologies to make the game fun we don't need to progress to such efficient levels so fast. The game in my opinion is more fun when you struggle with logistics and your commercial ships don't zip around and many thousands km/s etc... we want the struggle and have space feel big for as long as possible... at least I do.

[Vandermeer]

Only way to play wrong is not to play

Steve successfully turned that 80s movie around. Now we are cheering for the WarGame armageddon simulation machine!

[GodEmperor]

Research speed at 10% is a good way to fix that problem. Still, id love for Aurora to have its tech tree expanded to at least 300% of the current size.

[TallTroll]

>> Still, id love for Aurora to have its tech tree expanded to at least 300% of the current size.

While I don't disagree, I'm not sure how much room there is to expand much on the current tech base with meaningful research lines beyond the few we already have in abeyance. I could see potential to squeeze in a few more in some of the weapon lines by offering upgrades for HPMs and Mesons (short, expensive lines for extra damage, gated by progress in the main line), maybe a follow on weapon for Plasma Carronades, but everything else already feels pretty complete. Without brand new mechanics requiring lots of research to develop and refine, I dunno where you get the scope

[Vandermeer]

>> Still, id love for Aurora to have its tech tree expanded to at least 300% of the current size.

While I don't disagree, I'm not sure how much room there is to expand much on the current tech base with meaningful research lines beyond the few we already have in abeyance. I could see potential to squeeze in a few more in some of the weapon lines by offering upgrades for HPMs and Mesons (short, expensive lines for extra damage, gated by progress in the main line), maybe a follow on weapon for Plasma Carronades, but everything else already feels pretty complete. Without brand new mechanics requiring lots of research to develop and refine, I dunno where you get the scope

Yes, the length is quite alright I think, but there can always be more width. I kind of miss PDCs as RP elements, because they could represent some self-designed infrastructure like radar outposts, fortresses and such. If there was a system that let you create custom facilities like components (e.g. the "World Tree Project" terraforming base), and then research those or their own tech parts, that would be something to go wider with.
...Or something in that line of thinking. Empire tech. But of the optional kind, because focus balance is good now.
All in all I think this is very secondary in concern to other matters right now though.